In this recipe series, we bring you recipes by Julia Toon, culinary motivator and author of the book ‘Good Eating: A Taste of Qatar’. New recipes every week, 
straight from Jules of the Kitchen.
Yuletide Ice Cream Bombe
I love this recipe. Its one of those wonderful ‘go to the freezer’ recipes which can be made quickly, frozen and kept for a sepcial occasion during the festive season. My thoughts also are as the main ingredients of this recipe are what we term ‘festive’ (dried fruit mincemeat and nuts) why not serve this bombe as an alternative to the traditional Festive Figgy Pudding. I bet it becomes a family favourite.
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: minimum 4 hours or overnight
Ice cream bombe
1 litre good quality vanilla ice cream – commercially prepared
2 tbsp Mincemeat (sweet) – commercially prepared or homemade
125g sweet mixed nuts – finely chopped
Burnt sugar caramel shapes
200g granulated sugar
Method
Make ice cream bombe
Remove ice cream from freezer and allow to soften slightly before turning out into a large mixing bowl. Add sweet mincemeat and chopped nuts. Gently fold together.
Pour into a clean 1 litre plastic pudding container. Cover and re-freeze.
Make burnt sugar caramel shapes
Line a baking sheet with a silicon mat or non stick paper.
Melt the sugar in a small pan, stirring until it has completely melted and turned a deep caramel color. Allow to cool slightly, then begin to pull your sugar decoration shapes.
Decoration shapes
Dome
With the back of a ladle coated in a bit of vegetable oil, drizzle the caramel over the baking sheet, creating any shape you like. Trim any excess pieces and allow to cool before carefully removing.
Circles
For a sugar disc, drizzle the caramel in a circular motion over the baking sheet, and allow to cool completely.
Twists
For the spiral/twist, make sure the caramel is slightly cooler and holding its shape. Twirl the sugar around a steel knife-sharpening blade to create tight spiral effect.
To serve
Allow ice cream bombe to thaw slightly before turning out. Place on serving dish and decorate with caramelised sugar shapes.
Jules’ tips: This is such an easy dessert to make however; the tricky part is turning it out without it melting too much. My advice is to warm the container slightly with a warm towel or hands and once it looks like it is moving quickly turn out. If the bombe does melt too much, don’t panic; remove the excess and quickly refreeze still on its serving platter until firm to the touch. It
Contributed by: Julia Toon, Jules of the Kitchen
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