Easy home made cassata ice cream with Christmas fruits, pistachio nuts and chocolate can be made with home made dairy free ice cream or your favourite store bought ice cream.
2teaspoonvanilla paste, or natural vanilla extract
½cupsugar
For the stir through ingredients:
¼cupcurrants
2tablespoonrum, or substitute orange juice for an alcohol free version
¼cuppistachios, roughly chopped
¼cupcandied peel
½cupglace cherries, roughly chopped
50ggood quality dark chocolate, (1oz) I used Whittakers Dark Ghana 72%
For the drizzle:
100ggood quality dark chocolate, (2oz)
1tablespooncoconut oil
For the garnish:
Additional cherries, pistachios and candied peel
Instructions
Start by stirring the currants and rum together in a small dish, set aside to let the currants soak up the rum.
Gently heat the ice cream ingredients together in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved and any hard lumps of coconut cream have melted. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Pour the ice cream mixture into the frozen bowl of an ice cream machine and set it to churn. Churn until it's the texture of soft serve ice cream. How long it takes will depend on your machine, mine took somewhere between 1 and 1 ½ hours.
Scrape the ice cream into a large mixing bowl, add rum soaked currants and other stir through ingredients. Fold together quickly and smoothly, until well mixed.
Scrape ice cream into a lined loaf tin, cover and freeze for at least 3-4 hours (or until firm).
When ready to serve, melt chocolate and coconut oil together until smooth. I did it in the microwave, otherwise you could do it in a saucepan over a very gentle heat, or in a glass bowl over boiling water. Let the melted chocolate cool for five minutes or so - just enough so that it's no longer hot (otherwise it'll melt the ice cream).
Carefully invert the loaf of ice cream onto a serving platter and remove the lining. You may need to briefly dip the tin into hot water to help it release.
Drizzle over the melted chocolate and garnish with extra cherries, pistachios and candied peel.
Serve immediately.
Notes
Preparation time does not include ice cream churning or chilling time.
Skip the home made ice cream making step if you prefer, instead folding the stir through ingredients through your favourite store bought ice cream and then refreezing.