Dried-fruit Christmas pudding

Wash, peel and core the apples, then chop them. Roughly chop the almonds and candied peel. Grate the stated amount of nutmeg. Mix the apples, almonds, peel, nutmeg, raisins, flour, fresh breadcrumbs and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs and brandy.

Use for the recipe: ≈ 1 whole nutmeg (prepare 1 whole nutmeg).

Gradually grate 250 g very cold butter into the mixture, stirring regularly. Stir for another 4 minutes until moist and evenly mixed. Grease 2 heatproof pudding basins, each holding 1200 ml, with the reserved 20 g butter. Line the bases with baking paper and pack in the mixture. Cover with baking paper and foil, pleating them to allow expansion. Tie securely beneath the rims with string, making a lifting handle.

Set each basin on a heatproof trivet in a deep pan. Add boiling water halfway up the basins. Cover the pans and keep gently simmering for 8 hours. Check regularly and top up with boiling water so the pans do not boil dry. Lift out the puddings and cool completely. Replace the wet coverings with clean paper and foil. Refrigerate until the next day, allowing about 12 hours in total including cooling.

Return the wrapped basins to the pans on their trivets with water halfway up the sides. Cover and simmer for 1 hour until hot through. Check the water during cooking. Remove the coverings, gently loosen the edges and turn out.