Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding

This easy elegant pudding is our favorite for a mid morning treat!  Usually we'll make it on a relaxed kinda day when we can all sleep in a bit (a weekend day!)  Once we get up it's the quickest and easiest thing to mix up and slip this pudding into the the oven for a midmorning scrummy and most comforting sweet treat.  This Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding is golden crispy on the top, soft and creamy on the inside, dotted with plump rummy raisins, and touched with just a hint of sweet and licoricey star anise.  So yummilicious...

Star Anise Ice Cream 八角雪糕

If you are one of those, as I am, that love the heady almost erotic taste and aroma of licorice then you will love, love, love this ice cream!  This is a spice infused ice cream made from my love of Star Anise, a wonderfully versatile spice that is used in Chinese cooking mostly for its excellent companionship with savory meats.  

So into this spice am I that I have been experimenting with Star Anise in sweet foods, in my baking for one and now in my ice cream making.  So here is our Star Anise Ice Cream, 八角雪糕, a wowzer of an cool luscious licorice treat with the spice's exotic and distinctive aroma nestled snugly against a velvety smooth and creamy ice cream. Yummilicious!