Individual Summer Puddings with Cheesecake Ice Cream
This dessert is surprisingly good. When I first heard of summer puddings I thought that the combination of soggy bread and fruit sounded singularly unappealing, but I am a convert. This dessert is actually really really lovely when made with cake instead of bread, sugar instead of sweetener and a touch of framboise, but let us focus on the low fat version, which is a pretty good substitute, especially when you consider the calories you save.
1/2 cup Sweetner (I use Splenda, but the choice is yours)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Method
Bring berries, sugar, and lemon juice to a boil in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, then simmer, stirring occasionally, until berries collapse and release their juices, about 8 minutes. Spoon fruit into a sieve set over a bowl and let drain 15 minutes. Spray the insides of six small ramekin with cooking spray and pour a little of the juice from the berries around the edges of each ramekin. Cut one slice of bread into a round the size of the bottom on the ramekin and place inside. Line the edges of the ramekin with bread, overlapping slightly.
Spoon drained fruit into bread-lined bowl (reserve juices) and cover completely with remaining bread, cutting bread to fit. (you will have bread left over, discard). Pour juices evenly over bread, making sure all bread is saturated. Cover pudding directly with a piece of wax paper and place folded over piece of foil on the bottom of the ramekin and place a weight (such as a small can) on plate and chill at least 8 hours. (a word of warning, put the ramekin on a tray in your fridge, just in case of spillage).
Remove weight, plate, and foil and invert serving plate over ramekin, then invert ramekin and plate. Carefully unmold. and serve with lemon cheesecake ice cream.
Lemon Cheesecake Ice Cream
Ingredients
8 oz Light Cream Cheese 2 cups fat Free Evaporated Skim Milk ½ Cup Sweetner Zest of one Lemon 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice
Method
Put the softened cream cheese in a mixer ideally with a paddle attachment. If you are using a standard mixer you may need to mix a little longer because you want to make sure that there are no little bits of cheese in your finished mix. Add the sweetener and mix until the sweetener is dissolved. Add the lemon zest and the juice. Finally slowly add the milk. When it is all well incorporated add to your ice cream machine and process using the manufactures instructions. Ice cream makers differ pretty widely, with mine, I need to process the mix for about 45 minutes, but you will need to keep an eye on yours the first time to work out how long you need. Just bear in mind the fact that the addition of the cream cheese makes this mix fairly robust and it will probably take a little less time than standard milk based ice cream mix.
