Dessert is done (finally)

I've finally managed to make  Christmas day dessert. My attempts to do this yesterday were hampered by my over enthusiastic cleaning of the cupboards which apparently led me to throw the flaxseed out. Try not to do this at home,  flaxseed is not only ridiculously hard to find when you want it,  it's also quite expensive. 

Having restocked I eventually got started. I made double quantities of the below vegan pastry recipe as I need some for tomorrow's dessert. I played around with the previous vegan recipe that used.  I swapped out the coconut oil for soya margarine and the agave syrup for sugar. I found the oil too heavy and although everyone raves about agave, I'm never convinced on the aftertaste. 

1.5 cups of gluten free flour
.5 cup of ground almond
6 tbsp soya margarine
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
.5 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp ground flaxseed

I threw all the ingredients in my new toy (isn't it pretty,  it was a wedding  gift from my incredibly kind Aunt and Uncle) except for the flaxseed.

Once everything was mixing, I took the flaxseed and mixed it in a separate bowel with 4 tbsp water.  I then added this to the rest of the pastry. As it was a bit too sticky I threw in another half cup of gluten free flour.

When combined I cut the dough into six pieces and squidged into the tart cases.

These sat in the fridge for half an hour before being blind baked for ten minutes at 160C.

After they had cooled I filled them with my little sister's homemade mincemeat, made with vegetarian suet, so suitable for all the allergies. I then decorated with vegan marzipan and baked for another 15 minutes.  I'm actually quite pleased with them. And because my sister did the hard work it was relatively simple in the end,  which gave me time to make BBQ sauce, braised red cabbage and duck stock for the gravy at the same time.

Vegan Christmas Ice Cream

My lovely Mother in Law is allergic to dairy and eggs as well as wheat, gluten and yeast (as well as many other things including chocolate) so when it comes to dessert, vegan is a good place to start.

I've already made Christmas Pudding Ice Cream for the people without allergies and I really wanted to make her something equivalent to that. So here's my first go at vegan ice cream. It was dead simple and is super tasty.

Make sure you freeze the ice cream machine 24 hours beforehand

1x Can of full fat coconut milk
1 cup almond milk
3x tbsp sugar
1x tsp salt
1x tsp vanilla paste
3x tbsp brandy
Zest of one orange

Take the coconut milk and open the can, take out the cream and discard the coconut water. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat with an electric whisk until frothy.  Pour into the icecream machine and churn for 30 minutes. Decant and pop in the freezer.

Seriously,  it's that easy, it's super tasty and it is so Chrismassy.

Fingers crossed my Mother in Law likes it as much as we did. 

Cheat's Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by Christmas this year.  Work is completely mental, we got back from India (amazing honeymoon)  at the end of November and I have all my lovely  in laws coming to stay. Loads of cooking to do and loads of food allergies in the house to cater for, so there'll be lots interesting things to make - when I'm not panic writing thank you cards and frantically wrapping presents.

I finally got out of the starting blocks this evening with a cheat's Christmas Pudding Ice Cream.  My mother, who was staying at the weekend is making a non cheat version and talking to her about it gave me the idea to use a Christmas Pudding that one of my team gave me. This one is going to be for the people without any allergy.

I used a basic ice cream custard recipe.

284ml carton double cream
300ml full fat milk
115g golden caster sugar
3 large free-range egg yolk

And added in two tbsp of brandy. 

The milk, cream, half the sugar and brandy were heated together gently and then cooled to room temperature. 

The eggs and the rest of the sugar get beaten together until light and falling in ribbons. Beat in 125ml of the milk/cream mixture. 

Return the rest of the cream to the heat and warm through.  Remove from heat and add in the egg mixture slowly. Stir continously and return to the heat. Cook over a low heat for 8-10 minutes until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Do not allow to boil.

Remove from the heat a cool, stirring to prevent a skin forming. You're meant to put it in a bowl in another bowl of iced water. I put the pan in a sink of cold water which worked just as well.

All ice cream custard needs to be chilled throughly before churning.  So I popped it in the freezer for 30 minutes (rather than the fridge over night) but this is all about cheating today and just getting through the food prep for Christmas.

I then churned the ice cream in the ice cream maker for 30 minutes.  When that was finished I stirred it through with broken up Christmas Pudding before transferring to a tupperware and sealing.

Apparently it'll last three months in the freezer but I don't expect it to last past next week. It tasted delicious.

Up next will be a vegan icecream especially for my mother in law.