A low carb and sugar free take on the traditional English Christmas pudding. This easy gluten free, diabetic-friendly Christmas cake is ready in just over 10 minutes!
Friends, after much trial and error I've finally done it. Here it is - an actually delicious low carb Christmas pudding!
This low carb Christmas pudding recipe weighs in at 8 net carbs per person and comes together in just over 10 minutes.
What? 10 minutes?
Yes! I made it in the microwave. We're talking instant Christmas gratification here!
The single main ingredient of a Christmas or plum pudding is, as we all know, mincemeat. Dried fruit and candied peel is a tricky ingredient for people on a sugar free and low carb diet, as it's, well, high in sugar and carbs and basically off the menu.
This easy Christmas pudding uses some clever substitutions. Are you ready?
Here's the lowdown:
First of all, I replaced the flour with almond flour. This was the obvious one - I've made LOADS of desserts low carb by making this simple swap.
Sweetener - simples. Instead of sugar, I used my go-to sweetener erythritol.
Mincemeat. I subbed with frozen blueberries and cherries. Both have plenty of natural sweetness and we're keeping close to the traditional Xmas pud colour scheme.
To bulk up the recipe, I added come carrot, which I shredded into small pieces in my food processor. Lower in carbs and sugar than apple, which is often used in traditional recipes.
Stroke of genius - I threw in a spoonful of cacao powder to make the pud nice and dark. In hindsight, coffee would work nicely here, too. In one of my earlier attempts I had added double the amount of cacao, but found the result too chocolate-cakey.
We want Christmas, not Cocoa, right?
This cake is brimming with Christmas flavours! All the usual suspects are featured. Orange peel (real grated orange peel, not the candied version), cinnamon, mixed spice, walnuts, you name it.
Brandy. A glug of brandy takes the recipe to the next level. A tiny word of wisdom here: I made this particular specimen late morning and basically had a slice for breakfast. This might NOT be a good idea depending what you have planned on doing after eating your Christmas pudding.
I am a lightweight when it comes to alcohol and felt wonderfully warm and fizzy for a while. I cannot rule out that I imagined this, but MAYBE 6 minutes in the microwave is not enough to burn off the booze.
Here is the disclaimer: This low carb Christmas pudding does not taste EXACTLY like a traditional Christmas pudding, but it does come pretty close.
If you want, you CAN add dried fruit to the recipe. Prunes would be a good choice here. They are lower in carbs than dates, sultanas or currants. I think if you would add 1 prune per person you could probably taste a difference without sending your blood sugar sky-high.
As a new microwave owner, I'm seriously pleased how this pud comes together in all but 6 minutes.
I'm sure you could bake it, too - I'd try 180 Celsius and around 20 minutes.
I ate my low carb luxury Christmas pudding with some extra-thick double cream.
On Christmas day I'll swirl some extra Brandy into it. Because it definitely won't be morning then. And there definitely won't be any blog posts to write that day either 🙂
In the Christmas mood? Check out these festive recipes:
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Low Carb Christmas Pudding
from sugarfreelondoner.comNote: The servings slider only changes the first amount in each line and not any subsequent amounts. Please make your own calculations where necessary. ***As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ingredients
- 100 g / 1 cup almond flour
- 1 egg
- 100 g / ½ cup shredded carrot
- 50 g / ¼ cup blueberries, frozen
- 50 g / ¼ cup cherries frozen
- 10 g small handful crushed walnuts
- 2 tbsp butter melted
- 1 tbsp double heavy cream
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cacao powder unsweetened
- 2 tbsp powdered sweetener or more to taste
- 2 tsp mixed spice pumpkin spice
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- orange zest from ½ orange
- optional: glug of brandy
- double heavy cream, to serve
Instructions
- Blitz the carrot in a food processor or grate them. Add the fruit (I used frozen blueberries and cherries) and chop. Your chopped carrots and fruit combined should fill 1 US measuring cup.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Melt the butter.
- Add the melted butter and all remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir until combined. If you wish, add a glug of Brandy. Adjust sweetener if needed.
- Grease a pyrex glass bowl with butter and fill in the Christmas pudding batter. Microwave at 700W for 6 minutes.
- Turn out upside down onto a plate and serve with thick cream.
Notes
Nutrition
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Vanessa says
Tried this recipe today, added some dried cranberries as well as the other fruit and baked in the oven at 150c but it did take around 50 minutes, but was well worth the wait, it was absolutely delicious & so very moist. Thank you for the recipe
Jonathan says
For the first time in my life, I was in charge of Christmas dinner. I made this pudding and my parents, who don't normally eat very much, simply had to have second helpings of this pudding.
