These Christmas pudding muffins are a tasty way to give leftover Christmas pudding a new lease of life. Quick, easy to make, a lovely mix of fruit and spice.
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So, given the time of year I had thought about posting some canapé-type food as New Year's party ideas, but for whatever reason it just didn't quite happen. I had a few ideas, but couldn't quite get motivated to cook them. Maybe it's partly because, with a two year old and still being relatively new in these parts and without family around, New Year's parties are something we more look back on wistfully than go to. But I live in hope that will change some day soon.
Or maybe it's also because I have still been enjoying my leftovers and so was more motivated to do something else with them. Either way, these Christmas pudding muffins are pretty tasty and so I thought I had better share them before you run out of or throw away the last of your Christmas pudding so you can enjoy them in the coming days.
The idea for these muffins is actually the result of a misunderstanding. In a roundabout way, I have Michelle at Giraffes Can Bake to thank/blame for these. You see, for all there are arguments that the world is getting smaller etc, unless you have experience of both sides of the Atlantic, you might be surprised at how often British and American English can differ.
I talk about it a bit on my Language and Measurements page, and you may have seen a few times when I write a few ingredients in more than one way. On the whole, I am not too bad in knowing what the other version of a word is from my time on the US side of the pond, an American other-half and being brought up in the UK, but now and again I get brain fuzz or stumble on something I am not sure of.
Last week, when I saw Michelle's Christmas spiced pudding cookies I was having one of those brain fuzz moments and immediately thought 'ooh, they taste of or are made with Christmas pudding' and only gradually after reading did I realize my mistake.
She meant American 'pudding' which is one particular type of custardy dessert, I think closest to Angel Delight for Brits. However, it gave me an idea. Why couldn't I use Christmas pudding in something else? I decided muffins were the most likely, and tastiest candidate, and so got to work.
Much as I like Christmas pudding, it is all too easy to end up with a bit too much - and there's not a lot of variety in how you eat it - so this is a great way to give it a new lease of life. These Christmas pudding muffins are incredibly easy to make and taste delicious; lovely and fruity and slightly spiced. In fact they are good enough I might try to figure out how to make them without having to make a Christmas pudding first, but that's one for another time.
I have used my own Christmas pudding as the base but any Christmas pudding would work fine here, you will just get a slightly different taste depending on the ingredients. I know many Christmas pudding recipes, including mine, have beef suet in but you can get vegetarian versions or swap out the suet for oil and/or butter when you make it to make it vegetarian. Depending on your pudding, you might want to add a little extra spice or dried fruit to make for tastier muffins. Of course, no need with my recipe 🙂
I have made only a small quantity here as I thought that might be the most helpful as you might not have huge quantities of Christmas pudding left, but of course if you want to make more just multiply the quantities up.
These are still quite 'solid' muffins, though they are not bricks either, don't worry. Of course with the Christmas pudding in there, that's not much of a surprise, but they are still a lot lighter than the pudding itself yet with all the tasty flavor. They would make a great tea-time snack for any New Year visitors - I might need to make some more as we are getting through them fairly quickly already.
See more ideas for using Holiday leftovers in my collection, and also get more snack recipes in the archives.
Christmas pudding muffins
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- ½ cup buttermilk 120ml
- 1 ½ cups Christmas pudding 300g (bought or see my recipe)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup all purpose flour 140g plain flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F/175C
- Whisk together the egg and buttermilk in a bowl.
- Crumble the Christmas pudding into the egg and buttermilk mixture and break it up with a fork. Cut any large lumps.
- Add the baking powder and flour and mix until combined but try not to over-mix.
- Spoon the mixture into a greased or lined muffin tin, almost to the top.
- Bake for approx 20-25 minutes until lightly browned and a skewer comes out clean
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Maureen says
Hi, I have filled my Christmas pudding basin, but have some mixture left over (about 1 cup) the mixture is uncooked. Can I use this mixture to make your muffins ? If not, do you have any suggestions please as to how I can use up this mixture? Thank you in advance…..
Caroline's Cooking says
Yes, I think that would work just fine, since these are going to be baked anyway, there's no issue the mixture being unbaked. Just mix in the rest of the ingredients - since you have about a cup of mixture, I would probably reduce down the flour slightly (maybe around 2/3 cup/100g) and also milk (around 6tbsp) and so make slightly less. Hope it works out well for you!
