Bramley Apple Mincemeat Pudding is a must at this time of year. It’s an excellent way of using up all your excess mincemeat or makes a lighter alternative to Christmas Pudding at the end of your festive feast. Both the wheat and gluten-free recipes are listed below.
It’s crazy how much I love mincemeat. In fact it’s just as well that it only comes out once a year as not only do I get to thoroughly enjoy mince pie season but it means I am held back from overindulging all year round. I have made close to 100 jars of mincemeat this year, for selling on my preserves stalls, and it hasn’t diminished my love for the stuff at all. Making the mincemeat is one of my very favourite cooking jobs to do, it fills my kitchen with the heady scent of brandy, plump fruits and warming spices and the resulting mixture is so versatile that it would be a shame if you merely confined it to just a mini pie filling.
I love crumbled mince pies stirred through freshly churned ice cream, I devoured Nigel Slater’s Mincemeat trifle which I made a couple of years ago and I seriously heart mincemeat cheesecake which I am sure is also credited to Nigel Slater but I never wrote down the source of my recipe I have on file. Last year though I made this Bramley Apple and Mincemeat Pudding in a bid to clear out my cupboards of Christmas just before the new year kicked in. I never blogged about it as the recipe needed some tweaking and it didn’t look as pretty as it should, plus if I remember correctly I made it about 9pm and was too tired for a photo session. This year though I stumbled across my notes for it and tore open one of my jars of Victorian Mincemeat (which I was supposed to be selling at the weekend) quicker than you could say ‘leftover bramleys in the fruitbowl.’
I tweaked some of the sugar in my original recipe and took the mincemeat through the sponge topping instead of allowing it to languish at the bottom with the bramleys and suddenly an instant classic was born.
I like the tartness of the bramleys just as they are but here I gave them a kiss of brown sugar to take the edge off. If you need your apples sweeter than do add more sugar but I think the fruity mincemeat in the sponge contrasts deliciously with the natural apple taste.
Of course there will be disagreements on how this should be served. I drowned mine in lashings of custard. And not just any custard, I couldn’t be bothered to make my own own despite having a plentiful amount of double cream and eggs in the fridge and for the first time in my whole life I whisked up some Bird’s custard powder and it turned out quite delicious. So there, those of you that think I’m a food snob. I can get down and dirty with the rest of you any day of the week.
Some festive desserts have the propensity to be a bit of a faff but this took moments to mix up and bake, perfect for cold nights in front of the fire. I urge you this year to be adventurous with your mincemeat and it would be lovely to hear some of your favourite mincemeat experiments.
Bramley Apple and Mincemeat Pudding
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
55g sweet rice flour
40g oat flour
30g millet flour
25g almond flour
The result is amazing and just as fluffy and deeply delicious as the original recipe.Nutrition
If you like this recipe then you may like…
Cranberry Cointreau Mincemeat
Victorian Mincemeat
Christmas Morning Mince Pie Muffins {gluten-free}
Blackberry Lemon Pudding {gluten-free}
Cranberry Cream Pie
Smoked Salmon on Potato Pancakes with Whipped Cream Cheese
Cheat’s Gluten-Free Christmas Cake
Hello, so lovely of you to drop by. I am Georgina. I bake a lot, eat a lot and love writing about my gluten-free kitchen adventures here. I run a gluten-free cake business and have a stall at the local farmer’s market selling my cakes and preserves. I have 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 husband, a delightful toddler who runs me ragged and a newborn baby boy.
This pudding tasted wonderful and I would make it again. We don’t have Bramley apples here so I substituted Cortlands, which worked fine. I live in Canada so I had to convert the 150gm ingredients and given the outcome I think there is too much butter in the recipe. Despite having 3 eggs and 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder, the sponge did not rise as much as I expected but all that butter may have been the reason. If you have perfected the recipe for those of us across the pond, I would love to see it.
I’m happy the recipe worked out well for you. I’m terrible at baking in cups and sticks of butter as I just don’t quite understand how it works. I would translate 150g butter to 2/3 cup butter – I’m not sure if that’s how much you used. The sponge isn’t sky high in the original recipe as it’s definitely more of a pudding than a cake.
Dear Georgina, this looks delicious and I have all the ingredients to hand. Do you think this dish would freeze well, once baked? Or could it freeze before baking? I like to get ahead with as much as possible and this dish would be lovely over the Christmas period, because of th Mincemeat element. Thank you. Regards, Penny
Hi Penny. Yes, this will freeze very well after baking. Leave it in its baking dish, then once cooled wrap well in double cling film and foil. The night before you want to serve it remove from the freezer to defrost thoroughly then re-heat in the oven for 20-30 minutes with foil loosely over the top to stop it browning further. Enjoy!!
Hi Georgina
This sounds delicious and I intend to make it tonight. Could you give me an idea of what size the baking dish should be? Thanks
Hi Allison, the dish I used was 25.2 x 19 x 5.6 cm. I hope that helps!
What a glorious Christmas morning brunch. Much too wonderful a recipe not to try NOW.
Happy Christmas Georgina,
will you be publishing a book any time soon?
keep warm and continue your fab journey thru food. Jill, Canada
Happy Christmas Jill! No cookbook planned as yet, but definitely one day!!
Made this tonight and it was delicious! May serve left overs after Christmas lunch instead of the usual heavy pud! Could I just ask why you use plain flour/baking powder instead of SR! My batter was very wet and the cake browned very quickly before cooking in the centre so I had to cover with foil, and playvaroubd with timings. Also is your temp for a fan oven? Many thanks
Hi Kaz, I don’t like to use self-raising flour as I like to control the amount of rise in my cakes. Also, it felt like an extra bag of flour in the cupboard that I didn’t need when the job can be done with plain flour, baking or bicarbonate of soda. That’s odd that your batter was wet, it’s usually a bit firmer. I actually can’t think why that would be. Did you use large eggs? I usually use medium, although I can’t think that would have made too much of a difference. If the batter was wet then that would explain the odd cooking time. This one is usually a very reliable recipe. No, the temp here is not for a fan oven. I’m glad you enjoyed it though, despite the issues.
Thanks Georgina – I’ll give it another go but it was still a delicious alternative at Christmas – just finished it off with custard and cream!!!!!!
Georgina, what a gorgeous pudding! Your directions make this seem like such an easy approach, too. I would love to make this soon!
Hi Alyssa – thank you so much! Let me know if you give it a try!!
Thanks – sounds delicious- can I make this up the night before and then just pop in the oven to cook while we eat main course ?
Actually I wouldn’t recommend preparing it in advance. Cake batter doesn’t really like to rest. However, if you would like it warm then make it completely the day before and the next day place foil over the top of the pudding and re-heat in the oven. About 180 degrees for 15 minutes.