An absolute hit and will be a perennial from here onwards. Thanks Katrin!
Leie says
This came out great! I mixed the carrot and fruit with the spices early on the day and then added the rest of the ingredients when we wanted dessert. My husband said it was as good as any shop bought one we'd had previously. So definitely will do it again. This really helped make our Christmas this year more keto! Also, it was so easy - thank you 🙂
DAVID BERGER says
Hi Katrin, my wife is intolerant of carrots and all root vegetables. Do you have any suggestions if I omit the carrots please? Thank you.
Katrin Nürnberger says
You could try using zucchini instead. Grate it and squeeze all all the liquid using a cheesecloth or dishcloth first though!
Leah says
Hi Katrin, this sounds amazing, can’t wait to try it. I was wondering if you have stored it for a few days or is it best to wait and make it on the day?
Thanks
Katrin Nürnberger says
My feeling is that it's best fresh, because we're using some fresh fruit instead of the usual dried. However, it should be fine stored for a few days.
Tami says
Hello Katrin,
I am in the States and have never had a Christmas pudding. Is this served warm straight from the microwave oven? Or is it a dessert that would be served cold? My guess is that it is served warm, since the recipe says turn it out upside down and serve. I am always open to trying new foods and this sounds very interesting. Thanks for the recipe.
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Tami, yes, we love to eat it warm. But cold tastes just as good.
Emm C-H says
Hello, thanks for posting this recipe up, it sounds amazing and I'm going to try it on Christmas day, can't wait!
We've got frozen, stewed plums from a plum tree in our garden, so I was hoping to add a few (thawed) to the recipe, but I'm thinking they'll be quite 'wet' so was wondering whether to pop a bit of coconut flour in to soak up excess moisture?
I probably won't put the glug of alcohol in.... or I might.... maybe, hahah! Been booze free for nearly 2 years so....?
I'll be using fresh blueberries, frozen cherries, and the carrot, and I only want to put say half a cup of plums in, just for the taste. I've got fine ground almond flour, or almond meal, so am happy to use either, whichever has the best result.
Any help appreciated, but no worries - I can just wing it and see what happens 🙂
Thanks very much,
Emm
PS - I'm thinking of serving this with a vanilla frosting (butter, cream cheese, cream, powdered erythritol & vanilla essence - which has actually got a base of bourbon!) for sheer luxury! So it'll have a bit of a custardy taste/brandy butter feel to it..... drooling already!
Katrin Nürnberger says
That sounds delicious! Yes, the coconut flour will definitely help soaking up excess moisture - good idea.
Cheryl Taylor says
I was really hoping this was my grandmother's Christmas pudding. The closest recipe would be plum pudding. It was steamed in the oven and cooked in a big coffee can. You made a buttery, vanilla, rum (hard sauce) to put over the top of it. I remember n the old days she used suet as there was no Crisco. It had walnuts, raisins, and or currents. It is my favorite dessert of all time. We had this every Christmas as she would make a ton of them and each of her children's family was sent one. I am hoping you can come up with this recipe, it would mean the world to me.
April says
OH YES! Wonderful memories. We called it "suet pudding" . It had raisins, steamed on top of the stove, and we used a vanilla or lemon sauce over it. I would love to have it again and I should try this and see if it's anything like it!
Emmeline Cane-Honeysett says
Fab, thanks very much - sorry, I hadn't realised you'd replied! Wonderful, I will give it a go and let you know how I get on, exciting times! 🙂 Cheers, Emm
Gill says
Thank you so much for this recipe-
It’s my first low GI pudding, it’s delicious!
I’ll be making it again and again and again.
Cheers Gill
Vicki Taylor says
Well Kristin you have done it again. So very like a traditional Christmas pudding and yet so simple. My husband bought me a dehydrator recently so I have been dehydrating cranberries sweetened with erythritol so used some of them as the fruit with a few prunes. Soaked the fruit in brandy first as well. You are a magician in the kitchen. Thank you.
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Vicky, so glad you like the recipe!
Anna says
What a fab idea! I've fallen off the keto wagon for the last two Christmases and I'm determined not to this year. Carrots are still a bit carby for me, so I might try grated courgette for bulk & moisture. I'll have an experiment, also might try baking in advance and pinging on the day as I've always done with steamed puddings before. I'll let you know how it goes. Cheers for the inspiration
Katrin Nürnberger says
I'd love to hear how it works out with the courgette. Let me know!
