Made with Christmas Pudding, this delicious Christmas Pudding and Brandy Sauce Ice Cream is a great way of using up any left overs you may have this festive season.
One of my favourite desserts over the festive season has to be the traditional Christmas pudding. Packed full of fruit, spice and perhaps a hint of alcohol, it's just so deliciously warm and comforting when served with a lovely brandy sauce. It's just like a great big hug in a bowl.
Following a large Christmas dinner with all of the trimmings, you may find, if your household is anything like ours, that a substantial amount of the pudding hasn't been eaten! Perhaps your guests only fancied a small portion after a large roast, or they preferred one of the other desserts on offer.
So what to do with the remains of the fruit-packed pudding and brandy sauce. Yes, you can cover it over and squeeze it into the fridge to eat the following day, but alternatively why not quickly rustle up an ice cream with it?
Enter the Christmas Pudding and Brandy Sauce Ice Cream! It really is good. The flavour and the warmth of the brandy sauce comes through a treat, and when you encounter a chunk of the Christmas pudding there's even more joy to tickle the taste buds!
In fact, it's so good you might want to make it from scratch rather than by combining leftovers and even serve it on the big day itself. I sometimes buy or make a mini pud to use so I can do that.
The recipe below goes through the making of the brandy sauce from scratch and then the freezing of it with the crumbled Christmas pudding added to it. However, should you decide to try this rich ice cream dessert with your left-overs, then simply follow steps 1, 4 and 5.
Clearly, when making a brandy sauce, you're able to add as much brandy as you fancy. However, when you intend to freeze the sauce to make a dessert it's advisable to be mindful of the amount of brandy you're adding as the alcohol itself will affect the freezing point of the dessert.
Too much and the dessert won't freeze. Too little and you're unlikely to taste it! And where's the pleasure in that? I found that 4 spoonfuls was plenty and once it was made into an ice cream the brandy flavour was still very much in evidence.
I was pleasantly surprised at that, thinking that being a cold dessert the flavours would be muted, but they weren't. All of my tasters had no trouble picking out the brandy. I found this site useful when reading about the action of different alcohols in ice cream.
It's a great way to create an extra dessert from the Christmas meal! I've not tried shop-bought brandy sauce in this dessert, though it should work just as well.
Ingredients
See recipe card for full instructions and quantities.
- Cornflour - (US = cornstarch) to thicken the sauce
- Milk - Whole milk is best
- Caster sugar - I use golden caster sugar for most of my baking. It's the same as normal caster sugar, but it's unrefined, It is a little more flavoursome with light caramel tones.
- Brandy - Gives the sauce its flavour a warming kick. Buy a miniature bottle if you don't have any in your cupboard.
- Butter - salted or unsalted is fine for this recipe use whichever you have
- Double cream - (US = heavy cream)
- Christmas Pudding - leftovers or buy a mini Christmas pudding in which case you do not need to cook first.
Variations
- Change the alcohol- Replace the bandy with a different alcohol, rum. whisky, amaretto, irish cream or an orange-flavoured liqueur would all work well.
- Dairy Free - Use plant based milk and cream.
- No Christmas pudding! - crumble in some rich fruit cake instead. (without the icing or marzipan)
- Booze Free -Leave out the alcohol altogether and add 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
How to make Christmas pudding and brandy sauce ice cream step by step
Step 1
form a paste with cornflour and a little milk. Pour the remaining milk into a pan and add the sugar. Then whisk in cornflour mixture.
Step 2
Bring to the boil over a medium heat, whisking constantly, and cook until the sauce thickens.
Step 3
Whisk in the butter, brandy and cream. Cover, cool and chill until very cold.
Step 4
Pour the sauce into an ice cream maker and churn until almost frozen.
Step 5
Add the Christmas pudding and mix well.
Step 6
Spoon into a freezer container and freeze for at least 2 hours or until required.
Top Tip
Adding the cornflour to the milk at the beginning avoids the need to heat the milk separately and then temper the cornflour mixture before returning to the pan, but it does mean that it is important that you stir constantly to avoid lumps.
Pay attention to the bottom and the sides of the pan to ensure it doesn't burn.
I don't have an ice cream maker can I still make this recipe?
