Wow, what a hassle trying to find workable recipes for this - every one I looked at had different proportions and there was no generic model. So, here's my composite endeavour, serves 24-30 and can be adjusted easily enough to accommodate degrees of need. The grand plan is we'll make vegan ones as there are one or two vegans on our radar, and will use lots of Fairtrade ingredients such as sugar, fruit, spices and juice. Hopefully it'll work out OK and if they're horrid, well blame me.
All Together Christmas Puddings –Fairtrade TTVV – may contain nuts!
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
To make roughly 24 – 30 individual (quarter pint) puddings
Simply take an approximation to...
About 60 oz of dried vine fruits (currants, sultanas, raisins), soaked overnight in orange juice
About 16 oz of dried fruit and peel including apricots, cherries and mixed peel, according to taste
About 8 oz of ground almonds plus/minus about 2 oz chopped almonds (optional)
3 lemons zested and juiced
1 orange zested and juiced
1 large carrot, grated
1 large cooking apple or a couple of granny smith type eating apples, grated
8 oz fresh white or wholemeal breadcrumbs
8 oz flour – type seems variable!
16 oz vegetable suet
16 oz dark brown sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
Pinch of salt if desired.
Half pint soya milk, cow milk or rice milk according to preference
Large dollop of black treacle (add to the 'milk' and mix to an emulsion, it's easier!)
4 large eggs beaten or 4 tbsps vegetable oil or half a pack of tofu or some kind of egg substitute!
Lashings of laughter
Lots of love
Method
Gather a large crowd of people – 24 to 30 seems good – and allocate each of them some ingredients.
In a very large bowl – a new, clean washing up bowl might be good – place all the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly together.
Add the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly – add more milk or fruit juice if needed to bind the mixture.
Spoon in to ¼ pint plastic basins (Lakeland sell in packs of six or save from supermarket puds). It is probably good to grease the basins lightly first.
Leave a gap of about ½ inch or 1 cm at the top for expansion.
Take home and steam for a couple of hours
To reheat, either steam for 20 minutes or microwave for 1 minute on full power.
Enjoy with custard, cream, boozy butter, ice cream or whatever your favourite is.
Serving suggestion – with friends, neighbours or strangers