So I hosted my first ever Christmas Day at our house last year and to have many hands make light work we had everyone bring a dish and I ended up with dessert. Which is awesome because dessert is my favourite part of any meal. I’m English so I wanted to do something traditional but suitable for summer and easy to make so I chose the Pete Evans Raw Christmas Pudding Recipe. Now, I have to confess I didn’t do the white icing on the top, I replaced this with cashew cream and I changed a couple of ingredients.

The pudding recipe is from the Pete Evans, Family Food book, which I highly recommend (especially for a good butter chicken…but that’s for another blog post!) If you want to get a copy of his book you can do here https://peteevans.com/books/

Ingredients:

Raw Puddings:

• 60g dried figs
• 2 tablespoons finely grated orange zest
• 50g (1/2) cup flaxseed meal
• 2 tablespoons dried sour cherries (*I found these super hard to find so I swapped them for cranberries and soaked them in lemon juice)
• 1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
• 100g dried apricots
• 250g medjool dates, pitted (*I used regular dates)
• 170g (1 & 2/3 cups) almond meal
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (*again, I couldn’t find fresh nutmeg, so I used the nutmeg spice that comes in a box!)
• 3 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• Raspberries, to decorate

Cashew Cream:

• 1 cup raw cashew nuts, pre soaked for a few hours to overnight
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons vanilla paste

Method:

1. Line eight 50 ml capacity cupcake moulds or small cups with plastic wrap
2. Add the figs, orange zest, flaxseed meal, cherries (or cranberries), ginger, apricots, dates, almond meal, vanilla and spices in a food processor and process to a crumb-like consistency. Transfer to a large bowl and add the orange juice and coconut oil. Knead until the mixture comes together to form a large ball
3. Divide the pudding mixture into eight portions and firmly pack into the prepared moulds. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 15 minutes, or until firm. Remove the puddings from the moulds, peel off the plastic wrap and place on a tray
4. To make the cashew cream, drain the soaked cashews and add to the food processor
5. Add the lemon juice and vanilla paste and blend until it’s a creamy consistency
6. Add a dollop on the top of each pudding, add a raspberry on the top and serve.

Tell us what you made for Christmas dessert!