Steamed Mincemeat Suet Pudding

Despite the fact that I design crochet patterns for a living and try my darnedest to bring people to my website to see them, the most popular page on my website remains my simple suet pudding recipe. Since we’ve been enjoying a new family favourite this winter, I’m posting the recipe today for a Mincemeat Suet Pudding. Like all my steamed puddings, it’s made simply and conveniently in the slow cooker.

All credit for this recipe goes to Simon Hopkinson in The Independent, although I didn’t use his article but the version published by The Game Bird Food Chronicles. I’ve rewritten it for my own purposes and clarified some of the points, in addition to recommending that you use your slow cooker to steam it, of course.

Jump to the printable Steamed Mincemeat Suet Pudding Recipe

I make a large batch of mincemeat every October that lasts us all year, so I’m delighted to have another different recipe to use it in. This makes this pudding really a ‘store cupboard’ recipe for us. It only uses ingredients we always have in the house.

I do find shop-bought mincemeat to be very much sweeter than our homemade sort (and, on a side-note, too overwhelmingly flavoured with cinnamon these days). You may want to omit the sugar in this recipe if you are using very sweet mincemeat.

Steaming Puddings in a Slow Cooker

The key to making any steamed pudding quickly and easily is using a slow cooker and a lidded pudding basin.

With a lidded plastic pudding basin, there is no fiddling about and waste from using greaseproof, foil and string. I also find it much easier to turn a pudding out of a plastic basin (because you can flex it) than a ceramic one. I love my pudding basins from Just Pudding Basins (no, they are not paying me to say that).

Using a slow cooker prevents the dangers associated with a stove-top pan boiling dry. I’m happy to leave my slow cooker unattended when I leave the house, but I wouldn’t do that with a pan on the stove. Using a slow cooker also leaves the hob and oven free for whatever else you are cooking.

If you have a recipe for a steamed pudding that describes using a stove-top steamer, you can ‘steam’ it for the same length of time on ‘High’ in your slow cooker.

You can of course make this Mincemeat Suet Pudding and all my other steamed pudding recipes in a traditional ceramic pudding basin, wrapped in greaseproof and foil, and steam it on the stove top.

Steamed Mincemeat Suet Pudding Recipe

Preparing the basin and slow cooker

Thickly butter a 2pint pudding basin and lid.

Spoon two heaped tablespoons of brown sugar into the basin, then rotate and tap the basin until the whole inside is covered in a fine layer of sugar. Tap any excess sugar out into a large bowl. There is no need to sugar the lid of the basin.

Fill and boil the kettle. Put a little hot water in the bottom of the slow cooker and start pre-heating it on High whilst you assemble the pudding.

Making the suet pastry

To the large bowl with the little bit of sugar in it, add the other dry ingredients.

I always use beef suet as I much prefer the flavour and I believe in doing the animals the justice of eating every part of them. If you choose to use vegetable suet do check for the ethical use of palm oil.

You now need to add enough cold water to the dry ingredients to bring it together into a workable dough. Start with 180ml and then add more as necessary. Combine the pastry with a knife, using a cutting motion.

Once the dough is formed, tip it out on to a floured work surface. Pat and roll the dough into a rectangle roughly 30cm x 20cm.

Assembling the pudding

Spread mincemeat in a thick layer over the pastry, leaving a border along both long edges.

Wet one of the long edges of the pastry with water.

Starting at the dry long edge, roll the pastry up, not loosely but not tightly. Press the wet edge gently on to the main roll to seal the roll together.

Slice the roll into slices approximately 1.5cm wide. The key here is having a *sharp* knife! Some slices will always end up a bit misshapen, but it’s not the end of the world. You only need four or five neat-looking slices in the end.

Place the prettiest slice in the centre bottom of your pudding basin. Arrange more slices around the sides of the basin. Finish by putting the end pieces and any other misshapen pieces into the middle of the pudding.

Put the lid on the pudding basin.

Cooking and Serving

Place the pudding basin in your slow cooker and top up the cooker with boiling water until it comes about half way up the pudding basin.

Cook for 2 hours on High, but no harm will come to it if it has to stay in for a bit longer.

Remove the pudding from the slow cooker a few minutes before you want to eat it and let it stand before turning it out on to a plate.

I find this pudding fills my pudding basin right up!

It really is a very pretty pudding!

You can see the lovely golden glaze produced by sugaring the basin, if you compare it with the the un-glazed base of the pudding above.

Custard is perfect with this pudding, especially if your mincemeat is not overly sweet. Single cream is also lovely.

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I’m dying to make this roly-poly style steamed pudding using jam instead of mincemeat. I think with a few tweaks the result could be stunning. I’m thinking sweet stewed apple might also work. I see more experimentation in my near future!

See here for 12 more simple steamed pudding recipes.