Christmas Pudding & Brandy Butter Ice Cream
This festive frozen dessert combines leftover Christmas pudding with a creamy, homemade brandy & brown butter ice cream.
Servings: 1 Litre
Equipment
- Ice Cream Machine
- Digital Food Probe
- Stick Blender
- Large Saucepan
- Mixing Bowl
- 1 Litre Tub
- Ice Cream Scoop
Ingredients
Brandy Butter
- 75 g Unsalted Butter
- 25 g Brandy
Custard Base
- 440 g Whole Milk
- 120 g Caster Sugar
- 40 g Skimmed Milk Powder
- 30 g Glucose Syrup
- ½ Vanilla Pod (Or 1 tsp Vanilla Paste)
- ¼ tsp Sea Salt
- 75 g Egg Yolks
- 200 g Double Cream
To Finish
- 175 g Christmas Pudding (See Notes)
Instructions
Brandy Butter
- Chop the butter into small, even pieces then place into a small saucepan. Set this over a medium heat then cook, stirring regularly until the butter starts to foam, smell nutty & you can see that the milk solids in the bottom of the pan have turned golden brown.
- Once cooked, immediately transfer the brown butter into a bowl, leave to cool slightly then stir in the brandy. Set this aside for now.
Custard Base
- Place the milk, milk powder, glucose, vanilla, salt & 60 grams of the caster sugar into a large saucepan.If you're using a vanilla pod, scrape the seeds out then add both the pod & seeds into the milk.
- Whisk to combine then place the saucepan over a low heat & leave to warm gently until steaming hot (but don’t let it boil). Make sure to stir the milk regularly with a spatula.
- Whilst the milk is heating up, place the egg yolks & remaining sugar into a mixing bowl & whisk to combine.
- Once the milk is steaming hot, pour half of it into the yolks, whisking as you do so. Pour the now tempered yolks into the pan of milk.
- Cook the custard over a low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon & has reached a temperature of 82°c/180°f. A digital food probe comes in handy here!
- Once cooked, take the custard off the heat & stir in the double cream. If you've used a vanilla pod, take this out of the custard at this point.
- Next, blend the custard with a stick blender & at the same time, gradually pour in the brandy butter. Keep blending until the butter has been incorporated.Using a stick blender helps incorporate the butter into the custard. If you haven't got one, you can whisk the butter in by hand.
- Pass the custard through a sieve, into a bowl then leave to cool, stirring occasionally. Cover the custard's surface with a piece of baking parchment & refrigerate overnight.
Churning
- The next day, pour the chilled custard into an ice cream machine & churn until it is the consistency of soft serve. If you take the temperature with a digital food probe, it will register roughly -5°c/23°f.
- In the meantime, chop the Christmas pudding into 1 cm chunks then chill in the fridge until your ice cream has finished churning.
- Once the ice cream has finished churning, fold in the chunks of Christmas pudding then transfer to a 1 litre tub.
- Place the tub of ice cream into a freezer & leave to set for at least 4 hours before serving.
Notes
1. Ice Cream Machine - To churn this ice cream, you’ll need to use an ice cream machine. The machine that I use is linked in the post above.
2. Christmas Pudding - I used my Guinness Christmas pudding for this ice cream but any sort will work. Make sure that the pudding has been chilled in the fridge before using.
3. Milk & Cream - For the best texture & flavour, make sure to use double (heavy) cream & whole milk.
4. Skimmed Milk Powder - Milk powder can be found in most supermarkets. I use Marvel skimmed milk powder.
5. Glucose Syrup - Glucose syrup is used to make our ice cream easily scoopable. This is available in most supermarkets.
6. Butter - Make sure to use unsalted butter for this recipe.
7. Storage – Homemade ice cream will keep in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.