Best paired with Rutherglen Muscat.

Today, we’re celebrating Christmas in July with this delicious Muscat Soaked Fruit Pudding. We’ve also paired it with an Orange Infused Custard, made from the oranges out the front of our Bobbie Burns house on site at the winery!

INGREDIENTS:

Fruit Cake

• 2 cups of dried sultanas
• 1 ½ cups of dried apricots, chopped
• ¼ cup of orange juice
• ¼ cup orange zest
• 250g butter, room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup plain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground star anise
• 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
• 4 eggs
• 150ml Rutherglen Muscat
• 50g almonds, crushed (garnish)

Orange Infused Custard

• 500ml vanilla custard
• 100ml fresh orange juice
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

METHOD:

Step 1: Combine fruit, orange rind, orange juice and 100ml of the Rutherglen Muscat in a bowl. Cover and stand overnight.

Step 2: Grease and line the base of a rounded, watertight pudding tin, measuring 15cm across. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together until whipped and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Now it’s time to stir in your soaked fruit and fold in your flour, baking powder and spices. Finally, fold in your breadcrumbs.

Step 3: Spoon your mixture into your prepared pudding tin and pack down lightly as you go. Now, here comes the tricky part – cover your tin with a circle of greased baking paper and then two sheets of foil. Tie these sheets down securely with string. Take your tied pudding and place it metal side down into a large saucepan or stock pot. Fill the pot with enough hot water to come two-thirds of the way up the side of the pudding tin.

Step 4: Cover and cook for 5 hrs on low heat, topping up with boiling water as needed. Remove the tin from the pot and cool completely. With your remaining 50ml of Rutherglen Muscat, drizzle over the top of your pudding whilst it’s cooling in the tin.

Step 5: To infuse your custard, simply mix your custard, orange juice and orange zest in a saucepan and place on low-medium heat, stirring continuously. Once well mixed and warmed through, remove from the heat and place in a serving jug.

Step 6: To serve, remove your pudding from its tin by placing it upside down on your serving plate and gently wiggling until the pudding comes free of the tin. Dress with crushed almonds, orange and custard.