Serves 8

Equipment

1. Blender
2. Freezer!

Ingredients

Method

1. ​Using a cooked Christmas pudding, poach large wedges of the pudding in about half a thumbs depth of orange juice or ginger ale (or both). Just gently simmer for 5-10 minutes – the pudding is already cooked, you are just trying to infuse it with orangey, gingery goodness. (Note this step is INSTEAD of the second steam you would usually give a pudding before eating it, i.e if you have bought a pudding in one of those plastic bowls that served as house plant pots in my childhood home, just take it straight out of the tub, slice and poach. This poaching trick also comes in useful if you haven’t got a microwave & fancy Christmas pudding without having to wait an hour while you turn your kitchen into a steam room.)
2. Add a cinnamon stick & some cloves while poaching if you want to really reinforce the Christmas punch.
3. Remove the pudding wedges with a slotted spoon and allow to cool.
4. Set any spare juice aside. You may need a little to loosen the mixture but otherwise you can reduce down to a syrup to serve with another pudding (a steamed sponge & vanilla ice cream, baked apples….). Or try mixing with some oats and milk or yoghurt to make a breakfast smoothie.
5. Break the cooled pudding wedges into small pieces (it will likely be falling this way anyway) and spread in an even layer in a freezer-proof container or freezer bag.
6. Optionally add a few orange or clementine segments.
7. Freeze for a few hours or overnight. (Just lightly chill rather than freeze solid if your blender can’t manage frozen ingredients.)
8. Lightly whip the double cream – just to soft peaks.
9. Fold in the yoghurt. Don’t be tempted by low fat yoghurt here – you need the fat content to keep the ice cream from just being ice.
10. Place in a freezer bag, seal the top then spread into a flattish thin layer (you want to be able to break it into small pieces while still frozen). Work carefully so as to keep the air in the cream (this also helps keeps the ice cream soft & smooth rather than icy and hard). Freeze for a few hours or overnight. (Again, skip the freezing if your blender can’t manage frozen ingredients.)
11. Remove the frozen pudding cubes & frozen cream/yoghurt mix and place into your food processor. You may need the give them 5-10 minutes to take the edge off them if they are frozen solid.
12. Add a few generous glugs of sweet sherry or another favourite Christmas tipple. Booze is another aid to avoiding solid ice but remember, too much strong alcohol and it will struggle to freeze.
13. This is also a good time to add a little of the saved poached syrup, just enough to get the blending started.
14. Blend until combined. (Do this in batches if necessary.) Add a little more of the leftover poaching liquid to loosen the mix if necessary. (Top tip: ‘clean’ the blender at this stage with a glass of milk – turns into a delicious bonus milk-shake.)
15. Place in a freezer-proof container and freeze until firm. (This is where you need to do the almost-freeze, mix, re-freeze routine until you have a smooth ice cream if you weren’t able to blend frozen ingredients.)
16. Enjoy with a vanilla sponge, baked apple, poached oranges, crumbled Amaretti or ginger nuts or simply with a dash more cream.