This slow cooker Christmas pudding is a dessert that will please anyone who loves a good steamed pudding.
This festive pudding is an absolute classic and is a common part of Christmas feasts in the UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, and even South Africa. You can buy these at the supermarket, but nothing beats the classic homemade version.
At the end of cooking, you will have a lovely rich fruit pudding that has a fantastic range of flavors. You will taste a lovely variety of dried fruit, a hint of coffee, sweet sherry, and some excellent spices.
I love having this pudding after a delicious roast turkey feast. It’s perfect for feeding some hungry family and friends.
You will want to start making this recipe quite a bit ahead of when you need it. You can eat this pudding either hot or cold, and it’s delicious either way.
For the best results, I highly recommend picking up a pudding steamer or something similar. Alternatively, a large bowl that you can cover using foil will also suffice.
Serving Ideas for Christmas Pudding
You can serve the Christmas pudding by itself without any extra side dishes or flavorings. However, you can really elevate this dish by putting in a little bit of extra effort.
A warm custard is a perfect accompaniment to serve with this pudding. You can make the custard from scratch or take the easy option and buy it from the store.
You can flame the pudding for a bit of extra flavor and a cool flame effect the entire table will enjoy. To do this, heat half a cup of brandy in a pan, then pour half of the brandy over the pudding. Now, ignite the brandy in the pan and carefully pour over the pudding. Serve the pudding once the flames have died down.
The most straightforward but delicious option is to serve the pudding with either cream or ice cream. Both choices are delicious, but I like the ice cream option slightly more.
I will love to hear how you serve your pudding, so feel free to leave us a comment in the comment section towards the bottom of this page.
Adjustments You Can Make to the Pudding
There are lots of small adjustments that you can make to this recipe to make it more to your liking. I will go through just a couple of my recommendations.
Depending on what you have in the house, you can use Grand Marnier instead of orange juice. Grand Marnier is an orange-flavored liqueur, so it will infuse a delicious orange flavor along with a slight alcohol taste to the pudding. You can also use triple sec or Cointreau instead.
The type of spices that you use can easily be tweaked. For example, if you don’t like cloves, then you can simply leave them out. The pudding will still be incredibly flavorsome.
You can also tinker with the dried fruit that you use in the Christmas pudding. You could swap the figs for dried apricots or cranberries. There are just dozens of different combinations that you can do with all the dried fruit that is available.
Changing the jam or essences can also profoundly change the flavor of this dessert. If you’re not a fan of coffee, you can just not add the essence, or you can replace it with something you like.
The marmalade can also easily be swapped for something else. A raspberry jam would be a pretty good replacement if you wanted to use something else.
If you have made some changes and would love to share them, then please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.
How long will Christmas Pudding Last
One great thing about a Christmas pudding is that you can make it weeks ahead of when you need it. The flavors will develop over time, leaving you with a better-tasting pudding.
If stored correctly, this pudding will last for up to six weeks in the refrigerator. You can also freeze the dessert if you want it to last even longer. I would make sure to eat it within three months if you decide to freeze it.
The video below will take you through all the steps to making a Christmas pudding in the slow cooker. Immediately underneath the video, you will find the full written recipe.
Slow Cooker Christmas Pudding
Ingredients
- 500 g (1.1 lb) mixed dried fruit
- 100 g (3.5 oz) glace fruit, chopped
- 100 g (3.5 oz) dried figs, chopped
- 100 g (3.5 oz) fruit medley
- 165 g (5.8 oz) brown sugar
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 Tbsp coffee essence
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 Tbsp molasses
- 1 Tbsp marmalade
- ½ cup sweet sherry
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 250 g (8.8 oz) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp cloves, ground
- 1 tsp nutmeg, ground
- 1 tsp cinnamon, ground
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 100 g (3.5 oz) ground almonds
- 200 g (7.1 oz) plain flour
- 75 g (2.6 oz) self-rising flour
Instructions
- Grease a pudding steamer with a tiny bit of melted butter and line with baking paper.
- In a large bowl, add the fruit and mix.
- Next, add the brown sugar, eggs, coffee essence, vanilla essence, molasses, marmalade, sherry, orange juice. Stir until combined.
- Now, gently stir in the butter, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, mixed spice, ground almonds, plain flour, and the self-rising flour. Mix until well combined, try not to over beat the mixture.
- Spoon the mixture into the pudding steamer and seal with the lid.
- Place the pudding steamer into the slow cooker and fill slightly with water. Roughly 5cm (2 in).
