Leftover Christmas Pudding Ice Cream
Every Christmas we end up with leftover Christmas pudding which is something I actually don’t like as I find it too heavy and rich. Last year I turned the leftover pudding into a muffin/cupcake creation from Rachel Allen and they went down very well. This year though I wanted to see if I could incorporate it into Ice Cream. I decided to match the pudding with a cinnamon ice cream but to make it more festive I reduced the cinnamon and replaced it with fresh nutmeg. Thankfully it worked a treat, the cinnamon ice cream alone would have been just fine on its own, so feel free to omit it if you prefer, but I found the combination a really great alternative festive dessert and would be a welcome change to the normal tradition of Christmas pudding. Im guessing this would also be great with mincemeat if you have jars of that left as well.
Christmas Pudding and Cinnamon Ice Cream
Adapted from a David Lebovitz recipe in “The Perfect Scoop”
1 Cup (250ml) Whole Milk
¾ Cup (150g) Sugar
Pinch of Salt
Seven 3-inch Cinnamon Sticks, broken up
About 1/3 of a Nutmeg Seed, freshly grated or to taste
2 Cups (500ml) Heavy Cream
5 Large Egg Yolks
2 Tblsp Vodka (or rum, brandy or really any liquor that you think might work)
150g Christmas Pudding (or whatever you have left)
1. Warm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and 1 cup (250ml) of the cream in a medium saucepan. Once the mixture is warmed through remove from the heat, cover and let steep for an hour.
2. Put the saucepan back on the heat to rewarm. Using a slotted spoon remove the cinnamon and discard. Pour the remaining cream into a bowl and place a mesh strainer on top.
3. In a separate medium bowl whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly ladle some of the warmed mixture into the egg yolks, whisking this constantly to prevent cooking the yolks. Once you have added about a third of the warmed mixture you can just pour the rest in, in a slow stream whilst still whisking the custard.
4. Scrape the custard mixture back into the saucepan. Stirring the mixture constantly with a rubber spatula cook the mixture, scraping the bottom of the pan as you do so, until it thickens and coats the back of the spatula. If the temperature is too high you can see little cooked bits, so I suggest using a medium-low temp for this (and don’t worry you can strain the lumps out later).
5. Pour the custard through the strainer into the cream and mix together. Place this bowl over an ice bath and stir until the custard base has cooled. Stir the vodka into the cooled custard and then refrigerate the mixture thoroughly and then freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturers instructions.
6. Once the ice cream is churned stir in the chopped up Christmas pudding and place in the freezer and leave to firm up.
Posted in Ice Cream + Frozen Things 
