Name: Father-in-Law's Rum Plum Pudding recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 180 min
Total time: 190 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: australian, british
Ingredients: 1 cup self-raising flour; 3/4 cup brown sugar; 1 1/2 tbs butter; 2 eggs; 500g mixed dried fruit; 1 tsp mixed spices; 1/2 cup strong, cold tea; 1 splash rum

by Serina Bird Last updated on 11/11/2019

This traditional plum pudding is spiked with a splash of rum for a Christimas dessert we look forward to eating every year. - Serina Bird

Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tbs butter
2 eggs
500g mixed dried fruit
1 tsp mixed spices
1/2 cup strong, cold tea
1 splash rum

Method

Step 1

Grease and flour a pudding tin, or grease and flour a pudding cloth.
Step 2

Fill a saucepan one-third up with water. Put on a medium heat and bring to the boil.
Step 3

Meanwhile in a large bowl add the butter, brown sugar and flour and rub together. Mix in the eggs, dried fruit, spices, cold tea and rum. When ready, the mixture should be wet and glossy.
Step 4

Pour the mixture into the pudding tin or cloth. If you are using a cloth, tie it with string leaving some room to expand.
Step 5

Place the tin or pudding cloth into the saucepan of water, and steam for three hours. You may need to top up the water in the saucepan and do not let it boil dry.
Step 6

Turn the pudding onto a plate and serve hot with custard.

Recipe Notes

from Australia’s Best Recipes team

I used Bundaberg rum.

You could margarine instead of btuter.

This recipe can be made 6 - 8 weeks before Christmas and the pudding can be served hot or cold. If you're making this in advance, follow up to method step 5, turn the pudding out, let it cool and cover with glad wrap until needed.

If you have made made cloth plum puddings, ham them until needed. This is important to dry the cloth so that it doesn't go mouldy. You will need to reboil the pudding at least 20 minutes in order to remove the cloth from the pudding.

This flour will form a slight crust on the pudding. You can remove most of this with a pastry brush if desired.

Some people like to soat the dried fruit in tea overnight. My father-in-law said that in this experience, this is unnecessary and can even make the pudding more crumbly in texture.