These no-bake mini chocolate Christmas puddings use only six ingredients and are so easy to make. We wouldn’t have a Christmas without them! Vegan mini Christmas puddings are bite-sized mouthfuls of delicious Christmas pudding, chocolate and maple syrup.
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🌟 Why this recipe works
- Tried and true – we make these vegan mini chocolate Christmas puddings every year at Vegan Punks HQ. Based on a non-vegan recipe by Nigella Lawson, we created our own vegan version.
- Easy – they’re so easy to make as they only have to be refrigerated (twice!). So nothing can go wrong in the oven, like a lot of other dessert recipes.
- Perfectly balanced – dark chocolate paired with a vegan Christmas pudding is a match made in heaven.
- No-bake – with no baking and only a few ingredients needed, it’s easy to whip up a batch. They keep in the fridge for weeks – we’re often still eating them in January.
- Irresistible – they are definitely one of those snacks that you grab every time you walk past them and somehow end up eating more than you can count. They’re just irresistible.
- Beautiful – they look just like little Christmas puddings so they’re great on a Christmas dessert table, and they taste amazing! Think Christmas pudding, only better.
🍽 Equipment and Products Used
As usual, no fancy equipment is needed for this simple recipe. All you’ll need is a tray lined with parchment paper, a mixing bowl and a stirring spoon. Depending on whether you’re steaming or microwaving the Christmas pudding, you may also need a pan for steaming.
There are also a few niche ingredients to get for this recipe. Vegan white chocolate – we like the one offered by iChoc, as well as red and green glacé cherries. The green glacé cherries are hard to find in supermarkets. The only place we managed to find them is on Amazon.
📋 Ingredient Notes
The best thing about this recipe (aside from the taste!) is that it doesn’t need loads of ingredients. You can make a load of these mini chocolate Christmas puddings using only six ingredients. Here are some key tips about them:
- Dark chocolate – any brand of dark chocolate is fine, just remember to double check the ingredients to check there isn’t any sneaky milk powder in there.
- Vegan Christmas pudding – we recommend the Tesco or Marks and Spencer vegan Christmas pudding options in the UK.
- Maple Syrup – for a bit of extra sweetness and binding.
- Vegan White Chocolate – you can get this in the ‘free from’ section of most supermarkets, or online. Our favourite brand of vegan white chocolate is iChoc. In our experience, it’s also best at melting too.
- Red Glacé Cherries - these are used to look like the berries on top of a Christmas pudding.
- Green Glacé cherries – these are to look like the holly that accompanies the berries on top of a Christmas pudding. If you don’t have green glacé cherries, you can alternatively use Angelica. We found both hard to come by in shops but found them online.
Check out the recipe card at the bottom of this article for exact measurements.
🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
You will only need about half an hour to make our mini chocolate Christmas puddings, not bad for a Christmas sweet treat!
- First, cook the vegan Christmas pudding according to the packet instructions. Generally this means popping it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Allow it to cool down. You’ll be putting it in the fridge so you don’t want it to be too hot.
- Melt the dark chocolate. You can melt chocolate in the microwave, just make sure that you are using a bowl that’s microwave safe (they will usually be marked microwave-safe on the bottom). You should also use oven gloves or a tea towel when taking the bowl out of the microwave, as it will get hot. Microwaves heat things up really quickly, so only put the chocolate in for 20-30 seconds at a time, stir it and then put it back in until fully melted. Alternatively, you can use a bain-marie.
- Put the Christmas pudding into a bowl and break it up with a spoon.
- Add the melted dark chocolate and the maple syrup and mix well.
- Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes.
- Once the 30 minutes is up, it’s time to make the mini chocolate Christmas puddings! Take one tablespoon of the mixture at a time, and roll each one into a ball. Place the balls on a tray lined with parchment paper. Repeat until there’s no mixture left.
- Take your red glacé cherries and chop them into tiny pieces, so that they look like tiny berries.
- Chop the green glacé cherries into small slices. These will be the holly leaves.
- Melt the white chocolate in the microwave or bain-marie.
- Drizzle some of the white chocolate onto each ball using a teaspoon. Allow it to spill down and create a drip effect all the way around the ball.
- Before the chocolate sets, take one piece of red glacé cherry and two pieces of green glacé cherry and place them on top of each ball in the shape of holly (as pictured). Repeat until all of the puddings have a sprig of holly on them.
- Refrigerate for about 20 minutes, making sure that the chocolate has been set properly.
- Serve on a plate to share or gift to family and friends!
👩🍳 Expert Tips
- Where to get green glacé cherries – we found it surprisingly difficult to find green glacé cherries! Rather than trawling around multiple supermarkets, we’d recommend going online to find them. If you don’t already have red glacé cherries, then it’s not a bad idea to grab a pot of mixed red and green glacé cherries as it’s better value, and you get fewer of each colour.
