Friday Food - Cassata

My Oma used to make 'Cassata' for Christmas when I was a child. I remember it being a big deal, but then having Christmas at Oma's was a big deal. It meant a 10 hour drive and staying at grandparent's or cousin's houses. The days were spent visiting people, playing in lots of different back yards and kissing lots of prickly cheeks. They were halcyon days... 

Anyway... back to cooking....

Cassata an Italian treat which is essentially ice-cream that has been jazzed up. The great thing about cassata is that you can make it ahead of time. This means you can be super organised and enjoy your Christmas event {or any other occasion} more, knowing that you can pull out a fancy dessert from the freezer.

I made two for my family's Christmas do a few weeks ago {we celebrated Sinte Klaas (Dutch Christmas) on the 5th of December} and it was delicious. So, here are the two different Cassatas I made...

Cassata 

Prep Time: 10 minutes {plus defrosting time}
Cooking Time: There is none! 
Serves: approx 20


Ingredients:

Christmassy Cassata
2L of vanilla ice-cream
1/2 jar of fruit mince
1 cup of toasted shredded coconut
100g of dark chocolate chopped

Raspberry & Marshmallow Cassata
2L of vanilla ice-cream
150g frozen raspberries
1/2 packet of mini marshmallows 
{from the baking section of the supermarket, not the lolly section}


Method

1. Take the ice-cream out of the freezer and allow to thaw slightly. This is can take up to 45 minutes depending on the weather. You don't want to defrost this so much that it is liquid, you just want it soft enough that so that you can mix your extras through it. 
2. Prepare your fillings, for the Christmassy Cassata, toast the coconut in a heavy based pan over a low heat, as soon as the coconut gets a bit of colour, take it off the stove. Put the coconut into a bowl, it will continue to toast {aka burn} if left in the pan.  Chop the chocolate {avoid eating too much of it}.
3. When the ice-cream is soft, tip it into a large bowl, add your fillings and fold them through with a large metal spoon. Try not to stir so much that you end up with a thick shake consistency. You want to maintain as much of the coldness of the ice-cream as you can. If you are using raspberries, don't thaw them first, just mix them through frozen and get the ice-cream back into the freezer asap.
4. Spread the ice-cream into a wet ice-cream mould {a Tupperware Jel-Ring would be super cool}, or the original container and pop back into the freezer.
5. The cassata should be ready to use the next day. To serve you can press the cassata out of the mould or use a scoop to make ice-cream balls.

Serving Suggestions

• I served these two cassatas with chocolate brownies
• These would be delicious with Christmas pudding
• Serve in cones for a late Christmas afternoon treat

Variations

Oh, the things you add to this! Here are some ideas....

• White chocolate and raspberries
• Toasted coconut and white chocolate
• Finely chopped dark chocolate, chopped marshmallows and chopped up raspberry jubes {like rocky road!}
• Chopped jersey caramels, macadamias, grated chocolate
• Oreo biscuits
• Finely chopped gingernut biscuits and chocolate chunks
• Chopped maltesers and macadamias

I am going to stop now... all this thinking is making me hungry!