Christ is born!

[kerravonsen]

Well, to be precise, he was born, and we are celebrating the annual reminder of his birth. I do not say "anniversary", since Christ's "birthday" is as about as accurate as the Queen's Birthday in denoting when said person was actually born. Because, let's face it, the shepherds would not be in the fields at night when it was winter time. So Jesus was probably born in April or something like that.

Doubly confusing, of course, is being in the Southern Hemisphere when this hybrid festival was conceived of as a winter-solstice sort of thing, though why it isn't on the actual solstice I can only surmise occurred through calendar drift or the like.

The forecast top for today is 31C. But there is Christmas Pudding Ice Cream in my freezer. Which will be eaten instead of brandy-blazing Christmas Pudding. There's brandy in the ice cream, anyway. I'm very proud of my Christmas Pudding Ice Cream, since I invented the recipe. It really does taste like Christmas Pudding in ice cream form. 8-)

Comments

[vilakins]

Yum! I'm planning to get a food processor as so many recipes use one, though I haven't figured out storage.

BTW have you considered rice malt syrup for your sweetener (though you use the dried fruit for that in this case)? I just found out about it; there's no fructose and it can easily be substituted for sugar so I'm going to check out Huckleberry Farms for it.

[kerravonsen]

Yum! I'm planning to get a food processor as so many recipes use one, though I haven't figured out storage.

I suggest a stick-blender or Bamix rather than a food-processor. Firstly, it takes up less space; secondly, it is much easier to clean; and thirdly, it is more versatile, since one can do things like puree soup without having to remove it from the pot, or make smoothies in the container you're going to drink it from, etc.

Mind you, in regard to smoothies... I broke at least two stick-blenders on frozen fruit (the best smoothies are made from chopped up fruit which one then puts in the freezer and takes out later after they are frozen). So I finally ended up getting an actual Bamix stick-blender, even though it was expensive, because it was more robust. And I've had the same Bamix for years and years now. So that was worth it in the end.

BTW have you considered rice malt syrup for your sweetener (though you use the dried fruit for that in this case)? I just found out about it; there's no fructose and it can easily be substituted for sugar so I'm going to check out Huckleberry Farms for it.

I played around with rice malt syrup a few years ago, just because I was curious, not actually because it was supposed to be more healthy.
I'm not sure that it's relevant to this, though, because (a) Christmas Pudding Ice Cream isn't meant to be healthy (I mean, it's got alcohol in it!), and (b) because I use sugar-substitutes which are extremely low-calorie, not because I'm trying to avoid fructose or have more complex carbohydrates, but just because it is a relatively easy way to reduce my calorie intake. I mean, it's completely hopeless for me to actually lose weight, but at least I have minor ways that do succeed in reducing the rate of my weight increase.

[vilakins]

I have a stick blender, but I doubt it could mix up dough like a food processor. I mainly want one to cut the work out of making some of the healthy recipes I've been researching.

I broke an ordinary blender a while back with chickpeas I hadn't soaked enough. Since then I've bought tinned.

True, and hey, I'm eating stuff I shouldn't be because I'm on holiday, but I remember your experimenting with different sweeteners in the past and wondered if you'd tried that since it's meant to be syrupy and therefore might be helpful for texture. But I've never made ice cream unless you count softening vanilla and adding ingredients then refreezing.