Instant Pot Cranberry Christmas Pudding Recipe

Make this cranberry Christmas pudding recipe in your Instant Pot!  This steamed pudding is easy to make for Christmas in under an hour using a pressure cooker.

 

Cranberry Christmas Pudding Recipe

We didn't often go to all the fuss of making a traditional steamed pudding when I was growing up, but oh, did I LOVE it when my mom did.  There's something about the texture that is absolutely magical, and this recipe, made with molasses and cranberries, is the perfect Christmas pudding recipe.  

Christmas Pudding Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 2 cups chopped cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour (divided)

Mix the chopped nuts, chopped cranberries, and half a cup of the flour.  Set aside.

Combine the hot water, baking soda, and molasses.  It will foam up impressively, so be sure to do this in a container that has room for the growth.

Add the remaining one cup of flour, the salt, and the sugar to the molasses mixture.  Add the floured cranberries and nuts and mix to form the cranberry pudding batter.

Grease a lidded pudding bowl well with butter.  My pudding basin is a plastic one designed to work well in pressure cookers, but you could use a traditional metal one, too.

Put the pudding batter in the pudding bowl and seal the lid.

Put about three cups of water and your steamer rack in your Instant pot.  Place the pudding bowl, lid side up, in the pot.

Set the vent to the steaming position, and steam for 15 minutes.

Then flip the vent to the sealed position, and cook on manual, high pressure, for 20 minutes.

Let the Instant Pot do a natural pressure release.

While the pressure is coming down on the pudding, make a traditional Hard Sauce to go on top of your steamed Christmas pudding.

Hard Sauce Recipe for Cranberry Christmas Pudding

Hard Sauce Recipe Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the butter, sugar, salt, and cream in a double boiler.  (Or, in my case, an improvised double boiler made with my regular pot and a large metal bowl.)

Cook, stirring, until the sugar is completely dissolved and the sauce starts to bubble.

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Slice the Christmas pudding and pour a generous portion of the hard sauce over the cake.  It's absolutely magical!

Have you ever tried a traditional steamed Christmas pudding?

Printable Cranberry Christmas Pudding with Hard Sauce Recipe:

Want a one page, printable version of this instant pot steamed pudding recipe?  Click on the image below to print directly or download the PDF to your device.

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