“What on earth is a pud-ette”? I hear my loyal ones asking. Well that is an excellent question and if you want to know you have found yourself in exactly the right place.

A pud-ette is a little mouthful of Christmas fruit pudding that is super simple to whip up using your Combi-Steam (or Steam only) oven and will help you to appear as though you are the most in control, festive foodie star, even though you haven’t done a lot of work.

And before you go there….the answer is yes! Yes. Yes you can cook your big old normal Christmas pudding in your Combi-Steam. How do you do it? Well if you don’t know that by now, you are clearly a newbie or you haven’t been paying attention here! Remember how your Steam function will give you results very similar to those you achieve with a pot of water? Uh-huh. That’s right. You pop your basin or pudding tin into your Combi-Steam and cook using your Steam function at 100°C for the same time as your recipe advises. To re-heat your pudding on the day, just return it to your Combi-Steam and do exactly the same thing for 30 minutes from room temp (and hour from the fridge) and voila. So now that’s out of our tinsel adorned hair let’s get on with my recipe.

Take these to work to share (and impress!), add them to a Christmas spread at a bbq or dinner or serve them with coffee or espresso martinis at the end of a more formal lunch or dinner. They would also be a gorgeous homemade gift if you pop a batch into a lovely tin and present them to someone fab! You know that I am all about minimal effort and maximum impact and this is no exception.

Ingredients:

550g finely chopped dried fruit (buy a pre prepared bag or mix up your own)*
1 orange (zested and juiced)
200g butter (chopped)
120g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2L eggs (lightly beaten)
1 tsp ea. ground cinnamon and ground mixed spice
½ tsp baking powder
80g panko breadcrumbs
100g plain flour
Drizzle: 150g white chocolate melts, 100ml thickened/pouring cream, extra cinnamon (if desired)

Method:

1. Place the fruit, butter, orange juice, ¾ of the orange zest and vanilla into a large flat bottomed dish.

2. Add the dish to your Combi-Steam. Select Steam and set the temperature to 100°C/100%. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove, stir and set aside too cool.

3. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl whisk together the brown sugar, spices, baking powder, breadcrumbs and flour to remove any large lumps and combine.

4. Add the eggs to the cooled fruit and combine gently, then add this fruit mixture to the dry ingredients and fold through to combine everything.

5. Spray two 24 hole mini muffin pans* with cooking spray. Spoon the mixture into the holes filling to just under the top.

6. Place the pans into the Combi-Steam (on two levels). Select Steam. Set the temperature to 100°C or 100%. Cook for 20 minutes or until they feel “set” and just firm when you press them (you can’t really “over-steam” a pudding!).

7. Remove and set aside to cool for 10 minutes then tip them out of the pans onto a board or rack to cool completely.

8. To make the drizzle place the cream and the chocolate into a small ziplock bag. Seal the bag and place it into the Combi-Steam. Select Steam. Set the temperature to 50°C/50%. Allow to melt for 10 minutes. Remove and give it a wiggle to bring it together. Snip the corner from the bottom of the ziplock and drizzle or top the puddings with the ganache.

9. Sprinkle with the remaining orange zest and cinnamon. Allow to cool and “set” and serve or store in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.

   Notes: I use silicone trays for this recipe as the steam works very well with the silicone and the pud-ettes are easy to remove. You could use cupcake size if you prefer to make individual dessert sized puddings (maybe 12 will come out of this recipe) which are nice for a more formal lunch or dinner dessert and can be served on a plate for each person with some custard etc.

   Just as a personal thing - I hate “baking” in silicone as I don’t find you get the same crust finish for cakes etc but for steaming it’s fab!

I hope you like this little festive treat. It’s fun and a great way to use Steam. This will also translate to cooking a larger pudding recipe - obviously just increase the cooking time (use a recipe to guide you!) and you can also re-heat a pudding to serve on the day the same way - I think an hour from fridge or 30-40 mins from room temperature to warm it all through.

If you need any further festive cooking guidance you can pop into the royal store and download my Festive Favourites Cheat sheet which will help you adapt all those favourites for your Combi-Steam.

Happy festive cooking!

Yours in the kitchen,

The CSQ. x