Christmas pudding ice cream

This Christmas pudding ice cream is a great way to use up leftover Christmas pudding, plus it's well suited to warmer climates to still get in the festive spirit. Easy to make and packed with fruit and warm spice flavors, it's worth finding an excuse to enjoy.

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Growing up in the UK, our Christmas dinner was always pretty much the same. We might vary the start, though we generally had some light seafood dish, but the main was always turkey with cranberry sauce and various stuffings, potatoes, Brussels sprouts and more on the side. My mum might experiment with different stuffings, but that was about it. Our plates would be pretty laden but we always found a little space for dessert: Christmas pudding.

If you're not familiar with it, Christmas pudding is a steamed dessert packed with sweet, soaked dried fruit. I know not everyone is a fan, either because of all the fruit or finding it generally a bit heavy. And I get it. My lighter Christmas pudding evolved from the version my mum made, which drew on a few different recipes as being a little less dense, and it's definitely my preference.

That said, it's hard to make a small pudding so leftovers are common. And eating it for a few days can get a bit much. I've previously shared some Christmas pudding muffins that are a great solution to enjoy it in a different form, but more ideas are always good. This ice cream with leftover Christmas pudding mixed through is a delicious one that I highly recommend.

This festive ice cream is also great if you generally like the flavors of Christmas pudding but live somewhere with a warmer climate at Christmas time. The mix of festive flavors but in a cooling dessert are just the thing. Plus, it's easy to make too.

Making Christmas pudding ice cream

You have broadly two options for this - start with a vanilla ice cream or make your own base. I have gone with making the base, as while yes there's a little bit of work, it's still easy.

The base is essentially a no churn ice cream base as I've used for other no churn ice creams, like my cherry ice cream and nectarine ice cream. It relies on the trick of whipping cream to get air into the base, and adding the sweetness with condensed milk which helps avoid ice crystals forming.

Here, instead of mixing in fruit or similar purees to add flavor, you fold in crumbled Christmas pudding. I have used my homemade pudding, but a store bought one will work just as well. If you can't find Christmas pudding, mincemeat would be a good alternative. It won't have the cakey crumbs, but it will have the plenty fruit and warm spice flavor.

Mix the pudding in with the sweetened condensed milk so you get all those warm spice flavors and chunks of fruit and cakiness mixed through before you fold into the cream. That way, you don't knock out too much of the air.

Once everything is mixed, freeze until it firms up. Then scoop away and enjoy!

Serving ideas

This ice cream makes a great dessert or snack just as it is, but you could also serve it alongside other desserts, too. Try it with apple pie, for example, or with some gingerbread (either cookies or the cake style). You could also use it with something like crepes, for example.

To serve it as a dessert by itself, if you freeze it in a round bowl, especially if you line it with cling wrap/film, you can turn it out as a whole block (as above). Then you can drizzle over chocolate combined with coconut oil to make a kind of magic shell drizzle to be more of a feature dessert (and looking a bit like a pudding, too - see picture further up).

Christmas pudding ice cream is an easy, tasty way to use up leftover Christmas pudding, and is a great way to enjoy those festive flavors in a way that works well in warmer weather. Just a few minutes effort then enjoy the creamy, spice and fruit laden scoop when the mood suits.

Try these other festive desserts:

• Panettone tiramisu (another great way to use leftovers, that's a lovely mix of flavors)
• German stollen (a tasty sweet bread studded with fruit, dusted with sugar and filled with marzipan)
• Marron glacé, candied chestnuts (they take a little while to make but it's only a little work at a time, and the result is so tasty)
• Plus get more Christmas recipes and dessert recipes in the archives.

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