It's exactly one month until Christmas day on the 25th November, which also means it's Stir-up Sunday! We've got a wonderful recipe to help you create a delightfully sticky pudding with a tangy mandarin sauce from Bonne Maman. Bonne Maman’s ‘Sticky Pudding with Tangy Mandarin Sauce’ is a wonderful showcase for the French specialist conserve and marmalade brand’s new Tangy Mandarin, a deliciously sweet and citrus flavour that will make a perfect addition to your breakfast and baking tables.

Stir-up Sunday

What is Stir-up Sunday?

Stir-up Sunday is orginally a religious term, an informal reference to the last Sunday before the season of Advent in Anglican churches. It gets its name from the beginning of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer, which begins with the words: "Stire up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people". 

It has more recently become associated with the tradition of making your Christmas pudding on that particular day. The tradition of eating Christmas pudding was brought over to the UK by George I in 1714. As most Christmas pudding recipes require for the pudding to be prepared and cooked well in advance of the big day, this day became the perfect day to create the year's Christmas pudding. 

Stir-up Sunday can be a wonderful family tradition, gathering all of the generations in one room to mix and steam Christmas pudding. Often, parents will teach their children the best method for mixing ingredients for the pudding, with everyone having a turn at stirring and to make a special wish for the year ahead. This many people helping stir may seem excessive, however Christmas pudding mixtures are very heavy and difficult to mix, so having as many people involved as possible is as much practical as it is symbolic! By tradition, the mixture is stirred from East to West in honour of the journey of the three wise men to visit the baby Jesus. In some households, silver coins are added to the mix to bring good luck to the person who finds them. 

Sticky Pudding with Tangy Mandarin Sauce

Recipe developed by Moyra Fraser

For the pudding:

170g dried stoned dates, chopped
3tbsp milk
85g unsalted butter, softened
85g light muscovado sugar
2 eggs, beaten
115g self-raising flour
¼tsp ground cinnamon
½tsp ground ginger
50g walnuts, chopped

For the sauce:

1 x 400g can mandarin pieces
1tsp arrowroot
4tbsp Bonne Maman Tangy Mandarin Marmalade

Method

1.      Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a pudding basin.
    
2.      Place the chopped dates in a bowl and pour over the milk. Stir and soak for 20 minutes.
    
3.      Place the butter, sugar and eggs in another bowl. Sift over the flour, cinnamon and ginger and beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Add the soaked dates and walnuts and stir well.
    
4.      Spoon the mixture into the pudding basin. Place the basin in a roasting tin and pour in just enough boiling water to come just 1cm up the sides of the basin.
    
5.      Cover the whole thing with a tent of kitchen foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.
    
6.      Meanwhile, to make the sauce, drain the canned fruit, reserving 150ml of the syrupy juice. Finely chop the mandarin pieces. Blend the arrowroot with a little of the juice in a small saucepan, then stir in the rest of the juice. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the marmalade and simmer for 2 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
    
7.      Remove the foil from the roasting tin and turn the pudding out on to a serving plate. Spoon a little of the hot sauce over the top, then pour the rest in to a jug and serve with slices of pudding and lots of cream.
    

Bonne Maman UK

Who are Bonne Maman?

Bonne Maman is one of Britain’s best-loved conserves, famous for its signature red gingham lids, use of simple, traditional methods and high quality, all natural ingredients. The full Bonne Maman UK range includes:

Conserves  - New Rhubarb & Strawberry, Mirabelle Plum, Strawberry, Strawberry & Wild Strawberry, Wild Blueberry, Black Cherry, Fig, Apricot, Berries & Cherries, Raspberry, Peach, Damson Plum              and Blackcurrant

Marmalades  - Bitter Orange, Sweet Orange and Tangy Mandarin

Caramels –Salted Caramel

Compotes – New to the breakfast aisle- Apricot, Cherry and Rhubarb

Chilled Desserts - Strawberry Mousse, Chocolate Mousse, Salted Caramel Crème, Crème Caramel plus Tarte Tatin Aux Pommes, Crème Brûlee, Baba au Rhum, Vanilla Crème, Coffee Crème, Chocolate Fondant and New Dark Chocolate Crème with a touch of Sea Salt.

New Yoghurts – Strawberry Yoghurt, Rhubarb Yoghurt and Raspberry Yoghurt