It always surprises me with these recipes of Mum’s, I think that a dish is new and modern and then I find a handwritten or printed recipe from years back. While Italians have been eating crostoli for generations when Mum cut this recipe out back in 1994 it must have seemed quite new to her.
The wholemeal flour in this fruit cake means that this isn’t at a traditional Fruit Cake, but it has heap of flavour and is nice and quick to make.
The combination of a crisp, crunchy brandy snap basket, fruit mince and ice cream makes this a winner. Especially as you buy the ingredients and just assemble it – a nice and easy Christmas treat.
Christmas Mincemeat doesn’t have meat it and Plum Puddings don’t have plums in them – makes you wonder how these dishes got their names, doesn’t it. This year I’ve decided not to make a large Christmas Pudding I think I’ll make individual puddings instead. This old recipe uses sago, you can substitute tapioca if you need to.
I’ve always wondered why this is called Mincemeat when it obviously doesn’t have any meat in it, but as you can see from this very old recipe it’s been called that for a long time. Mum used to make a batch each Christmas for her fruit mince pies and while buying them from the supermarket is not a lot easier now, they somehow don’t have the same flavor.
The easy way to make a Frozen Christmas Pudding is just to soak fruit in brandy and stir it through softened bought ice cream and then re-freeze it. While this recipe does use bought ice cream it takes the frozen pudding concept a bit further by separating the three colors in neopolitan ice cream adding cake and Marsala soaked fruit which turns it into a Cassata Christmas Pudding. Now I’ve found it in Mum’s collection I’m thinking of making it myself this Christmas.
This is another version of a Frozen Christmas Pudding. With this one you add the melted chocolate to the mix instead of coating the pudding with chocolate and so end up with chocolate ice cream. That sounds good as does the idea of serving it in brandy baskets.
Although Mum always made a hot Christmas Pudding I found this recipe for a frozen pudding in her collection and while it’s similar to my version it has some different ingredients and I’m sure would taste great.
While Mum always made a traditional hot Christmas Pudding I started making frozen ones back in the eighties. This is the first one I made and I still think it’s a great recipe as it shows clearly how to line the bowl and successfully cover the pudding with chocolate.
These Chicken Nuggets might take a bit more effort to make, but I’m pretty sure that they’d have a lot more flavour than the bought ones. They be could for the kids, but you could also make smaller ones to serve as finger food at a party.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 