White Chocolate Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 50g dried cranberries
• 50g glacé cherries – left whole
• 50g sultanas
• 50g dried pear – chopped
• 2 tablespoons of dark rum
• 1 heaped tablespoon of light-brown muscovado sugar
• 300ml double cream
• 1 cinnamon stick
• A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 ball of preserved stem ginger – chopped
• 1 small star anise
• Grated zest of 1 small orange
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 50g light brown muscovado sugar
• 100g white chocolate drops

Method

You’ll need a 1 litre plastic container that fits into your freezer, or an ice cream machine.

1. Mix the dried fruit together in a bowl with the rum and sugar. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
2. To make the ice cream, pour the cream into a large saucepan and add the cinnamon sticks, grated nutmeg, whole cloves, stem ginger, star anise and orange zest. Bring up to the boil and then turn the heat off and leave to steep for 10 minutes.
3. In the meantime beat the vanilla extract, egg yolks, cornflour and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
4. Remove the cinnamon stick, cloves and star anise from the cream and then pour over the egg yolk mixture. Whisk well. Clean your saucepan and then pour the egg and cream mixture back into it. Put it back over a gentle heat, and cook for 5-10 minutes until it thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon (do not boil), and then stir in the white chocolate drops until they have melted.
5. Pour into your plastic container and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
6. Now mix the fruit into the cream mixture. Place the container into your freezer and leave to freeze for 1 hour. Remove, and with a fork bring the frozen edges of the ice cream into the middle and whisk it to break up any ice crystals. Just be careful not to be too vigorous as you don’t want to break the fruit up.
7. Return to the freezer. Over the next couple of hours, keep checking and whisking every thirty minutes. After three hours or so, you’ll have beautiful ice cream!
8. If you have an ice cream machine then follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Use an ice cream scoop to serve into individual bowls