English Christmas "pudding" is really a dense, moist spiced cake. This gingerbread
version is flavored with orange marmalade and topped with a traditional hard sauce — butter and sugar mixed with brandy.
Ingredients
Hard Sauce
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons brandy
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
Pudding
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
11/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
For sauce:
Combine all ingredients in small bowl; stir to blend well. (Can be made 4 days ahead.
Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving.)
For pudding:
Coat inside and center tube of 6- to 8-cup pudding mold or Bundt cake pan with
nonstick spray, then generously with butter. Sift flour and next 6 ingredients into
medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well
blended. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then marmalade, molasses and orange peel. Add
flour mixture and beat just until blended. Transfer batter to prepared mold. Cover mold
tightly with foil.
Place steamer rack in large pot. Place pudding mold on rack. Fill pot with enough
water to come halfway up sides of mold. Bring water to boil. Reduce heat to medium.
Cover pot and steam pudding until tester inserted near center comes out clean, adding
more boiling water as needed to maintain level, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Using oven
mitts as aid, remove mold from pot. Uncover and let stand 10 minutes. Cut around top
center and sides of pudding to loosen. Turn pudding out onto rack and cool 20
minutes.
(Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool completely. Return to mold; cover and chill.
Resteam 45 minutes to heat through, then turn out of mold.) Transfer pudding to
platter. Cut pudding into wedges; serve with sauce. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
Source: Bon Appétit