Gluten- and dairy-free Armagnac Christmas pudding

Ingredients

• 150 g of prunes, roughly chopped
• 100 g of dried cherries
• 100 g of sultanas
• 75 g of currants
• 50 g of stem ginger, in syrup, roughly chopped
• 150 g of Armagnac, plus extra for flaming
• 100 g of rice flour
• 60 g of ground almonds
• 60 g of quinoa flakes, (or polenta or gluten-free oats)
• 1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 125 g of vegetable fat, frozen
• 75 g of rhubarb, fairly finely chopped
• 150 g of coconut sugar, or soft brown sugar
• 3 eggs, large
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
• 2 tsp vanilla paste, (or seeds from 2 vanilla pods)
• 1 orange, zest only
• 3 tbsp of date syrup, (or syrup from the jar of stem ginger)
• 25 g of flaked almonds

Instructions

1. 1

   The day before you want to make your puddings, put the prunes, dried cherries, sultanas, currants and chopped ginger in a bowl, pour in the Armagnac, cover and leave overnight. If you haven’t yet put your vegetable fat in the freezer, do it now

2. 2

   Lightly grease 2 pudding basins – each about 1 litre in capacity or just under. You can use traditional pudding basins, but the plastic ones with lids are easiest and the puddings cook better

3. 3

   Put 2 large lidded pans of water on the hob to boil – make sure each is big enough to accommodate your pudding basin

4. 4

   Put the flour, ground almonds, quinoa flakes and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Grate the frozen vegetable fat into the bowl, tossing it into the flour mix as you go

5. 5

   Add all the other ingredients, including the soaked fruit and its Armagnac marinade. Mix well with a wooden spoon

6. 6

   Divide the mixture between the two basins. If it’s a plastic one, just pop the lid on. Cover with foil if you’re the belt-and-braces type, then lower gently into the boiling water, which needs to come about halfway up the side of the basin. If your basin doesn’t have a lid, cover with a sheet of baking parchment and a sheet of foil and tie with string before lowering into the pan

7. 7

   Put the pan lids on and turn the heat down to moderately high. Cook initially for about 3 1/2 hours. Keep checking every 30 minutes or so and top up with more boiling water as necessary

8. 8

   Once cooled, the part-cooked puddings should now keep in a cool dark place for about a month or can be frozen for up to a year, then defrosted

9. 9

   On the day you want to serve the pudding – probably Christmas Day, but it’s your call – boil again for another 3 hours, then remove the lid and upturn onto a plate

10. 10

    If you have time on your hands, decorate with ‘holly leaves’ of sliced stem ginger and ‘holly berries’ of any leftover marinated cherries

11. 11

    Douse with more warmed Armagnac and ignite if you like. Serve with vanilla-laced cream, a dairy-free ice cream or the accompaniment of your choice