Full question
For the Ultimate Christmas Pudding it is an offputtingly long cooking time, even using a pressure cooker. The cost of energy nowadays is preventing people from using cookers for unaffordably long periods.
Since steamed puddings can be made (not just reheated) in a microwave, can't this one also be made that way? If so, what cooking times should one use?
Our answer
Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) is quite a large Christmas pudding and needs 5 hours initial steaming followed by a second steaming of 3 hours. The second steaming helps to darken the colour of the pudding as it not only reheats the pudding but cooks it a little more. We have cooked the pudding using a pressure cooker, as this is a more cost effective way of cooking the pudding. As the pressure cooker method fully cooks the pudding first time around then it is possible to use a microwave to reheat the pudding. To do this, microwave the pudding on full for 4 minutes, stand for 3 minutes, microwave on low for 7 minutes and then stand for 5 minutes before unmoulding and serving the pudding. If the pudding is wrapped, remove any foil and pierce a small steam hole in the clingfilm (plastic wrap).
However, we can't recommend cooking the pudding in a microwave. Sponge puddings that are steamed can, mostly, be cooked in a microwave as they cook more quickly, are lighter in texture and are generally smaller that the Ultimate Christmas Pudding. The problem with cooking the Christmas pudding in a microwave is that cooking with this method is slightly uneven and the cooking time is quite long. So there is a risk that the outside layer of the pudding will become overcooked and hard by the time the centre is cooked through. You may be able to microwave small, individual Christmas puddings, but as we have not tried this we are unable to give any guidelines.
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