This was Christmas pudding for dessert after the Christmas dinner.
A slice of warm pudding was served with chilled traditional hard sauce, which is basically whipped sweet butter cream that is flavored with brandy. The pudding was so moist, delicate, melt-in-mouth, fruity, citrusy, and so boozy.
Let's go back to 15 days ago. That was when I made the pudding. I adopted a recipe of plum pudding by Cook's Illustrated by halving the ingredients because my pudding mold could hold about 1000 ml. I replaced half of dark raisins with golden raisins, used Amontillado instead of cream sherry, and add candied citron along with candied orange peels and lemon peels.
According to the recipe, I tried to very thickly grease my mold. I hoped it was enough. Fill the mold with batter, which was just right amount.
I steamed for about 2 hours. It should be done.
It looked done.
Ta-da! The pudding came out from the mold beautifully. I was very happy at that moment. I securely wrapped the pudding with doubled heavy-duty foil, placed in a ziplock bag, and rest the pudding in the relatively cool downstair room for three days. Then, I moved it into refrigerator until the Christmas day.
What I like about the pudding was it's pre-made so I don't have to do much on the Christmas day that I am usually pretty busy with other cooking tasks. Although I needed to steam the pudding again for about 1 hour on the day to serve it very warm, it was manageable. After we finished the dinner, we played a board game by the fireplace. The bed time was getting close; finally the dessert time arrived! Flambé the pudding was supposed to be a showstopper on the holiday. I wasn't sure how long the flame on the pudding would last. So, I asked J to make and serve coffee first; I heated up brandy in a small pan and drizzled over the pudding; J immediately carried the pudding plate to the room that his parents were waiting for the dessert; and right before he entered the room, I tried to light up the pudding with a lighter.
Did I see graceful blue flame dance? I believe J and I saw tiny flame popped up from the center hole just for a few seconds. That was all. Unfortunately the pudding didn't cooperate with my plan. The taste of the pudding did, though.
