Stephanie's Test Kitchen

Treat 5-Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Treat 6-Christmas Bites

For Treats 5 & 6 it’s all about the traditional taste of Christmas with the Nuts, dried fruit and spices. These Christmas desserts are dairy free and the only sugar comes from the dried fruits, which are plenty sweet so no sweetner was required. Even the most sweetest of sweet tooths would loves these.

A fun twist on the traditional Christmas pudding and perfect for an Aussie Christmas, being that we celebrate Christmas in the middle of summer, this vegan ice cream has all the flavours and best parts of a Christmas pudding without and the dairy and gluten that can leave you feeling heavy and full after indulging.

The ice cream, both as I was making it and once it had set, reminded me of Christmas fruit cake/pudding in the way it looked and the amazing smell. It was like batter before being baked in the oven. I found that the ice cream was perfect unaccompanied has its sweet enough and with the nuts and dried fruit adding something to chew on, it has everything required for the perfect dessert.

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup curants
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 5 ripe banana (approximately 500 grams)
• 10 medjool dates, seeds removed
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon concentrated natural vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves

1. Place the coconut milk, raisins, currants, cranberries and almonds into a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 – 10 minutes.
2. Place the bananas, dates, oil, vanilla and spices into your food processor and blend at high speed until the mixture is smooth and well combined.
3. Combine the two mixtures and pour into a silicon loaf tin. Place in the freezer to set for 6 – 8 hours.

*Recipe Tested from Whole Food Simply Blog*

The Christmas balls are simply a Christmas cake in a single bite and I love them for this simplicity. They are a Favourite amongst friends and family. My boyfriend definitely has a preference for them. A part of that traditional Christmas flavour of sweet and spice is packed into these little bites and they also smell like what Christmas should smell as. These are a great treat for post dinner if you want something small but sweet and don’t want to over indulge.

When making these Christmas balls I would recommend blending the almonds first until they appear like crumbs and then adding the dates, salt, vanilla and spices. I found that blending it all together in one go, the almonds didn’t blend fine enough and were too chunky making it harder to hold the balls together.

• 1 cup almonds
• 12 medjool dates, seeds removed
• 1/2 teaspoon concentrated natural vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds
• 1/3 cup currants
• 1/3 cup raisins

1. Place all of the ingredients except for the slivered almonds, currants and raisins into your food processor and blend at high speed until the mixture resembles a fine crumb that sticks together when firmly pressed. Stir through the slivered almonds, currants and raisins.
2. Firmly press and shape the mixture into balls. Place in the fridge or freezer to set.
3. Enjoy.

Makes 10

*Recipe Tested from Whole Food Simply Blog*