10 ways with leftover Christmas desserts

Even after Christmas and Boxing Day, you may have room for dessert! Discover our clever recipes for leftover cake, stollen, panettone and Christmas pudding.

Christmas desserts aren’t exactly light on the stomach and on a day of festive feasting, the prospect of one more mince pie may be enough to make you throw in the towel. As a result, a lot of home cooks will have leftover treats for days to come. Christmas pudding and cake can often keep for several months, provided they’re sealed and stored somewhere cool. However, other items, like enriched breads, have a much shorter shelf life, so we've devised recipes for using them in tempting sweets that will help you keep the party going just a little while longer.
 

How to use... leftover Christmas pudding

Iced Christmas-pudding mousse

Rework your leftover Christmas pudding into a citrus mousse and set in the freezer in the traditional basin shape. Try serving it on New Year’s Eve if you're hosting the last festive get-together of the year. It's laced with orange liqueur and keeps for up to a month. 

Christmas pudding strudel

Throw a box of ready-made filo pastry into your Christmas shopping trolley, then use it to wrap up your pudding leftovers for a Boxing Day centrepiece. This log is best served warm from the oven with brandy butt, festive ice cream or hot custard. 

Christmas pudding ice cream

Christmas pudding freezes well and can be turned into an ice cream as easily as stirring some pieces into fresh custard (which can be homemade or shop-bought). This version has a hint of almondy amaretto and is best served with hot toffee sauce. 

Ginger & Christmas pud cheesecake with ginger sauce

Not for the faint-hearted, this pudding combines leftover chunks of Christmas pudding with Jamaican ginger cake and stem ginger. Combine with a hot caramel sauce and you've got yourself one spicy pud to wake up the tastebuds.

Leftover stollen

Put this traditional Christmas bread to good use in a good, old-fashioned baked pudding. This recipe also uses up leftover amaretti biscuits for the topping, leaving regular bread & butter pudding with a serious image problem.

Leftover panettone

Panettone pudding

Once this Italian fruit loaf is taken out of its decorative box, it goes stale quite quickly. Save it from the dustbin by soaking in a mix of eggs, cream and vanilla, then bake it. If that’s not decadent enough for you, serve with softly whipped cream.

Leftover marzipan

Marzipan Eccles tarts

Marzipan is a dry storecupboard ingredient that’ll last much longer than breads and cakes, but if you have a little left over and want to save the cupboard space, use it to enrich these Lancashire-inspired puff pastry bakes. 

Marzipan & mincemeat apples

For a lighter dessert option, serve baked apples with spoonfuls of mincemeat. Using only four ingredients, they're so easy to make – and if you crave more indulgence, pour over lots of custard or fresh double cream. 

Leftover Christmas cake

Since it’s packed with lots of fruit, nuts and booze, Christmas cake can keep for months on end. However, if you don’t want yours lingering on until summer, use it up in this meringue dessert. The combination of hot topping and cold ice cream is a treat for the senses.

source:https://www.bbcgoodfood.com