Christmas Pudding Ice Cream (in a cool Christmas ice bowl)
Use up left over Christmas pudding in the most delicious way – by combining it with vanilla ice cream to make this decadent treat! And even better, serve it in a stunning ice bowl (which is much easier to make than it looks)
Make sure the Christmas pudding is cold when preparing this – to ensure the ice cream doesn’t melt too much.
Ingredients
Christmas Ice bowl
- 2-3 oranges sliced 1cm-thick
- Frozen cranberries
- Rosemary sprigs
- ice cubes lots
Christmas pudding ice cream
- 2 l vanilla ice cream plain or French vanilla
- 300-400 g Christmas pudding cold
- ¼ cup brandy whisky or other spirit or liqueur
- 1 cup cherries 1 cup fresh or tinned pitted cherries, drained
- Fresh berries to garnish (optional)
Instructions
TO MAKE ICE BOWL
- To make the ice bowl, you’ll need two bowls: one large, and the other slightly smaller so it fits inside the bigger one with a 1.5-2cm gap in between. Make sure the big bowl fits in your freezer (or that you have enough freezer space cleared!).
- Start arranging orange slices, cranberries and rosemary sprigs over base and around the inside of large bowl – it helps to wedge some cranberries and rosemary in between or below the orange slices to help them stay in place.
- Place smaller bowl inside and continue to arrange orange slices, cranberries and rosemary in gap between the bowls – a wooden skewer or chopstick will help poke them down.
- Completely fill smaller bowl with ice cubes to help weigh it down. Using a jug, slowly pour cold water between bowls until level is 1cm from the top. Carefully transfer to freezer overnight (or longer) until frozen solid.
- When ready to use, take out of freezer and stand on bench for 10-15 minutes to thaw or until the inside of the bowl lifts away easily. Invert large bowl onto a tea towel to remove ice bowl – it may take a few minutes to fall out. Return ice bowl to freezer until ready to use (you can freeze it for a week or two).
TO MAKE CHRISTMAS PUDDING ICE CREAM
- Leave tub of ice cream on bench to thaw and soften for about 10 minutes (but do not let it thaw completely). Break up Christmas pudding with a fork and drizzle with brandy.
- Scoop ice cream into a large mixing bowl and work it with a wooden spoon to soften a little, then roughly mix in the Christmas pud (and any remaining brandy) and cherries, working quickly. Spoon ice cream back into container and re-freeze for at least 8 hours until firm.
- To serve, scoop balls of ice cream into bowls and garnish with a few berries if desired.