Quarter Sized Christmas Pudding

Our answer

Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) makes a large 1.7 litre/3-pint Christmas Pudding that serves 8-10 people. It is possible to make the puddings in smaller sizes, but we think that the most practical way to scale down the recipe would be to use 1/3 of all of the ingredients and make a smaller pudding in a 600m/1-pint basin, which should make enough for about 4 people. For this size of pudding you would need to steam it initially for 3 hours and then for the second time for 3 hours before serving. If you were to reduce the quantities further then the ingredients quantities become more fiddly but for a 300ml/ 1/2-pint basin (using 1/6 of the ingredients) the steaming time would be 3 hours initially and about 2 hours for the second steaming.

If you have leftover Christmas Pudding then you can freeze individually wrapped slices for a month. Thaw the slices overnight in the fridge and reheat until piping hot in a microwave, wrapped in a foil parcel in the oven or even fry the slices in a little unsalted butter. Another way to use up leftover pudding is to make Nigella's Christmas Puddini Bonbons, which can be given as gifts or enjoyed into the new year.