How to use leftover Christmas pudding

What’s the best way to use up Christmas pud that doesn’t get demolished on the big day?

Leftovers at Christmas are as inevitable as a James Bond film on Boxing Day, and here at Lovefood we hate wasting food.

We reckon you might not want to waste your Christmas pudding either, so here are a few ideas that will save it from the bin and make some tasty post-Christmas desserts.

Christmas pudding, grilled with butter

See the picture above. Slice up your pud and put it under a grill on high heat until it's hot and the top is just starting to get hard. Be very careful not to let it burn; it's already a dark colour so it's hard to spot charring. Then take out your slices, butter them, and dig in. A colleague recommended this one, saying that her family normally enjoy it on Boxing Day, and although they use normal butter, it would probably also be good with brandy butter.

Christmas pudding ice cream

This idea crops up quite a lot, but you do need an ice cream machine to make it. Perhaps if someone bought you one of these top ice cream machines for Christmas, you could put it to early use. Make your ice cream as you normally would, then blast it in a food processor along with cut-up pieces of pud. Then freeze until it’s ready to eat.

Ice cream sundae

For those without an ice cream machine, a sundae can be great. Pop a big chunk in the base of the glass/cup/bowl – use whatever you want – then cut your remaining pudding into small cubes.

For the picture on the left, I made a base out of chunked-up Christmas pudding, topped it with ice cream then drizzled some raspberry jam and scattered small pudding cubes over the top. Yes, I know I score no marks for presentation here, but it still ranks among the best work 'snacks' I’ve ever had.

I didn't have much to hand when I made the above, but I have a better idea if you’re at home with more ingredients than I have in the office! 

Squirt some chocolate sauce onto the base of a bowl or sundae glass, add a scoop of ice cream, a few pudding cubes and another quick squirt of sauce then a second ice cream scoop. Drop the pudding cubes atop the pile, drizzle some final sauce over the top and scatter with winter berries. Over the top? Perhaps. Unsophisticated? Definitely. Tastes great? You bet.

Trifle

For New Year’s Eve. Use slices of Christmas pudding in place of the sponge, but go easy if you normally add a lot of booze to your trifle base – your pudding already contains plenty.

Add fruit jelly and crème patissiere in layers as you normally would (see this recipe for guidance on trifle structure) and top off with squirty cream and fruit. It might be good to warn party guests that they’ll only need a tiny amount of this one.

The one problem with this idea is that your leftover pudding could quite easily become leftover trifle, purely because it's so rich!

Cake pops

Christmas pudding cake pops are simple but fun treats, as our recipe shows – all you need, aside from your pudding leftovers, is some chocolate (white and dark) and some lollipop sticks. Decorations are optional, so don’t worry if you don’t have them. Just enjoy your treat.

Do you use your Christmas pudding leftovers up in other recipes? Share your ideas in the Comments below.

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