I am sure it comes as no surprise to you that my Plum Duff has no plums in it. Plum Duff is a steamed pudding. King George called it Plum Duff , demanded it at Christmas in 17 something and was called the Pudding King from then on. On the old sailing ships it was called Plum Duff. It was made with raisins and dough and boiled. My father spent some time at sea as a young man, I think that is why our Christmas Pudding was always greeted with shouts of The Plum Duff! For Christmas they fancied it up of course and called it Christmas Pudding.
This was one of the traditional Christmas puddings in our home in New Zealand. Which is really pretty wild, considering that Christmas is in the middle of summer and we lived at the beach. Mum would serve it steaming with hot custard to pour over the top, and hokey pokey icecream beside it. The cold of the ice cream and the hot of the pudding is a wonderful memory.
Plum Duff is also called Plum Pudding, Christmas Pudding, Christmas Bag Pudding and a few more. 
I was looking at Pease Puddings Christmas cake when I began making the Plum Duff and she has introduced dried tropical fuits to her cake. She did this because she is living in New Zealand in a warm christmas climate. So I thought I would try that with a Christmas pudding because I am not living in New Zealand and I miss the warm Christmas climate.
I should have started this on Advent Sunday (the fourth Sunday before Chrtistmas Day.) But ah well.
I minced two and a half cups of packed dried fruit. Dried mango, apricot, dates, raisins, sultanas and a few peels of fresh lime and orange. A few prunes too. You can put in whatever you fancy. I pulsed this in a reluctant food processor, then covered it with brandy and it sat for a week.
First using your fingers dust the fruit with the flour.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients then the wet ingredients.
Flour a big piece of cheese cloth.
Spoon the stiff mixture onto the cloth. Wrap it, tie it, leaving enough space for the cake to rise within, then make a loop, pass your wooden spoon through the loop and lower into the boiling water.
Simmer on a hot woodstove for 2 1/2 hours. 
Mum made hers in a stainless steel bowl with a lid she made from tin foil. She set this into a pot of boiling water and it floated and bobbed about in there, cooking madly, while Mum thought of a way to get it out without burning herself to death when it was cooked. A double boiler might have been a more sensible idea.
Recipe for Plum Duff
- 2 1/2 cups minced dried fruit.
- 2 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup wheatgerm
- 1 teaspoon each nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger.
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1 teaspoon rum essence, or almond essence or vanilla essence.
- You can also add almonds. Or more sugar if you like it sweeter. Or use a box of pre made fruit mince. In the old days they added a silver coin for good luck (or bad luck if your tooth hit it). The recipe, per se, has been round since the 1700’s so feel free to play with it!
I cut a wee piece out so that I could do a taste test. It is lighter in colour due to the lighter fruits and is good! Now the pudding can be wrapped and stored until Christmas Day. Then reheated and served with hot custard and cold hokey pokey ice cream!
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
87 responses to “My Plum Duff has No Plums in it! What a duffer!”
WOW! Beautiful. Thank you dear Cecilia, with my love, nia
Hi Nia, loved your cats today!! c
Thank you 🙂
Plum Duff was originally made with prunes – dried plums! Raisins etc were only available to the wealthy, but even small gardens had their own plum tree. The excess fruit was dried for a special Christmas pudding.
Isn’t that lovely. As soon as My plum tree is big enough I will do exactly that. From now on we will call it Prune Duff! (I did put a prune or two in there actually, just because I could).. c
I have never made a plum duff before, always thought it took forever to cook but I see it isn’t that long. Love your tropical fruit version, I it reminds you of NZ and thanks for the link back. Funny isn’t, I always hanker for a cold Christmas…..it’s starting to look that way with the forecast over the next 10 days, just when I have accepted we will be doing a BBQ :o)
Oh dear, it is BECAUSE you are having a Barbie that it is looking cold and rainy, Allison. You can cook the pudding for up to four hours and more but they are nasty if over cooked so I made a small one and erred on the side of caution. Plan a hot indoor feast and it will be beach weather. ! c
I saw something similar to this at Rufus’s blog but stuffed with pasta. Well, okay maybe not all that similar when you think about it. 😀
Yeah I saw that too! He has some explaining to do!! c
Beautiful, Celi! You’re finally living in the right climate to eat a hot Christmas pudding! 🙂
Indeed I am! .. no beach day for me!! c
Plum Duff is new to me and yours sure is a thing of beauty…but I’m still in the dark, what’s hokey pokey ice cream?
