Today is “stir up Sunday”, I think just in the UK. It’s a staple topic every year on BBCRadio soap opera “The Archers” , when matriarch Jill Archer is joined by some or all of her grandchildren to stir up the pudding and make a wish. Not this year though, we’ve had new episodes to enjoy during the pandemic but with a reduced cast, and we haven’t heard from most of the older characters.*

It was TheArchers that first introduced me to the concept but I’ve adopted it with gusto. For years I’ve used a recipe given to me by a former colleague, and it’s served me well.

But this year I though I’d try something new. Inspired by the Sussex Pond Pudding which was challenge on “Great British Bake Off” this year I decided to try a hidden orange version of my pud***.

Initially I thought I could just take my usual mix and add a clementine into the middle of the mix as I filled the basin. Luckily I followed the little voice telling me to play safe and check a recipe. Otherwise I may have fallen victim to the same fate as some of the “Bake Off” contestants and had a raw fruit inside. The recipe called for pre-cooking of the orange, which actually wasn’t the case for the Pond Pudding. In it the lemon is cooked only by the steaming.

Ingredients gathered ready for mixing.

Once the mixture was safely in the big bowl, it was time to stir. And wish.

Then put the whole thing together

and steam.

You might notice more than one pudding steaming away there. There was enough of the mixture for one large and one small hidden orange puddings. And a tiny one with no orange. I’d prepared two clementines just in case, and one of them did split slightly during the cooking process.

They’ll be steaming away well into this evening, and then stored until Christmas. When MrS and I will feign surprise when we cut into our festive pud.

Until tomorrow,

Marina xx

*Patricia Greene who plays Jill Archer is 89, but she’s just a youngster compared with June Spencer who plays Peggy Woolley and is 101.

**examination of the postmark showed it’s almost as old as MasterS

***these hidden orange puddings have been available ready made in the shops for a few years, but I like making my own Christmas puddings