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Frozen Plum Pudding
2 cups milk 1 cup sugar Yolks 6 eggs 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup sherry 2 1/2 cups cream 3/4 cup candied fruit 1/2 cup almonds, blanched and chopped 1/3 cup Sultana raisins 1/2 cup pounded macaroons Make custard of milk, one-half the sugar, egg yolks, and salt. Caramelize the remaining sugar and add. Strain, cool, add remaining ingredients, freeze, and mould. If a baked ice cream is desired, use whites of eggs for meringue, Baked Alaska.
This is a moulded custard ice cream in the Victorian style, flavoured with caramel and sherry and studded with the fruit-and-nut mixture that gives it the "plum pudding" name. The work is in the custard and the moulding, not the mixing.
- The custard is the hingeCook the milk, half the sugar, yolks and salt over gentle heat or a water bath until it coats a spoon, about 175-180F. Past that the yolks scramble; the strainer called for will catch a few flecks but not a broken custard.
- Caramelizing the second half of the sugarMelt the remaining 1/2 cup sugar dry in a heavy pan until it is deep amber, then stir it into the hot custard. It will hiss and seize; keep stirring over low heat until dissolved. Add it hot, not set, or you will be picking out shards.
- Cream and freezingThe 2 1/2 cups cream go in cold and unwhipped. In a modern ice cream machine, chill the strained custard thoroughly first, churn until thick, then fold in fruit, nuts and macaroons before packing into the mould.
- Moulding without an ice-and-salt freezerThe original would have relied on a packed churn and a metal mould buried in ice and rock salt. Line a metal mould or loaf pan of at least two quarts with plastic wrap, press the churned mixture in firmly to avoid air pockets, and freeze solid, four hours or more. Unmould by dipping the outside briefly in warm water.
- MacaroonsThese are the dry almond macaroons of the period, closest to Italian amaretti, not the coconut kind. Pound or pulse them to coarse crumbs; they soften into the pudding and thicken it slightly.
- Sultana raisinsGolden raisins. Soak them in a little of the sherry for half an hour so they do not freeze into hard pellets.
- Sherry and textureThe quarter cup of sherry adds only a little alcohol relative to the volume, so its effect on the freezing point is slight; the sugar is what keeps this softer than a lean ice cream. There is no reason to increase it.
- The Baked Alaska noteThe closing line points to a separate meringue recipe elsewhere in the book, using the six whites left from the yolks. This text gives no oven temperature or method; a meringue-covered frozen mould is normally browned quickly in a very hot oven.
- YieldClose to two quarts, serving ten to twelve as a moulded dessert.