Slow Cooker Ultimate Christmas Pudding

Our answer

We have made Nigella's Ultimate Christmas Pudding in a slow cooker (crockpot) however we would always recommend that you refer to the manufacturer's handbook for guidance on your specific model. As Nigella's full-sized Untimate Christmas Pudding is on the larger side you may find that you need to extend the cooking time.

We suggest cooking the pudding for 8-12 hours initially, using the "high" setting on the slow cooker and making sure that you preheat the cooker and add boiling water to the cooker. The water should come about halfway up the sides of the basin and ideally you should see the odd wisp of steam coming from the water. Check the cooker from time to time to make sure that there is enough water, topping up the water level with water from a freshly boiled kettle if it gets too low. We have found that in a slow cooker sometimes the suet does not fully incorporate into the pudding. Consequently for the second steaming we prefer to cook the pudding in the tradtitional manner, as this tends to get the pudding fully up to the correct temperature.