Frances Bissell's Low-fat Christmas Pudding

The tradition is that every member of the family stirs the pudding mixture while making a wish.... Bissell/Levy suggest serving this with crème fraîche, rather than the traditional brandy butter

Ingredients

 * 230 grams (8 oz, 4 loosely packed cups) fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
 * 230 grams (8 oz, 2 cups) each of roughly chopped muscatel (black) raisins, sultanas (yellow raisins) and dried apricots
 * 60 grams (2 oz, ¾ cup) crumbled almond macaroons or amaretti
 * 60 grams (2 oz, ¾ cup) chopped almonds
 * 60 grams (2 oz, ½ cup) ground or flaked almonds
 * 1 grated appple
 * 1 tbsp grated orange zest
 * 1 tsp ground cinnamon
 * 1 tsp ground mace
 * ½ tsp ground cardamom
 * ½ tsp ground cloves
 * ½ tsp ground allspice
 * 2 tbsp orange marmalade or candied orange peel
 * juice of 1 orange
 * 4 med free-range eggs
 * 6 tbsp or 1 miniature bottle of cognac
 * 140 ml (5 fl oz, scant ⅔ cup) fortified muscat wine, port marsala or rich Oloroso sherry

Directions

 * 1) Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
 * 2) Put the marmalade, orange juice, eggs, brandy and wine in another large bowl, or in the blender or food processor, and beat until well blended and frothy.
 * 3) Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients.
 * 4) Mix until moist.
 * 5) Cover, and let stand for a couple of hours at least and, if possible, overnight to let the spice flavours develop.
 * 6) oil or butter the pudding basin and spoon in the mixture.
 * 7) As it contains no raw flour, it will not expand very much during the cooking, so you can fill the basin to within 1.25 cm (½ inch) of the rim.
 * 8) Take a square of greaseproof or waxed paper, oil or butter it, and tie it over the top of the basin with string.
 * 9) Steam in boiling water for 5 hours.
 * 10) Allow pudding to cool completely before wrapping it, still in its basin, in fresh greaseproof paper plus a layer of foil.
 * 11) Store in a cool dark place.
 * 12) On Christmas day, steam for a further two hours.