- Cook on low for 8-10 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Serve & Enjoy.
Recipe Tips
- You should allow the pudding to cool before wrapping it in plastic wrap and placing it in an airtight container. You can refrigerate the pudding for up to six weeks.
- Don’t be afraid to check on the pudding if you’re worried about it being overcooked.
- All slow cookers are different, so the cooking time may vary massively. If you need the pudding cooked faster, then place the slow cooker on high and reduce the cooking time by half.
- To make this recipe gluten-free, use gluten-free plain flour and self-raising flour. Both of these should be available at your local supermarket.
- Ground almonds are also known as almond meal or almond flour. Any of these will work fine in this recipe.
Equipment I use
I use a 5.5L (6 Quart) slow cooker (Amazon | Walmart) for all the recipes that I have on this website unless specified. If you have a smaller or larger slow cooker, then you might need to adjust the ingredients.
Nutrition Information
The information above is an estimate generated by an online nutrition calculator.
Posted on , under Dessert.
More Slow Cooker Recipes to Try
There are so many more slow-cooker recipes that you need to try. Below is just a couple of my recommendations on what to try next.
Another great pudding to have around Christmas time is the sago plum pudding. It’s quite a light pudding and is rich in flavors from all the dried fruit. If you like this Christmas pudding, you’re probably going to love the sago plum pudding.
A sticky date pudding is also an excellent dessert that you should give a try. It’s moist, sweet, and has a delicious date flavor. There is even a fantastic butterscotch sauce to go with the pudding.
I love this slow cooker Christmas pudding, and I really hope that you will too. If you have any suggestions, thoughts, or anything else that you would like to say, then please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.
This sounds marvelous – but a few questions, as I am in the US. What is “mixed spice”? What is “fruit medley”? Thank you!
Hi Sara,
Mixed spice is also called pudding spice. I think in the US, the closest thing is pumpkin spice.
Fruit medley is a mixture of dried fruits you can buy, I found this fruit medley on Amazon. Probably should have used something more readily available around the world. The one I used had diced dried apricots, Apples, peach, and pear. You can probably use more mixed dried fruit or just a random bunch of dried fruit that you like.
I hope that helps!
I have a copper mold with no lid. Can I seal it using aluminum foil?
Hi Andie, Foil will work fine as a lid.
Hi, what size pudding steamer should I use? Is this for a 2L capacity or smaller? Thank you 🙂
Hi Amy!
I just checked, and I made use of a 2L pudding steamer. I think any smaller and the Christmas pudding batter will not fit. If it is bigger, the steamer might not fit in your slow cooker.
Hi – I’m going to give this a go. Any idea how long it will take to reheat in the slow cooker on Christmas Day?
Hi Ruth,
I am going to guess that it will take roughly one to two hours. I recommend pouring boiling water into the slow cooker to help reduce the reheat time.
As someone who use to make wedding cakes, I added all the fruit up, sultanas etc., and bought the end weight in mixed fruit – for something like this, a kilo of mixed fruit, should be plenty (as compared to to 500gms plus the odds & ends…
Hi! I have a 2.8L steamer, which is too big for my slow cooker. Can I cook it in a large boiler?
Hi Sue,
Yes, it should work. As long as it’s cooked in steam, it should be fine.
Need clarification: you list 500g mixed dried fruit; 100g “glace fruit,” (dried fruit); 100g dried figs (dried fruits); & 100g “fruit medley” (“mix of dried fruits” per your comments).
So is Recipe calling for total of 800g “various dried Fruits?” Or are specific amounts of fruit types, either dried/canned/jarred/fresh to be used?
Once the current crisis is over & our local RevWar Militia Troop can engage in Re-enactment events, I’ll be making Historical Foods for them once again. As steamed Puddings were common in the day (1700’s), & this one looked appetizing I want to test it out. I appreciate your comment. NanaDD 12/2020
Technically you can use any type of dried fruit in place of the recommended ingredients. However, I cannot guarantee how it will turn out. I do highly recommend you only use dried fruits other fruits might add too much moisture to the pudding.
Hi can you use a pudding cloth in the slow cooker to cook the pudding in ?
I think this may work alright, but I am not one hundred percent certain.
Just wondering, how often did you top up the water in the cooker, and was the water level, half way up the pudding steamer in the slow cooker…
I only added water at the start and it was roughly 2-3cm (1.2 inches) deep. I didn’t find the water evaporated enough to top it up.