PLUM PUDDING

PLUM PUDDING IS THE CLASSIC ENGLISH DESSERT for Christmas. Like other steamed puddings, this cake-like confection has a dense texture that is especially moist. The flavors are rich and concentrated, with spices and dried fruits predominating.

While traditional recipes call for suet, we wanted to use butter because suet can be difficult (if not impossible) to locate in many parts of the country. The color is not quite as dark when the pudding is made with butter, and the texture is a bit more crumbly, but otherwise the results are the same.

In England, Christmas pudding and other steamed puddings are commonly prepared in ceramic pudding basins, which are essentially, deep, steep-sided bowls that often come with lids and handles. Fancy fluted tube (or "steeple") molds, which also usually come with snap-on lids, are available in a number of sizes and produce particularly attractive steamed puddings. Tube molds come in both metal and ceramic; metal ones tend to promote sticking, but are serviceable if you smooth a patch of foil flush against the greased bottom.

Although a mold with a cover and handle will make maneuvering the pudding in the steamer easier, it is not essential. Any large heatproof glass or ceramic bowl can be used to make plum pudding.

Whether you use a bowl or a mold, plum pudding needs to be cooked on top of the stove in a tightly covered pot containing enough simmering water to reach halfway up the sides of the pudding mold. We say that the pudding is steamed, but because steaming, today, usually implies cooking something over, not in, boiling water, it might be more accurate to say that the pudding is boiled. Do not be intimated by this unfamiliar cooking procedure—it's easy, flexible, and quite forgiving of error. Just remember to add more boiling water as needed to prevent the pot from running dry during the long steaming process.