Yes, you can it is just a little more labour-intensive. Pour the sauce into a shallow freezer-safe container. Freeze for an hour. Remove from the freezer and beat with electric beaters or break up the ice crystals with a fork. Repeat this hourly freezing and beating process until the sauce is at the semi-frozen stage then add the Christmas pudding and freeze for another couple of hours.
Metal containers such as a loaf tin or roasting tin will conduct the cold faster and also help to speed up the time it takes to freeze.
How to serve
Remove the ice cream from the freezer and place in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before serving to allow it to soften sufficiently to scoop.
Storage /Leftovers
All homemade ice creams are best eaten as fresh as possible as they do not contain the preservatives or stabilisers that commercially made ice creams have.
For the best flavour consume within two weeks and do not store longer than two months.
If you are not serving straight away transfer to a freezer container that is the correct size for the volume of ice cream you have and has a tight-fitting lid.
If your ice cream does not fill the container because you don't have the correct size or because you have already consumed some, cover the surface of the ice cream with cling wrap or press down some baking parchment onto the surface to exclude air and prevent ice crystals forming on the surface.
Pin for Later
📖 Recipe
Christmas Pudding and Brandy Sauce Ice Cream
Equipment
- small bowl
- balloon whisk
- saucepan
- baking parchment or cling film
- Ice cream maker
- spatula
- Plastic Freezer-safe container with lid (about 1litre capacity)
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons cornflour level
- 300 ml (½pt) whole milk
- 75 g (3oz) caster sugar
- 4 tablespoons brandy
- 300 ml (½pt) double cream heavy cream
- 25 g (1oz) butter
- 125 g (4oz) cooked Christmas Pudding cold
Instructions
- Prepare your ice cream maker. Depending upon the type of ice cream maker you have, you may need to place the inner drum of the machine into the freezer the day before the ice cream is required. Follow your manufacturer's instructions.
- Place 3 tablespoons of cornflour in a small bowl and whisk in a little of the 300ml milk to form a smooth paste. Pour the remaining milk into a saucepan and add 75g sugar. Then whisk in the cornflour mixture.
- Bring slowly to the boil, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in 25g butter until melted. Then add 300ml cream and 3 tablespoons of brandy. Pour the sauce into a jug or bowl and cover the sauce with a sheet of dampened baking parchment or cling film. Once cool enough place into the fridge to chill completely.
- Once the brandy sauce is cold, set up your ice cream maker. Turn the machine on and pour the sauce in. Churn the ice cream until it reaches a soft semi-frozen stage, the time duration for this will depend on each machine but as a guide ours took about 18 - 20 minutes.
- Using a spatula tip the ice cream into a plastic freezer safe container. Crumble 125g Christmas pudding into the brandy sauce and mix gently. Replace the lid and freeze the ice cream for about 2 -3 hours to firm up. If the ice cream has been frozen for longer than this you may need to remove the ice cream container from the freezer for 5 - 10 minutes to soften a little before scooping and serving.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Did you make this recipe? I would love to know what you think, so please rate and leave a comment to let me know.
Kirsten Burrows says
OMG... YUM! This looks like all sorts of deliciousness and I swear, I can almost taste it... YUM!
Angela - Only Crumbs Remain says
Ah, I've not spotted that in Aldi yet. It certainly does help to extend the festive season, and saves potentially wasting it too 🙂
Thanks for popping by and of course for hosting,
Angela x
Angela - Only Crumbs Remain says
Indeed, it's so easy to wrap it up and pop it into the fridge only to forget about it and then throw it away.
Thanks for popping by and commenting Charlotte,
Angela x
Honest mum says
Oh wow! So delicious! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Angela - Only Crumbs Remain says
Thank you Vicki 🙂
Angela x
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
Oh yes please!! I will have a huge tub of that please!! It sounds simply perfect, thank you for sharing and tempting me x #CookBlogShare
Angela - Only Crumbs Remain says
Hahaha, thank you Kirsty x Thanks for hosting,
Angela x
Angela - Only Crumbs Remain says
Thank you Eb, it really was delicious. It is a little different to regular icecream in that it is far richer and a little heavier but it's still certainly worth doing. I hope you enjoy it Eb if you give it a whirl,
Thanks for popping by and commenting,
Angela x
Lucy Allen says
Definitely bookmarking this for after Christmas! Love the sound of this ice cream x