MINCE PIE ICE CREAM

MINCE PIE ICE CREAM

300ml double cream
4 shop-bought quality mince pies (or home made if you have plenty)
500g Ambrosia Devon Custard (Tetra Pak), refrigerated until cold

Heat the oven to 140C/275F/Gas Mark 1. Firstly, in a medium-sized bowl, whip the double cream until it reaches the floppy stage, but isn’t too thick. Pop it into the fridge to chill.

Place the mince pies on a baking tray and put them in the oven for 10 minutes to freshen then leave them to go completely cold. Now chop the cooled mince pies fairly finely by hand (its not really worth putting them in a food processor) then in a medium sized bowl mix them with the cold custard before folding in the whipped cream.

Now pour the mixture into a pre-frozen ice-cream maker and freeze-churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions (you may have to do this in two batches, and it will take between 30 mins and an hour depending on the capacity of your machine). When the ice cream is soft-set, transfer it to a plastic box and freeze for 2 hours before you serve. If the ice cream is made well in advance and has frozen solid, remove from the freezer for 30 minutes before serving, to soften.

If you don’t have an ice-cream maker you can still make ice-cream. After you have made up your mixture, transfer it to a lidded plastic box and put it in the coldest part of the freezer for 2 hours, or until the contents become firm at the edges. At this stage, empty out the box into a mixing bowl and whisk the ice cream with an electric hand whisk to break down the ice crystals. Return to the plastic box and freeze for another 2 hours, then repeat the whisking process. Refreeze the ice cream until 30 minutes before you want to serve it.