Apple Ice-cream with Gingerbread or Hot Brandy and Orange Mincemeat Sauce

This has to be one of the best and easiest recipes for a Non-churn ice cream. I first tasted this delicately flavoured dessert at ‘The Collingwood Arms’, Cornhill, Northumberland. I loved it so much I asked Chef Shutt for the recipe. It is now one of my favourite ice- creams to make for any celebration dinner. The recipe also makes a good one and a half litres so there is always plenty to go round.

I love the heavenly combination of warm and cold in a desert so my ideal way to eat the Apple ice- cream is to serve it with warmed gingerbread and warm fudge sauce. Terribly decadent but so moreish, I defy anyone not to enjoy it.

I also served the ice-cream quite recently with a simple but tasty, Hot Brandy and Orange Mincemeat Sauce,this was made using my left over mincemeat from Christmas.

Anyway having made this ice-cream yet again I felt the recipe was just too good to keep to myself so…after checking with Chef Shutt. I decided to share the secret on my blog. I really do hope some of you give the recipe a try,it’s well worth the effort.

Non-Churn Apple Ice-Cream

Ingredients

Apple Purée 

750g Granny Smith apples

zest and juice of half lemon ( more if necessary)

150 mls water ( you may need a little more if apples are dry)

375g caster sugar

3tbsp Calvados (optional)

Ice-cream

half of a 397g can condensed milk

600ml double cream

vanilla pod or extract

Method

Core apples, skin on.

Chop roughly and add all purée ingredients to a pan and cook until the apples are soft. Blend then pass through a fine sieve. If the mixture is too runny put back in pan and reduce slightly.

Put all ice cream ingredients into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until it reaches the consistency of clotted cream.

Add the purée mixture to the basic ice cream mix, stir until incorporated

Pour into a container and freeze.

 Gingerbread

This is a very old gingerbread recipe, can’t actually remember its origin, but I have made it for years with great success. It has a rather unusual ingredient as it is made with Trex making this a very light texture; you can substitute with butter but you will get a slightly heavier cake. TREX is lower in saturated fat than butter, is dairy free & has no hydrogenated vegetable oil, e-numbers, colours or preservatives. So give it a try, it really does result in a nice tasting cake to eat on it’s own or with the ice-cream.

Ingredients

10oz SR Flour

6oz Trex

1tsp salt

6oz black treacle

1.5 tsp ginger

2tsp cinnamon

half tsp ground nutmeg

2 eggs

5 fl oz milk

3 oz raisins

8oz Demerara sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 160C (140C fan ) Gas 3

grease and line 10×8 inch baking tin

Put Trex, sugar and treacle in a large pan and heat gently to melt the Trex and partly dissolve the sugar. Tip into the bowl of an electric mixer

Beat eggs and milk together, add to the mixer bowl and beat well

Slowly beat in the flor and spices, then stir in the raisins.

Pour the mix into prepared tin and bake for approx 1 hour.

This will keep for several days wrapped in foil or in an air tight container.

Fudge Sauce

175g soft light brown sugar

125g butter

225mls double cream

Method

Put all ingredients into a saucepan heat gently stirring,until butter is melted and the sugar completely dissolved. Then boil gently over a steady heat for a good five minutes. Cool the sauce and serve warm with the ice cream and gingerbread.

Hot Brandy and Orange Mincemeat Sauce

( This recipe was taken from Seasonal Cookery, Claire McDonald of MacDonald)

Ingredients

225 g mincemeat

grated rind of 1 orange

3 tbsp Brandy

Put all ingredients into a pan, stir over a gentle heat. Don’t boil. Serve hot over the ice-cream.