Mum often served apple pie with ice cream as a dessert and this hand written recipe of a very easy to make version was one she used a lot. It’s really quite versatile as you can use fresh fruit or frozen fruit instead of the tinned if you want to.
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.
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.
While making a pie or tart from scratch using your own home made pastry is great sometimes it’s just a lot easier and quicker to use bought pastry. This plum tart recipe uses sheets of puff pastry which are blind baked before the filling is added. Blind baking isn’t particularly hard to do, but some people find it a bit daunting. Although Mum must have blind baked quite a lot of pies in her day I like that she took the trouble with this recipe to still set out the steps needed.
This is very much one of Mum’s classic hand written recipes. Written on a page from an old notebook, with spelling errors and extra instructions added. I can see her in her kitchen hunting through the recipe drawer trying to find it and then enjoying making it – lots of memories.
This is my Mum’s alltime favorite dessert. I can remember sitting at the kitchen table tucking into a lovely bowl of it when I was a kid and I know Mum had been making it for a long time before I came onto the scene. I haven’t found her original recipe, but this is the same as the one she made.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 