Lady’s British Christmas Recipes

Today I want to share 3 British Christmas recipes with you. I’ve been making these with my family since I was a child, and I hope you find the end results as delicious as I do.

British Christmas Recipes

From shortbread to Christmas pudding, there are a lot of great British foods to bake at Christmas. Whether you want something dense and sweet or light and fluffy, there’s a recipe to suit your taste buds.

Here are a few of my favorite British Christmas recipes. They’re sure to get you in the seasonal spirit and keep your appetite satisfied while they do.

1. Scottish Shortbread Recipe

My favorite British Christmas recipe is my Glaswegian grandmother’s own Scottish shortbread “rule” (that’s what she called recipes).

It’s a really easy recipe consisting of only three ingredients: flour, sugar, and butter. The end result is nothing much to look at, but absolutely delicious to taste.

Here’s her Scottish shortbread recipe:

Scottish Shortbread Recipe
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter at room temperature

Combine ingredients and kneed until soft. Transfer to an 8×8″ baking pan. Poke fork holes every 2 inches and press fork lightly around edges.

Bake for 25 to 35 minutes (depending how light or golden you want it) at 325 degrees F (160 C). Sprinkle with sugar and cut into 1″ squares while still warm.

2. Scone Recipe

Moving on from dessert, we also make scones. They’re not just for Christmas, but I like baking them during the holiday season because they remind me of my childhood. They’re also delicious, which is always a bonus.

Here’s the scone recipe:

Currant Scones
Whisk together:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cut into flour mix:
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
Add until moist:
1/2 cup currants
1 cup heavy cream

Knead dough until soft. Place on a baking tray and form into a 1″ thick circle. Score into 8 pieces. Bake 12-15 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 C).

3. Christmas Pudding Recipe

There are no plums in plum pudding. In fact, it’s not even really a pudding (by American standards, anyway). No, it’s basically a fruitcake.

But this is no ordinary fruitcake; it’s my grandmother’s fruitcake, and my family makes it every Christmas using the recipe from The Joy of Cooking. You can get it here.

Plum pudding is a classic British Christmas recipe. I used to make it as a child with my mother and grandmother.

Every year my mother and I would worry that the seemingly huge amount of batter would never fit into the seemingly tiny mold.

But my grandmother always assured us that it was a “greedy wee mold”, and she was right. This year is no exception, and we end up with a fine looking Christmas pudding.

Here’s the recipe for plum pudding:

Plum Pudding Recipe
Sift:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
Prepare and dredge with part of the flour:
1 lb chopped suet (or 1 cup vegetable shortening)
1 lb seeded raisins
1 lb dried currants
1/2 lb chopped citron
Re-sift the remaining flour with:
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon mace
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons sugar
Combine the dredged and sifted ingredients.
Add:
7 egg yolks
1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup brandy
3 cups freshly grated white bread crumbs
Whip:
7 egg whites until stiff

Fold the egg whites into the raisin mixture. Pour the batter into a greased, covered gallon mold and steam for 6 hours. Serve with hard sauce.

UK Christmas Recipes

Whether you’ve never cooked British Christmas recipes before or whether you’ve made them all and more, I hope you enjoy them.

I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday baking season enjoying these and other British Christmas traditions.

If you want more ideas for things to bake this season (or any other), The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking is just what you need. If you’re in the UK, you can get it here. If you’re in the US, you can get it here.

And if you want ideas for other things to cook, my blog post about classic English dishes is just the thing. Happy eating!

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