[Foodie Friday Recipe] Easy Carrot Christmas Pudding

Rose S. | December 18, 2020 | Real Food Recipes

Wow your taste buds this holiday season with this easy carrot Christmas pudding recipe – a twist on the old British holiday classic…

Last year, we shared a recipe for a classic British Christmas pudding – sometimes known as “plum pudding” (although interestingly enough, it does not contain plums). This traditional holiday dessert has been enjoyed for decades by our neighbors “across the pond,” though we feel it deserves a place on the dessert table here in the U.S. as well! This year, we’re sharing a different variation of the dessert, which is popular among our Northern neighbors in Canada. This easy carrot Christmas pudding is even simpler to make, and has fewer ingredients – most of which you probably already have on hand.

If you are gluten-free, this recipe can easily be adapted to use gluten-free flour without impacting the result. The pudding is traditionally topped with a simple caramel-type brown sugar sauce.

To cook the pudding, you have the option of using a double boiler, steaming it on the stove, or using an Instant Pot. (For Instant Pot instructions, see this link.)

Easy Carrot Christmas Pudding Recipe:

Serves: 8
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 2+ hours

Ingredients:

¾ cup softened butter
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups raisins
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup peeled and grated potato
1 egg
2 cups flour (all-purpose or gluten-free)
1 tsp baking soda

Brown Sugar Sauce

½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup milk or cream
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

Cream butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add in raisins, carrot, potato and egg. Stir in flour and baking soda.
Grease 2 small glass bowls or one large bowl. Fill with pudding. Leave about an inch between the top of the pudding and the top of the bowl to give it room to rise.
Cover the bowl with a piece of parchment, followed by a piece of tin foil, secured with string. My grandmother used a clean piece of muslin instead of the parchment.
The pudding can be steamed in a double boiler, or you can place the pudding in a large pot, placing the pudding bowl on a small ramekin or mason jar ring to keep it off the bottom of the pot. Pour water in the bottom to no more than 1/3 of the way up the sides of the bowl.
Steam the pudding for 2 – 3 hours, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Small puddings are usually done at 2 hours, with a large pudding taking the full three. Add additional hot water to your pot as necessary to keep your pot from boiling dry.
Turn the pudding out onto a plate and serve hot topped with brown sugar sauce.

Brown Sugar Sauce:

Melt butter in a saucepan. Whisk in brown sugar and continue to stir constantly until boiling. Boil for two minutes.
Remove from the heat and whisk in milk and vanilla.
Return to the heat and stir constantly until the mixture once again comes to the boil. Thin with more milk or cream if necessary.
Serve warm over hot pudding.