Zesty locale makes Napier treats pick of the crop

The results saw a local pudding capture the tastebuds of all six of the Consumer staff panellists. File photo

Most Kiwis don't have the time to tackle the Edmonds cookbook recipe from 1968 which requires half a kilo of fruit, overnight standing and up to seven hours' steaming to make the classic Christmas pudding.

So Consumer New Zealand has looked at some of the pre-made desserts on our supermarket shelves.

It looked at just how much fruit actually goes into the festive offerings, which varied greatly on content and price, as well as undertaking a taste test.

Six of the 10 puddings sampled were made in New Zealand.

The results saw a local pudding capture the tastebuds of all six of the Consumer staff panellists. Not only did Kitchen Six Traditional Christmas Pudding contain almonds, it had a high fruit content, at 44 per cent, and contained a greater variety of fruit than most other products, with currants, sultanas, raisins, apples and citrus peel in the recipe.

It was described as having "heaps of taste" with a "generous amount of fruit" - and the woman behind the pudding puts the difference down to the locally sourced ingredients.

Lisa Matthews, chief pudding cook at Kitchen Six, said their puddings were unique due to their location in Napier, right next to an orange farm.

"There's a heavy element of citrus in there and that makes it really moist, it lifts it up and just makes it unique without being too far outside the traditional," she said.

The traditional family recipe had been tweaked to "get as much of the Hawkes Bay in there as we can" as part of the requirements of the Hastings Farmers Market, where the puddings can be purchased.

A boutique product, the Kitchen Six pudding can also be bought online and at Sabato in Mt Eden.

There was also variation around which oils were used in the puddings.

While Countdown's Homebrand was the cheapest of all the puddings at 84c per 100g, it also boasted the highest fruit content of all the local offerings at 45 per cent. Despite this, it didn't perform tastewise, with reviewers describing it as "bland" with "not a lot of flavour".

Ernest Adams Rich Fruit Christmas Pudding, made by Goodman Fielder, had 36 per cent fruit content and also did not perform well, with tasters saying it had "not much variation in fruit" and was "more cake-like".

When choosing a Christmas pudding, Healthy Food Guide nutritionist Claire Turnbull said it was important to look for one that was low in saturated fat - and to be aware that when a product listed vegetable oil as an ingredient.

"A lot of people have got ethical reasons not to chose products with palm oil, so that's something for consumers to be aware of," she said. "You can tell if its high in saturated fat and it says vegetable oil, it's probably got palm oil or some palm oil in it."

All fruit puddings were likely to be high in sugar due to the amount of dried fruit used, she said.

"That's the nature of a fruit pudding and it'd be pretty upsetting if it wasn't like that. The ones that are low in fruit are just going to be cheaper to make, because the cake component, the binder, is cheaper than the dried fruit.

"With all desserts over Christmas, choose a nice one that you really enjoy and have a small quantity, sit down and savour it."