Stir up Sunday – a winter tradition

It won’t be long before the Christmas decorations are up, Michael Buble is thawed out and crooning from our speakers and the shops start advertising Christmas Puddings. 

It’s the time of year for celebrating tradition and enjoying the nostalgia of season but there is one very important tradition that kicks off the season and we’re here to help you get involved too!

Stir Up Sunday takes place on 24^th November, the last Sunday before Advent and is an important date in the Christmas celebration because it’s the day that Christmas puddings are prepared ready for the big day! Though you might think the name comes from the actual act of stirring together the ingredients but it actually comes from the Book of Common Prayer.

Anyway, let’s take a look at the tradition of the Christmas Pudding and how you can get involved with Stir Up Sunday.

As we’re sure you know, the Christmas Pudding as we know it today was introduced to British culture by Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. He usually gets the credit for lots of our Christmas traditions, but George I was actually the first person to introduce the concept of a meatless Christmas Pudding. We have him to thank for a lot of our traditional puddings, so many in fact that he ended up being nicknamed the Pudding King!

Anyway, the original Christmas Pudding contained meat and was eaten as a starter, though thankfully, that died out. The pudding as we know it today contains spices, dried fruit and brandy – traditionally there were 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his disciples and silver coins were added into the mixture. Whoever found it on Christmas Day was said to receive health, wealth and happiness in the common year. Though, for health and safety reasons, it probably isn’t a good idea to add coins to your puddings these days!

Tradition states that on Stir Up Sunday, families gather together to mix the pudding’s ingredients, with everyone taking a turn to stir while making a wish. It must be stirred from east to west in honour of the Wise Men who visited the baby Jesus.

And why the last day before Advent? Well, it is because Christmas Puddings need around 5 weeks to fully infuse all those flavours! In fact, any Christmas treat involving dried fruit and alcohol takes several weeks to fully prepare, so you might as well make yourself a Christmas Cake while you’re at it.

Want to get involved this Stir Up Sunday?

Here’s a traditional Christmas Pudding recipe, though don’t worry, we don’t expect you to use a cloth to steam it!

Ingredients:

50g blanched almonds
2 large Bramley apples
200g candied peel
1 whole nutmeg
1kg raisins
140g plain flour
100g soft white breadcrumbs
100g light muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
2 tbsp brandy
250g butter

Method:

Chop the almonds; peel, core and chop the apples. If the candied peel is not already chipped, do this and grate around ¾ of the nutmeg. Mix these together with the raisins, flour, breadcrumbs, sugar, eggs and 2 tbsp of brandy in a large bowl.

Get the butter straight out of the fridge and grate around ¼ into the bowl. Stir everything together and then grate the rest of the butter in quarters until all in the bowl and then stir for around 4 minutes. The mixture is ready when it subsides slightly after each stir. If you’re doing Stir Up Sunday the traditional way, get everyone in the family to take a turn stirring and making a wish until you get to this point.

Grease two 1.2 litre bowls and add a circle of baking parchment into each one. 

Fill the bowls with the pudding mixture and cover with a double layer of baking parchment, pleating it to allow for expansion and then tie with string. Trim off any excess paper.

Stand each bowl on a large sheet of foil and bring the edges up over the top. Add another sheet of foil over the top and bring it down underneath to make the puddings water tight, tie these with string, making sure to create a small handle to allow you to easily lift in and out of the pans.

Now, boil or oven steam the puddings for 8 hours, topping up the water when necessary.

Once cooked, remove from the pans and leave to cool overnight. When cold, discard the wrappings and rewrap in foil and baking paper and store in a cool dry place to mature ready for Christmas!