Lancashire goes loopy for bizarre ice cream flavours

The dairy has sourced beetroot from Lancashire’s Red Velvet beetroot firm, which already supplies M&S with fresh and cooked beetroot. The flavour isn’t as bizarre as it sounds because betalain, the red pigment found in beetroots, is already used to colour strawberry ice cream, says Amanda Dowsons, company director at the dairy, which supplies Asda and Booths.

Dowsons is also hoping to interest multiple retailers with its Christmas pudding flavoured ice cream. The luxury pudding is sourced from a recipe created by development chef Tom Bridge for a London hotel using top quality ingredients. “After a heavy meal, Christmas pudding ice cream is a light alternative to a heavy dessert. It is completely refreshing and clears the palate,” says Dowsons.

The dairy has also created black pudding flavoured ice cream. Initially, it was only intended for local use at the black pudding festival in Bacup, but feedback from taste tests was so positive that Dowsons is now considering sending samples to Asda.

“Most people think we are a bit wacky, but with the advent of bacon and egg flavour ice cream down south, it shows there is a market,” adds John Gardner at Dowsons.

The black pudding flavoured ice cream, also developed by Tom Bridge, is made by crumbling black pudding into a creamy base mix and adding mustard.

Dowsons says that she chose the Lancashire Black Pudding Company’s lean pudding for the ice cream because it avoids leaving a fatty residue on the roof of the mouth.

Andrew Holt, owner of the Lancashire Black Pudding Company, says: “It certainly is an unusual and acquired taste. When you hear of the ingredients it does sound a bit strange but we are hoping people will give it a try.”

Holt has also been developing a vegetarian black pudding called the V Pud. Traditionally, black pudding is made from pig’s blood, so Holt set himself the challenge of replicating the texture and flavour of the product “without the oink!”

The firm used whey protein, milk powder and hydrogenated vegetable oil to recreate the consistency of the V Pud, which is the first black pudding to be approved by the Vegetarian Society.

“The V Pud has a unique taste which is so close to the real thing it is unbelievable – and it is such a versatile ingredient. I suggest serving it with bubble and squeak,” says Tom Bridge.