Soaking Fruit For Christmas Pudding

Our answer

Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) has dried fruits that are soaked in Pedro Ximenez sherry for one week. Fortunately as the fruits are dried and the sherry contains sugar and alcohol then the mixture should keep for slightly longer if left in a cool place and we suspect that they will still be useable after 3 weeks. However check the fruits first and if there is any sign of mould on the surface or if the mixture smells musty, vinegary or overly fermented then we would suggest that the mixture is discarded.

When you soak the fruits try to push them underneath the sherry so that they are covered. If you have the fruits in a tightly sealed container then you can give this a gentle shake every couple of days to make sure that all of the fruits get a good coating in the alcohol. Try to store the fruits in a cool, dry place while they steep. If you are very short on soaking time for fruits then you could put the fruits and sherry in a saucepan, slowly bring up to boiling point, then take off the heat, cover and leave to stand for an hour before using. You may also like to try your hand at Nigella's Christmas Pudding Hunt, which is running every day up to 24th December 2016.