Christmas Ice Cream

Mix all the flavouring ingredients together about 4-5 hours before you need to add them to the ice cream. Stir occasionally during this time. Put the sugars and the egg yolks in a bowl and beat hard until they go creamy coloured and are completely combined. Heat the chestnut puree with the single cream until almost boiling, then pour slowly into the egg mix, beating hard all the time. Put the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and stir until the mixture starts to thicken. Allow to cool. Lightly whip the double cream, and fold into the cooled mix. Add to the ice-cream machine [see notes] and churn until almost set. Add the flavouring ingredients and continue churning until done. Store in freezer till needed. Remove from freezer to fridge about 30 - 45 minutes before serving. Notes. Use the real candied peel chopped up yourself - you can find it in Italian delis. Avoid the stuff sold in gooey syrup - it has little flavour. PX (Pedro Ximenez) sherry is made from raisins. It is intensely sweet and tastes of raisins. It is added to naturally dry sherries to sweeten them for sale, but can also be bought as a liqueur wine. If unavailable, replace with a sweetened Madeira. Muscovado sugar is a brown, unrefined sugar and can be replaced by any similar product. However, some "soft brown" sugars are made by adding molasses to refined sugar. If you have to use such a product, increase the amount to 100gm., decreasing the amount of refined sugar proportionately. If you are making your own chestnut puree, you will need about 350gm. chestnuts. Peel them and boil in a little water till they reduce to a puree. Cool and sieve (easier said than done!). Alternatively use canned unsweetened puree, but you may still have to sieve it if it has lumps in. If you don't have an ice-cream machine, just shove the whole lot into the freezer. Get it out and beat hard as it starts to freeze round the sides. Do this a couple of times. Add the flavouring at the second beating.