This is my last festive recipe before I take a short break from blogging for the Christmas holidays. It’s such a quick and easy recipe – quite frankly, it barely qualifies as a recipe at all – and is a great way to use up any left over Christmas pudding.

It isn’t the first time this recipe has featured on Bangers & Mash. It first appeared back in January, but those were very early days for the blog; days when I still thought I could get away with my own doodles instead of photography! But it is such a genius dessert, I think it’s well worth repeating.

I like the idea of Christmas pudding much more than the pudding itself. I love the flavours but the actual pudding is just too dense and stodgy. Mix it with ice cream and alcohol though, and hey presto! You have yourself a much lighter but equally festive dessert. You can use whatever spirit or liquer takes your fancy really. I went with a delicious apple brandy made here in my home county of Somerset. I also made an alcohol-free batch for the kids.

As this pudding features that timeless combination of booze and ice cream, I’m entering it into Kavey Eats’ Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream challenge for December, the theme of which is, of course, booze – well, what else could it be this time of year?

I’m also entering it into the No Waste Food Challenge, where the theme is Christmas Dinner leftovers. This challenge is the brainchild of Kate at Turquoise Lemons and this month is hosted by Elizabeth at Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary.

Christmas pudding ice cream

1 small Christmas pudding
2 litres good vanilla ice cream
Slug of brandy (or whatever festive liquer or spirit you have around)

Cook your pud according to the packet instructions and allow to cool. Leave the ice cream at room temperature to soften a little before adding chopped up pieces of the pudding and brandy. Mix well.

Then simply pour into your container of choice and freeze for at least a couple of hours. Enjoy!

Here’s to a merrily delicious Christmas everyone. Peace and love to you and yours.

Every year, we always find ourselves stuck with a Christmas pudding at the back of the cupboard long after the festivities have ended. It generally ends up in the bin since it’s not something we can really cope with eating at any other time of year.

I’m not sure why I bother buying one, since I’ve never been a big fan. I think it’s just one of those things you’re supposed to have. It’s always there in case one of our many visitors suddenly has an urge to consume pudding on top of everything else we’ve already fed them.

So when I saw a recipe idea in the December edition of Red magazine for Christmas pudding ice cream I had a feeling it might come in very handy. And indeed it did. It’s a much lighter dessert with a lovely hint of Christmas. You get all the festive flavour but without the dense stodginess.

I didn’t bother putting the ice cream in a bowl lined with cling film, nor turning it out before eating and decorating with walnuts and chocolate-dipped orange peel as the magazine suggested, although I’m sure this would look wonderful. Just the ice cream on its own was lovely, and one people find irresistible even if they don’t like Christmas pudding normally.

So if you’ve still got a pud lurking at the back of your cupboard, why not give this a whirl?

Ingredients

1 small Christmas pudding (or whatever you happen to have left over)
2 litres good vanilla ice cream
Slug of brandy (optional)

Cook your pud and allow to cool. Leave the ice cream at room temperature to soften a little and add the broken up pudding and brandy (if using). Mix well.

Pour into your container of choice (lined with cling film if you want to turn out for serving) and freeze for at least a couple of hours.

Decorate with nuts and fruits before presenting to your guests or, like me, simply serve on its own straight from the tub.

Tag: Christmas pudding

Christmas pudding ice cream – the perfect way to use up your leftover pud

Christmas pudding ice cream

Christmas pudding ice cream