Christmas in July Christmas Pudding Challenge

Our inaugural family Christmas pudding challenge took place in July this year. Earlier in the year I proposed a challenge to my fellow family members to make our own Christmas puddings, to be consumed at our Christmas in July meal. The non-cooking members of the family were to be the (blindfolded) judges and score each pudding. The winner of the challenge would win the duty of preparing this year's Christmas pudding and bragging rights. I spent a long time in April researching pudding recipes and combined what I believed to be the best elements from each to create my own recipe. I even took meticulous notes in case I won and had to replicate the same pudding. I made the pudding early May as I was about to leave for our buying trip. So I cut dates (and heaps of other fruits, including dried fig)...and soaked them overnight in stout and other liquids. Ground my spices...in my antique mortar and pestle, of course! Made the pudding mixture in my English TG Green bowl. And mixed it all together before placing in an old pudding basin (I love these). My biggest dilemma was the size of my mixing bowl - it wasn't big enough! As such, I am thinking next time I will need a pancheon to mix it in. These are pancheons - they are huge antique pottery bowls with the loveliest glaze. The results to our Christmas in July Christmas Pudding Challenge will be posted soon!