Frances Bissell's Low-fat Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

 * 230 grams (8 oz, 4 loosely packed cups) fresh wholemal
 * 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
 * 1/2 tsp ground cardamom (i had none so used cumin, which worked as well!)
 * 1/2 tsp ground cloves (i used whole and put them in the food processor with the bread! again, it worked)
 * 1/2 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 2/3 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. Mix until moist.
 * 4) Cover, and let sand for a couple of hours at least and, if possible, overnight to let the spice flavours develop. oil or butter the pudding basin and spoon in the mixture.
 * 5) 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.
 * 6) Take a square of greaseproof or waxed paper, oil or butter it (i didn"t bother, but did oil the basins. I don"t have a 3-pint one, so used 1 2-pint and 1 1-pint one, 2 pints being ample for my family for christmas dinner) and tie it over the top of the basin with string.
 * 7) Steam in boiling water for 5 hours.
 * 8) Allow pudding to cool completely before wrapping it, still in its basin, in fresh greaseproof paper plus a layer of foil.
 * 9) Store in a cool dark place. On christmas day, steam for a further two hours.
 * 10) Bissell/levy suggest serving this with creme fraiche, rather than the traditional brandy butter (don"t ask - not to be discussed on this mailing list!!!), and i do think this is one occasion when a little cream is permissible! incidentally, the tradition is that every member of the family stirs the pudding mixture while making a wish....