AH, I was hoping you would ask me that. Hokey Pokey is a crunchy NZ toffee. It comes in an icecream. Like vanilla ice cream with little bits of crunchy toffee in it! It is very good.. I might try and make some here one day.. c
Mmmmmmmm….please do!
Does the plum duff taste anything like the Panettone? They both contain dried fruits, which reminds me of fruitcake and Panettone.
Ronnie
The best way to describe a true Plum Duff or christmas pudding would be a very heavy hot fruitcake. Mine is lighter but not as light and airy as Panettone at all. Panettone I could eat all day, One serving of reaL dark Christmas Pudding and you need to go and have a wee lie down!! c
What a great dessert, err pudding!
If I remember rightly dessert is cold and pudding is hot? is that correct?
And that´s made me think of Cloutie Dumpling too – the Scottish version! I love this with the tropical fruits, gorgeous. I´ve just made my Christmas pudding (yes, I missed Stir Up Sunday too 😦 ) but it´s a light one and freezes until Christmas. Phew!
oh you freeze it, does it age the same, maybe I will try that.
Cloutie Dumpling. I am going to look that up.. hmm.. c
It´s not quite like a traditional one – much lighter, and the booze is served in a sauce so it doesn´t age … still very tasty though!
ah, yummy! booze in the sauce sounds good to me! c
It must be plum pudding day, this 12th of December!
I don’t hear about it all year round, but this is the 2nd mention today. The 1st was on morning TV, when children where talking about their favourite books. And one was a school story, where they got a teacher from England, who was teaching them how to make a plum pudding. The recipe was not mentioned, so I can’t compare it to your recipe.
Hmm, I often wonder whether there is something in the air, or some kind of esp memo that goes around! c
Should have done my homework before posting:
Plum Pudding Day is on February 12th.
why would it be feb 12th? Plum Pudd Day.. Hmm,I shall have to read up on that.. c
I enjoyed this whole story. We’ve been enjoying canned plum pudding w/hardsauce for years, but have never made my own. I am about to embark on this wonderful challenge right now!
Great pictures – in England it would have been silver sixpences or thrupenny bits – they’d put a few in, probably one for each child or person.
Huh, Ok, my mum used to wrap the coin very carefully in brown paper so we did not get poisoned.. thrupenny is such a cool word as is sixpence..thanks mad!
There are so many wonderful variations on these luxurious puddings for festive occasions. I love the look of your Plum Duff. I only really know the name from nineteenth century books and from that lovely expression “to be up the duff” Do they use that in NZ? I used to share a flat with a hairdresser and his Glaswegian mum used to boil their pudding, clootie dumpling I think, in a pillow case, I never got to sample it though 🙂
Up the Duff! yes we know that one at home.. and I never really thought about its origins.. we should look that one up! c
I suspect it’s related to ‘having a bun in the oven’ baking and procreation 😉
Looks tasty but I’ve been commissioned to make a Victorian Sandwich cake for Christmas. I’m in trouble now!
Oh dear, is that a sponge with strawberry in between? If it is a sponge you are fine, they are easy. c
Going to be sponge cake (have to go find caster sugar and self rising flour) with raspberry jam and cream betwixt the layers. Just remembered, I don’t even have two cake tins anymore. Sigh…add to list. t
You will be fine, just be very gentle with a sponge, fold in the dry ingredients with a spatula very softly.. a sponge is all about the air! make sure your oven is hot! and lay the cake in the oven, no PLONKING! I have not made a sponge in forever, maybe i will make one too! c
What an interesting back story. This cake, well, pudding, looks absolutely delicious! I’d love a slice right now. 🙂
it is tasty, but no tasting until christmas!! thanks for dropping by caroline! c
So “pease porridge hot” of the nursery rhyme actually has a physical component – who knew!?
Oh yes.. even ‘in the pot nine days old’! .. excellent bela. c