Carol S. says
It is April 13 and I am in Winnipeg, Canada. It is snowing and blowing out and today is the second day. My tulips were up but now buried under the snow. This is not usual. So for some reason, I wonder why, I thought of plum pudding and fruitcake. I grew up with these and made them for my family. As I eat Keto now I figured someone would have done these and I am thrilled to find this recipe. I used to steam the puddings and I now look forward to baking it. Thank you for this great recipe❣️ I will be making this when the real winter rolls around.
Katrin Nürnberger says
I'm glad the April weather made you at least discover this recipe!
Rachelle says
Perfect recipe! Thankyou 🙂
I made a few tweaks based on personal preference: doubled the ingredients and included extra walnuts plus slivered almonds as I’d always loved the crunch of the slivered almonds in my Grandma’s plum pudding.
To cook, I divided the mixture into large, flat ramekins and baked in the oven (until a toothpick came out clean).
Turned out beautifully! Served with keto vanilla bean egg custard - very satisfying
Karina says
Yum! I loved this. Thanks for the recipe. It occurred to me to cut the zest off the orange with a knife and put it in the processor with the carrots so it would get chopped up. It worked well. I also made a tad of hard sauce using 1 tablespoon vodka, Swerve, and the the other normal ingredients (basically butter 🙂 ). The whole combo tasted a lot like grandma's Christmas pudding and made me very happy.
Katrin Nürnberger says
Thanks for letting everyone know your tweaks! So glad you enjoyed the pudding.
Carol Barrett says
Hi I wonder if you could steam it like a traditional pudding?
Katrin Nürnberger says
I have never tried it, but I will this year because I'd love to know too. Watch that space!
Clare says
Can the almond flour be replaced with ground almonds?
Katrin Nürnberger says
Yes, that is exactly what I used - ground almonds.
Justin says
I'm looking forward to making this. I'm planning to use ramekin(s) in the oven at 170 Celcius for 12-15 mins. (I've had difficulty finding pudding basins.) Are the nutrition measurements for the whole pudding or per serve? Thanks
Katrin Nürnberger says
They are per serving 🙂
Sharon says
I've just had a trial run making this for my Father who's Diabetic.
It's absolutely delicious! He will certainly be a happy bunny on Christmas day.
Thank you for sharing!
Katrin Nürnberger says
Glad you like it!! Honoured this pudding is making it on your christmas table
Lyn Isaac says
Have you had any success with freezing this?
Katrin Nürnberger says
I have never tried it but I freeze the majority of my cakes and this is no different to any of the others. So, it should freeze well.
Sandta says
Can you make this with suet? Or do you have any recipes with suet?
Katrin Nürnberger says
I have not tried this yet myself, but you should be able to replace the butter with either suet or good quality lard.
Rachel Hatton says
Can we do this in a pudding basin in the oven? If so, what temperature and for how long?
Thanks
Katrin Nürnberger says
I would use a lower temperature - 150 Celsius, and about 25-30 minutes.
Chari says
Even though I am in the states, I love, love, love a traditional boiled Christmas pudding, any chance I can swing that with this or is it just not to be?
Katrin Nürnberger says
I haven't tried it, but maybe it would work. Sorry I can't help! 🙂
Andy says
I am in the process of making a pudding and have dried fruit marinating in brandy, whisky rum Nd 50/50 xylitol and erythritol with a view to getting the flour and suet on Friday. Could I use chickpea flour instead of almond flour or would i need to use 50/50? Would it still work in the microwave or oven instead of 8 hours steaming?
Katrin Nürnberger says
You can replace regular flour with chickpea flour 1 to 3/4 cup, so it should be the same with almond flour to chickpea flour - you'll need about 1/4 less. I would still try microwave or oven.
Helen says
This recipe looks great! I'd like to try it, but my microwave blew up during lockdown, and I've decided I prefer my tiny kitchen with the extra space...Could the pud be steamed on the hob, or baked in the oven?
Katrin Nürnberger says
These type of mug cakes work in the oven. I have not yet tried this one, but I would go for 170 Celsius / 340 Fahrenheit and 12-15 minutes. Then check where you are and see if that's long enough.
Helen says
Many thanks, Katrin.
Jennifer says
This is an excellent recipe but I'm allergic to almonds so no almond flour. I will experiment to see what works - ground flaxseed?
Katrin Nürnberger says
Try replacing the almond flour with either a sesame flour / sunflower seed flour mix (1:1 sub) or use coconut flour (about 1/3 sub - you MAY need an additional egg)