Holiday Meal

[Downunder Kilt]

I have a question for our UK friends.... what do you use brandy butter for? Just this morning on the morning show on the tele I saw a chef (of UK extraction) talking about brandy butter, and I see it in some of your plans as well.

Hope you don't mind a Aussie answering it, it is a hot desert topping. It is a hard sauce that softens when it comes in contact with a hot desert, like pudding

[Grizzly]

Mike is absolutely correct you would have brandy butter with Christmas pudding or warm mince pies.

[StevieR]

Mike is absolutely correct you would have brandy butter with Christmas pudding or warm mince pies.

Readily available in the shops over here, but I usually make it:

4 ounces unsalted butter
4 ounces icing sugar
3 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons boiling water

Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the brandy and water. Put it in the fridge until you want it.

[Pleater]

The Victorian Christmas bird to roast was a goose. The turkey came into favour more and more through the Edwardian years - the early 1900s.

The geese used to be walked into the cities. They were herded through a shallow layer of pitch and then across sand so their feet were protected. The goose girls walked in front with the bell that was rung when their geese were to be fed, so they would follow the sound. Different flocks could be walked together and then separated by the girls standing in different corners of a yard with their bells.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Starhunter451]

Readily available in the shops over here, but I usually make it:

4 ounces unsalted butter
4 ounces icing sugar
3 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons boiling water

Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the brandy and water. Put it in the fridge until you want it.

Icing sugar. Is that powdered sugar?

[plaid preacher]

Thank you one and all for the info on brandy butter. Now the only problem is that since our marriage (coming up to 25 years) the Christmas pudding was part of the box of gifts and goodies that arrived from my mother. Unfortunately, my dad has not been well this fall and she did not have the time to make extra puddings... and therefore I am without. We are trying to determine now whether we should just cook one up anyway (although) it won't have time to age; go for a mincemeat pie; or find another dessert. *sigh* Brandy butter may have to wait for next year ... or I could put it on my turkey. :-)

[StevieR]

Icing sugar. Is that powdered sugar?

Just had a shufti on Google and yes, it is.

[Pleater]

It is not yet too late to make a Christmas pudding. This will make a thumping big 5lb pudding so either reduce the amounts or make several of the size you require.
1 and 1/2 lb of seedless raisins, 1/2lb of currants 1/4lb of chopped mixed peel 1/4lb of chopped preserved cherries 1/4lb slivered almonds 1/2lb breadcrumbs 3/4lb of finely divided suet 1/2lb SR flour 8 eggs and a wineglass full of brandy.

Mix all the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs and add the brandy then add the dry ingredients little by little and mix well. Add milk if required to bind it all together. Press the mixture into a buttered pudding mould or dish, tie on a cloth and boil for 6 hours in a pan of water, topping up as required.

When wanted for the table microwave 3 to 5 minutes depending on the power of the oven, let stand 5 minutes and heat again 1 or 2 minutes. To serve, warm a metal dish in the oven, large enough to hold the pudding with an inch or so all round, as the brandy must be warmed if it is to ignite. Place the hot dish on a tray impervious to heat and set the pudding in the centre and a freshly cut and washed (for reasons of hygiene and fire prevention) sprig of holly on top. Pour on a wineglass of brandy, half over the pudding and half into the dish, wait a few seconds then ignite the fumes and serve it forth.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Grizzly]

Icing sugar. Is that powdered sugar?

It's the type of sugar which is very fine, the type that you would use to make frosting.

[plaid preacher]

Thank you Anne. I didn't really think it was. I know it is better to have it made well in advance, but I do recall my mother whipping up the pudding on Christms Day one year. I think that may be my weekend task... and the brandy butter.