- Refrigerating time – don’t be tempted to take them out of the fridge early. Each round of refrigeration needs to be done for the minimum amount of time stated. You could even start them in the morning and finish them in the evening. They won’t spoil if left in the fridge longer than necessary. Just cover them up so they don’t dry out!
- If you don’t have vegan white chocolate, you can use water icing. Just make sure the icing is quite thick, to still create a distinct topping (as seen in the pictures).
- Don’t forget to line the tray with parchment paper. Otherwise, there’s a risk that they will stick to the tray.
- Once the mini chocolate Christmas puddings are ready, keep them in an airtight container in the fridge. Make sure to lay them out in single rows, not on top of each other, to prevent any risk of the puddings sticking together.
💭 FAQs
If you can’t find any green glacé cherries then you could substitute it for Angelica. Angelica is in the parsley family, and is often candied to be used as cake decoration. In fact, it was the original green candy in fruit cake recipes.
Angelica can also be a bit of a nightmare to track down though! If you can’t find any then you can just use red glacé cherries alone. Your mini chocolate Christmas puddings won’t look quite the same, but they’ll still taste delicious.
If you don’t have any vegan white chocolate then you can decorate the tops of your mini chocolate Christmas puddings using water icing or even vegan royal icing. Just be sure to make it nice and thick.
Yes, absolutely! They will keep in the fridge for at least 30 days (or more) in an airtight container. We like keeping a batch in the fridge over the Christmas period so that we can give them to visitors.
Yup, these freeze well. Just be sure to thoroughly defrost them before eating.
🎄 More Vegan Christmas Desserts
If you're looking for even more Christmas ideas, then there are so many choices out there. Try a classic Vegan Christmas Cake, Air Fryer Snowball Cookies (such an inventive way of using an air fryer!), the Ultimate Christmas Pudding, a Christmas Vegan Biscotti for a festive coffee morning or even some homemade candied pecans.
Related holiday recipes
For more vegan Christmas dinner inspiration, check out our guide 79 Ultimate vegan Christmas dinner recipes. And if you want even more Christmas vegan recipes, get our Christmas e-book: A Vegan Punks Christmas.
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📖 Recipe
No-Bake Mini Chocolate Christmas Puddings
Ingredients
- 100g g dark chocolate
- 400 g vegan Christmas pudding
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- 40 g white chocolate
- 2 red glacé cherries
- 3 green glacé cherries
Instructions
- Cook the Christmas pudding according to packet instructions. Usually, this is for around 2 minutes in the microwave. Leave to cool.400 g vegan Christmas pudding
- Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave or using a bain-marie.100g g dark chocolate
- Break up the Christmas pudding in a bowl, and add the dark chocolate and maple syrup. Mix well then refrigerate for 30 minutes.100g g dark chocolate, 400 g vegan Christmas pudding, 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- Take 1 tablespoon of the mixture at a time and roll into a ball, place on a tray or plate, until they're all done.
- Chop the red glacé cherries into tiny pieces – to look like a berry. Chop the green glacé cherries into slices, to represent the holly leaves.2 red glacé cherries, 3 green glacé cherries
- Melt the white chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie.40 g white chocolate
- Using a teaspoon, drizzle the white chocolate onto each ball, allowing it to spill down them – if that naturally happens!
- Before the chocolate sets, take one piece of red cherry and two pieces of green cherry and place them on top of the mini Christmas pudding, in the rough shape of holly (as pictured). Repeat until they're all done.
- Refrigerate for 20 minutes, make sure the chocolate has set, and enjoy!
Notes
- We found it hard to find green glace cherries in supermarket. They’re available online more widely.
- If you can’t find green glace cherries, use Angelica. If you can’t find either, just use red glace cherries. They’ll still taste delicious.
- Don’t be tempted to scrimp on the refrigeration time. They need to be refrigerated for at least the time stated at each step.
- They keep in the fridge for 30 days in an airtight container.
- They freeze well but make sure to defrost thoroughly before serving.
Etti
I made these today for my kids to have as their school Christmas pudding. They were really easy and fun to make, I used angelica instead of green glacé cherries and this made really lovely holly leaves…and by using Sainsbury’s ‘free-from’ Christmas pudding and Nomo chocolate, I’ve accidentally made this gluten-free too (I hope this doesn’t mean I have to share with more people, I’ve already eaten 2, they’re delicious!). And a big bonus that they can be made well in advance; because December is certainly busy enough without having to produce puddings on the day of any event!
Jess Saunders
Sounds absolutely perfect! So glad you enjoyed them Etti! And so good that they're GF too. I'll have to add this tip to the article! Jess x