Marie McKay says
Hi Caroline. Can these muffins be frozen? They look amazing 😻
Caroline's Cooking says
I haven't tried freezing them, but in general you can freeze muffins (they're just not quite as good as when fresh) so I don't see why not. I'd suggest you warm them gently after defrosting to make them a little softer. Hope you enjoy!
Chris says
I made these last year and my husband liked them so much that this year he asked me to make sure we had enough pudding left over to make them again. I think they’re a new Christmas tradition for us now. Thanks for such a simple, tasty recipe.
Caroline's Cooking says
Thank you, so glad to hear you enjoyed and have repeated them! Wonderful to hear.
Amanda says
Waste of Christmas pudding!
Not sure why mine went so terribly wrong. They’re solid, haven’t risen or look remotely cake/muffin-like.
Will try again next year ....
Caroline's Cooking says
Sorry to hear they didn't work out - did you definitely remember the baking powder? Was your Christmas pudding maybe on the heavier side? I tend to make a relatively light style which may be why I haven't had a problem with them not rising. If yours is heavier, then you may need a little more raising agent to help them along.
Lucy says
Due to lockdown I have way more than 300g of Christmas pud left which is such a shame as it's the first one I've every made from scratch on Stir-up Sunday and was totally scrumptious! I will defo be making these tomorrow, but seeing these have also inspired a Christmas pud rocky road... Diet starts in Feb!
Caroline's Cooking says
Hope you enjoy these, and well done making your own for the first time, hopefully not the last (it's one I will always make myself or not have at all).
Anne says
its years since you posted this, but I bought I’d add that this worked brilliantly to use up the leftover pudding. Thank you!
Caroline's Cooking says
I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed them! Always great to know (older post or not - we still make these most years ourselves as well!)
Demeter says
These are fantastic for the season! I love creative ways to use up leftovers so there's no waste.
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks, always good to use things up if you can!
Amanda Wren-Grimwood says
What a great idea for using Christmas pudding. It is so rich and this way you get the flavour without being overwhelmed!
Caroline's Cooking says
Indeed! It does help balance the richness, for sure (although actually the way I make it is less rich than most)
Valentina says
I love the idea of Christmas pudding muffins. Who doesn't love Christmas pudding? And a muffin? Combining them is brilliant. Thank you!
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks, it's both a great way to use leftovers and tasty too - best combination!
Judi Graber says
What a great idea and they sound delicious too! I missed Michelle's cookies recipe - I will have to check it out and see what everyone is talking about. English friends called ground beef mince meat and I almost panicked when she said she was putting it in spaghetti 🙂
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks, they are very tasty. Yes, it's all too easy to have misunderstandings some times - I really have to check myself at the store now and again!
Hannah Hossack-Lodge says
This is a brilliant idea for using up leftovers 🙂 i already made christmas pudding and brandy sauce ice cream with mine but I'm bookmarking this for next year!
Caroline's Cooking says
Ooh, the ice cream sounds good. Maybe next year we will all have to make bigger puddings to make all the leftover dishes - that's certainly my theory on turkey/goose!
Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake says
Haha I love this! It's funny because when I first started writing up that recipe I called them "Christmas pudding cookies" and I thought "hmm no, that sounds like they're made with christmas pudding" so I added the "spiced", but I guess that didn't help much haha! Pudding cookies are my favourite type of cookies though so I'm sure there will be plenty more confusing recipes to come, adding pudding mix to cookies is one of the best tips I got from baking in the US!
I'm glad the misunderstanding helped you make something really yummy though, these muffins look awesome!
Caroline's Cooking says
I think it's just the 'Christmas' anywhere near pudding that caused the confusion - shows how your brain can read what it likes - but hey, as you say at least it inspired something yummy! And I must try some of your pudding cookies, it sounds an interesting idea.
Hilda says
This post makes sense to me. I also misunderstood Michelle's recipe when I first read it. I also have a lot of Christmas pudding to use up, and was thinking of making cookies. Not sure now if I should make up my own recipe or just follow yours, which looks very good. Something to ponder for the day!
Caroline's Cooking says
Why not try both?! Let me know how the baking goes- I did wonder about cookies as well
Hilda says
I probably will do both. I made a huge pudding, but at least it will wait for me.