Put up your hand if you know what this is? We’re talking Christmas 2013 leftovers here. Now keep your hand up if you have ever had something like this pushed to the back of your fridge, or poked away at the bottom of your freezer.

Yes, you know what I am talking about. It’s the left over Christmas pudding.You never  eat as much pudding as think you are going to, even if it is smothered with the sauce of your choice (orange sauce for me!)because you are too stuffed with turkey.

Of course, the most delicious way of all to serve it  is fried in butter and served with cream for breakfast on Boxing Day. Oh, that sizzle as you place the the slice of pudding into the butter bubbling in the pan, that smell as the pudding starts to caramelise, the satisfying dollop as you spoon the cream over the top, the crunch of the crispy fried fruit as you take that first bite……..

So, back to the left over  Christmas pudding. You know what happens then –  you wrap it in foil and pop it in the fridge to finish off, maybe next week or the week after. But it really is too hot for pudding in summer so you decide to keep it until the weather cools down, by which time it has worked its way to the back of the fridge.

Somewhere around mid-year  when you are cleaning out the fridge you find it and unwrap gingerly, not sure what’s in it. Oh yes, you think, I’ll have that next week. So you wrap it in fresh foil and pop it at the front again,  when it once again works its way back, forgotten once again.

This year I got really close to using it. A friend Perth was due to visit with her husband, and as  she had been my guinea pig for various Christmas pudding recipes  I decided it would be just the thing for dessert one night. Unfortunately they couldn’t make it at the last minute so it got put back in the fridge.

Around November when you clear out the fridge in preparation for the festive season you find it again, and finally dispatch it to the compost  with a sigh…….

But wait, not this year, no siree. I have just the thing for left over pudding. One of the reasons I always have left over pudding is because there are actually only 3 people in my family who like it. My daughter says it is such a tease that Christmas Pudding always smells so delicious and tastes so gross!! So this year I  decided I would reconstitute my left over pudding into three small ones.

Reconstituted Christmas Pudding

Take the left over pudding and crumble into a bowl. Sprinkle extravagantly with the liqueur of your choice and leave until you are ready to boil.

 

Grease small pudding molds and line with baking paper. Fill with delicious pudding mixture and boil for an hour in a pot of water, making sure you don’t boil the pot dry!!

And there you are, ready for Christmas 2014 with a minimum of fuss!

I would love to hear from you. What do you do with left over Christmas Pud??

Oh, and btw, it is now post Christmas 2014 and I still have those three cute little puddings wrapped in foil  in my fridge, they will be  just the thing for when I need a quick dessert for three!