Christingle Christmas ice cream

 

Feeling all Christmassy today, I have been to the local church where my son’s school held their Christingle  service. This year it was his last one, as in next year he will move up to senior school. The service was magical, the small church was packed to the brim and thankfully I managed to get a pew, as I went early!  We sang my favourite hymns, ‘Come and join the  celebration’ and ‘Away in a Manger’. There is such a sense of peace in that small church, I really enjoyed the service. At the end, after the children had sang lots of Christmas carols, the vicar dimmed the lights and they all held a orange with a lit candle and sang ‘ Away in a Manger’. As usual there wasn’t a dry eye in the church!!!        

I only have one  and half days left at work, before I am on my holidays for two weeks,Yay!! So I am on countdown now. I have just found this Ice cream recipe: 

 

Christmas Ice Cream140g (5oz) raisins
100g (4oz) sultanas
225g (8oz) glace cherries roughly chopped
4 tablespoons brandy (I used sherry- no brandy)
100g (4oz)whole blanched almonds roughly chopped
1×200g packet marshmallows
250ml (1/2 pint) semi skimmed milk
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
500ml (1 pint) double cream1. Mix all the fruit together in a large bowl, pour over the brandy and soak for 2-3 hours, mix in the almonds.2. Melt the marshallows, milk, cocoa powder and instant coffee granules over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, leave to cool.3. Pour the cooled mixture over the mixed fruit and stir thoroughly. Freeze for about 2 hours until it begins to harden around the edges, then whisk well.4. Whip the double cream with an electric or hand whisk and fold into the semi-frozen mixture. Pour the mixture into a 1.75 litre (3 pint) bowl and freeze overnight until hard.5. To serve, remove from the freezer and dip the bowl into a basin of hot water, making sure that the ice cream does not melt too much. Turn out onto a serving plate, then decorate with glace cherries and holly dusted with icing sugar.ENJOY ! Serves at least 10