A Bowl of Orchard Light: The Christmas Pudding I’m Stirring This Year

Christmas pudding is one of those recipes that seems designed to remind us how little sunlight December offers. It is dense, dark, sticky and splendid — but it is not exactly bright. This year, with Stir-Up Sunday landing on 22 November, I am making a version that keeps the ritual and the richness but adds a little orchard light. Dried peaches, apricots and prunes go in alongside the usual currants and raisins, and a generous glug of peach liqueur takes the place of some of the brandy. The result is still recognisably a Christmas pudding: steamed, matured, fed, flamed. It just tastes a bit more like sunshine.

Why stir on 22 November?

Stir-Up Sunday is the church tradition of stirring the Christmas pudding on the last Sunday before Advent. The name comes from the old collect for the day, which begins ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord’. In practice, it became the weekend when households mixed their puddings, everyone took a turn with the wooden spoon, and a wish was made. In 2026, that Sunday is 22 November, which gives you just under two weeks from today to gather the fruit, find a pudding basin and decide whose turn it is to stir.

The ritual matters more than the exact date. If you miss the 22nd, you can still make this pudding in early December and give it a few weeks to mature. What you cannot rush is the steaming and the resting. Christmas pudding is a patient sort of recipe, which is probably why it suits the darkest part of the year so well.

Stone fruit in a dark pudding

A traditional pudding relies on vine fruits, citrus peel, spice and booze. Stone fruit does something slightly different. Dried peaches are soft, honeyed and a little floral. Apricots bring a sharper, tangier edge. Prunes add depth without the same sticky sweetness as dates. Together they lighten the whole bowl, not in texture — this is still a proper suet pudding — but in flavour. The peach liqueur amplifies that note and smells wonderful when the pudding is warmed through on Christmas Day.

Use a peach liqueur you would actually drink, such as a crème de pêche or a good peach schnapps. Nothing too synthetic. If you prefer, you can use half peach liqueur and half brandy, or all brandy with a spoonful of peach jam stirred through the fruit. The point is to keep the pudding festive, not to turn it into a cocktail.

The recipe

This makes one 1.2-litre pudding, serving 8 to 10 people. You will need a pudding basin, greaseproof paper, foil and string.

Ingredients

• 175g dried peaches, chopped
• 150g dried apricots, chopped
• 150g prunes, chopped
• 100g currants
• 100g raisins
• 50g mixed candied peel
• 100g vegetarian suet
• 100g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 100g soft dark brown sugar
• 75g plain flour
• 1 tsp ground mixed spice
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 150ml peach liqueur, plus extra for feeding and flaming
• 100ml whole milk

Method

1. Put all the dried fruit and candied peel in a large bowl. Pour over the peach liqueur, stir, cover and leave overnight. The fruit should absorb most of the liquid.
2. The next day, add the suet, breadcrumbs, sugar, flour, spices, orange zest and lemon zest. Stir well.
3. Add the beaten eggs and milk. Mix thoroughly — this is the point where everyone in the house should take a turn and make a wish. The mixture should be soft enough to drop from a spoon but not sloppy. Add a splash more milk if it feels stiff.
4. Grease the pudding basin generously with butter. Spoon in the mixture and press down lightly. Cover with a disc of greaseproof paper, then a pleated layer of foil. Tie securely with string.
5. Put the basin in a large saucepan and pour in boiling water to come halfway up the sides. Cover with a lid and steam for 6 hours, topping up with boiling water as needed.
6. Lift out the pudding and leave to cool completely. Remove the foil and paper, prick the surface a few times, and feed with a tablespoon or two of peach liqueur. Re-cover and store in a cool, dark place.

A make-ahead timeline for the festive season

22 November 2026: Make and steam the pudding. Cool, feed and store.

29 November, 6 December, 13 December and 20 December: Feed with a little more peach liqueur. A tablespoon is plenty. You are not trying to drown it.

24 December: Steam the pudding again for 1 to 2 hours to heat it through. Let it rest for 10 minutes before turning out.

25 December: Reheat by steaming for 1 hour, or microwave individual portions if you must. Warm a little peach liqueur, pour it over the pudding and set it alight at the table. Serve with brandy butter, cream or custard.

If you are making this later, aim to have the pudding steamed by 13 December at the latest. It will still be good with a shorter maturation, though the fruit will be less mellow.

Serving the sunnier pudding

This pudding is rich enough that you do not need much else. A spoonful of cold cream is enough. If you want to lean into the stone fruit theme, serve it with poached dried apricots or a little peach compote alongside. A glass of the peach liqueur, well chilled, is a nice alternative to brandy.

The joy of Stir-Up Sunday is that it gives Christmas a starting point without demanding much of the day itself. You stir, you steam, you put the pudding away. Then December arrives and a good part of the work is already done. This year, that work happens to smell of peaches. For a very dark month, that feels like a small and useful piece of brightness.