Recipe Archives->Vegetarian->Xmas Pudding

Vegan Christmas Pudding

1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 cup seedless raisins 
1 cup currants
1 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup chopped candied citron peel or dried cranberries 
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flaxseeds (recipe below) 
scant 1/3 cup molasses
1 cup soy milk

Prepare and mix together bread crumbs, fruit, and nuts; dust with
a small amount of flour.  Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda,
salt, and spices together.  Cream margarine and sugar together
well.  Add gloop, beating well.  Blend in molasses.  Add soy milk
alternately with dry ingredients.  Fold in the fruit, nut, and
bread crumb mixture.  Fill a greased 1 1/2 quart pudding bowl or
individual moulds 2/3 full; cover tightly.  Steam three hours or
until done for large mould; 1-2 hours for small moulds.

The pudding can be stored in the refrigerator almost indefinitely
if you dribble rum, sherry, or any other form of alcohol over it
from time to time.  This pudding is meant to be lit on fire just
before it is served (although the non-alcoholic version is also
very good).

Steam the pudding for an hour to heat it up before serving.


Sauce for serving with Pudding

2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup boiling water
2/3 tbsp cornstarch
salt
1 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp vegan margarine
1/2 tsp vanilla, rum, or brandy or more

Melt the sugar, adding boiling water.  Mix cornstarch with salt
and add to cold water.  Add to syrup and cook until the sauce is
clear and there is no taste of starch.  Remove from heat, add
margarine and vanilla.  Makes about 1 1/4 cups.


Flaxseeds

Take 1/4 cup flax seeds and put them in a small saucepan with 1
1/4 cups water.  Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5-7 minutes.  (Do
not grind or blenderize the seeds; they should be whole.)  Let it
cool in the saucepan until you can handle it without burning
yourself.  The mixture will get very thick.  If you can still
truthfully call it a liquid rather than semi-solid slime about
twice as thick and slimy as egg white, you need to simmer it some
more.  When the gloop is coolish, pour it into a muslin jelly bag
and squeeze out as much gloop as you can.  You should have about
half a cup of nice thick gloop, and some flax seeds in the muslin
bag that you can compost or even (I believe) use productively in
other recipes, if you so desire.

Printable version: xmas-pudding.txt.