Enjoy this low carb Christmas pudding as the crowning glory of your festive meal. It’s sugar free, gluten free and suitable for diabetics. Even better, it’s ready in just over 10 minutes!
Find the recipe card with ingredients and instructions at the bottom of the page. Don’t miss the extra tips in the post!
Friends, after much trial and error I’ve finally done it. Here it is – an actually delicious low carb Christmas pudding!
I’ve been working on this recipe ever since the lovely people from John Lewis invited me to the Waitrose Cookery School to make a gluten free Christmas pudding. The school is heaven for food nerds like myself. You get new inspiration and nifty tips from the pros (Kendra, you are my hero). Have a laugh with fellow geeks. And best of all, every single ingredient is already prepared and waiting for you in pretty little bowls. No chopping, no washing up, more fun! Seriously, it’s as relaxing as a spa day.
Needless to say, the gluten free Christmas pudding was flawless and styled and photographed by someone who’s much better at taking pictures than I am. I posted the image on my Instagram with first thoughts on how to low-carbify the recipe and got AMAZING input from my followers over there.
So. 3 weeks and a few less-than-satisfactory attempts later I have pulled it off – rather spectacularly, I think.
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 low carb Christmas pud 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 regular 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 pud 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 – but don’t quote me on this one as I haven’t tried it yet.
I ate my low carb 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 my German cinnamon stars, these gingerbread cupcakes and the easiest low carb cranberry sauce!
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Low Carb Christmas Pudding
Enjoy this low carb Christmas pudding as the crowning glory of your festive meal. It's sugar free, gluten free and suitable for diabetics. Even better, it's ready in just over 10 minutes!
Ingredients
- 100 g / 1 cup almond flour
- 1 egg
- 100 g / 1/2 cup shredded carrot
- 50 g / 1/4 cup blueberries, frozen
- 50 g / 1/4 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 1/2 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.
Recipe Notes
I have tried to keep this pudding as low carb as possible and avoided dried fruit, which arguably are the essence of a Christmas pudding. If you do wish to add dried fruit because it's Christmas and all that, I'd recommend prunes over sultanas - they are much lower in carbs.
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