Starting early ...

We had an early Christmas dinner with our NQ family last night as we're all heading in different directions for the big day.
I made a yummy dessert from a recipe in this month's Australian Country Style magazine.
It's so simple and scrumptious I had to share it here.

500 grams of Christmas pudding
I kg vanilla ice cream
pinch of allspice
400 ml pure cream
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
100 g butter, chopped

Grease 25 x 10 x 8 cm deep baking pan (mine wasn't exactly that size) and line with plastic wrap. Crumble Christmas pudding into coffee bean size lumps, either by hand or with food processor. Place ice cream in a large bowl. Mix in pudding and spice by hand (latex gloves are recommended as protection against the cold). Spoon mixture into prepared baking pan. Cover and place in freezer for at least 30 mins, or until firm.

Meanwhile stir cream, sugar and butter in a heavy based saucepan over medium low heat until sugar has dissolved and mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer until a smooth caramel sauce forms.

Turn ice cream pudding out onto a chopping board. Remove plastic wrap and place slices of pudding on serving plates . Spoon warm caramel sauce.

Yummo!!!

Oh, and here's a pic of a little person helping me to decorate our nostalgic piece of  Christmas  kitsch -- a lolly tree that used to belong to my grandmother.
Now back to packing.