Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding

Until last Christmas, I had never bought a panettone and, for some reason, I decided to buy three.  I am still not quite sure what came over me.  I had only ever eaten panettone twice before - once in 1982 during an Italian language class, and about 4 years ago at a cafe in Leederville when I didn't feel like toast.  I don't mind the taste of panettone, but I generally prefer my bread to be plain and unfruity.  Panettone originated in Milano, and is eaten throughout the year in Italy, but especially at Christmas.  In Perth, we only see panettone in the shops at Easter and Christmas so perhaps I was suddenly overcome with temporary siege mentality and felt the need to stock up.  I have had no idea what to do with them so, since Christmas, I've had two large panettone boxes taking up room in my pantry and one de-packaged panettone in my freezer, waiting for inspiration to strike. 

My only inspiration to date has been to use it in bread and butter pudding.  You may be thinking why on earth would I be baking a bread and butter pudding in the middle of summer.  Well, apart from needing to reduce the occupant:panettone ratio in my household, I thought my northern hemisphere readers would enjoy a winter's dessert.  And for my southern hemisphere readers, it is possible to eat bread and butter pudding cold.  Yes, cold, and it is actually quite nice. 

Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding

1 x 900g panettone
zest of 1 orange
150g unsalted butter, and a little extra for greasing
2 tsp vanilla paste
600m whipping cream
600ml full cream milk
5 eggs
150g caster sugar

Grease a 1.5 litre baking or casserole dish with unsalted butter.  Cut the panettone into thick slices (mine were about 2cm) and remove the crusts.

Place the butter, orange zest, and one teaspoon of the vanilla paste into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter is melted.

Brush both sides of the panettone with the melted butter and arrange in the casserole dish.

Heat the cream, milk and the remaining vanilla paste until just below boiling point.  Using a mixer, beat the eggs and the caster sugar until thick.  Add the cream/milk to the egg mixture and mix on a very slow speed until combined.  Pour over the bread and leave for at least one hour until the bread has absorbed the custard.

Heat the oven to 150 degrees celsius and bake for 45 minutes.  Ideally, you should put the dish in a bain marie.  I didn't, as the casserole dish I used was too big.  The custard did curdle a little bit, but this did not affect the taste.

This is the kind of pudding you eat on a cold, dark winter's night as it does warm the cockles. The panettone adds an extra dimension of sweetness, and hits those sugar cravings whether eaten hot or cold.  Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Any ideas on what to do with my remaining panettone would be gratefully received!

Me vs Maggie Beer's Burnt Fig, Honeycomb and Caramel Icecream

I went a little bit mad scientist during the week trying to recreate my favourite icecream.  I absolutely love Maggie Beer's Burnt Fig, Honeycomb and Caramel icecream to the extent that I avoid going down the icecream aisle at the supermarket in case I hear it calling my name.  If I do hear the call, the end result is me, in a chair with a 500ml tub in one hand and a spoon in the other, and no turning back.  It's that good.  What I like most about it is the contrast between the bitterness of the caramel and the sweetness of the honeycomb. I search for those swirls of bitter caramel with all the focus of a truffle-hunting pig.

The ingredients in Maggie Beer's icecream include cream, milk, burnt fig syrup, sugar, honeycomb, water, egg yolk, skim milk powder, glucose syrup, natural vegetable gums and natural caramel flavour.  After reading this, I got a bit scared as I've never used vegetable gums, nor did I have any cocoa butter handy, which is listed as one of the ingredients in the honeycomb.  So, before starting, I knew that I wouldn't be able to replicate the icecream, just channel its essence.

You need to allow 2 days to complete this entire recipe.

Burnt Fig Syrup

4 figs, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp raw caster sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup water
juice of 1 lemon, strained
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp sunflower oil

The burnt fig syrup was a challenge.  Fig season isn't in full flight and I could only find four sad little figs at my local fruit and veg shop.  Also, I wasn't sure if burnt meant burnt, or caramelised, so I decided to caramelise within an inch of their lives.

Toss the sliced figs in the raw caster sugar.

Gently heat the oil in a frypan and add the figs.  Fry on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until the figs are caramelised and reach a mush like consistency. 

Meanwhile, put the water, caster sugar, lemon juice, white wine vinegar and vanilla essence in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the fig mush and simmer for 5 minutes. 

Allow syrup to cool, strain into a jar and refrigerate until cold.

Honeycomb

2 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp bicarbonate soda

Bring the golden syrup, caster sugar and unsalted butter to the boil, then add the bicarbonate soda. 

Pour mixture into a greased tin.  When cool, put the honeycomb in a food processor and process until you have powder.

Caramel Sauce

Maggie's icecream includes 'natural caramel flavour'.  I'm not sure what this is so I made some caramel sauce instead.

300ml water
225g caster sugar

Put sugar and half the water in a saucepan.  Heat gently until sugar is dissolved, then increase the heat and boil until you reach the desired colour. Don't leave the caramel too long as it can burn.  Add the rest of the water and allow to cool.

Icecream

300ml thickened cream
600ml whipping cream
4 egg yolks
115g caster sugar

Combine the creams, and heat gently in a saucepan until just under boiling point.  Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks and sugar until thick.  Add the honeycomb powder to the cream and stir until dissolved. Add 100ml fig syrup to the egg mixture and continue to whisk.

Put the cream in a bowl over hot water, and add the egg mixture.  Stir over gentle heat for about 10-15 minutes until the custard is thick.  Refrigerate overnight, and then churn the mixture in a ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.  I churned for 25 minutes.

Refrigerate overnight until firm, then add the caramel sauce.  Do this by creating holes in the icecream using the handle of spoon and inserting it in a number of places.  Pour the caramel sauce in. 

Serve icecream with any leftover caramel sauce.

The end result bears absolutely no resemblance to Maggie Beer's icecream, but I am really pleased with the result.  It is sweet and creamy, with fig and honeycomb undertones, and is pretty darn tasty.  Unfortunately, the bitterness I love so much isn't there so I will need to refine the recipe but, if you have two days to spare, I would definitely recommend giving this recipe a try.

Gift wrapping with organza and sinamay

It was a friend's birthday a couple of months ago, and I bought her a papier mache circular box as a gift.  I'm only blogging about it now as I was on a roll with my Christmas-related posts and couldn't fit this one in.
 

As all gift wrappers know, a circular-shaped object is difficult to wrap.  There is too much paper to fold, it always looks bulky and, worse, it crinkles around the edges.  Tissue paper is more forgiving than normal gift wrapping paper, but it still crinkles.  I usually end up wrapping odd-shaped gifts in coloured tissue paper, and wrapping it again in clear cellophane, bouquet-style.  I thought I'd try something different this time.

I started with white tissue paper.

 

I wrapped it again in off-white organza.

As organza does not have any structural integrity, I wrapped it again in my favourite material - sinamay - which I've featured in a few previous posts.  I used a light blue coloured sinamay, which contrasted nicely with the organza and provided the necessary support.

Keeping with the pastel theme, I finished it off with a pale green ribbon.

It's big, but the pastel colours keep the overall look subtle and a little bit dreamy.

Since using organza in this way, I've been looking for ways to use it again.   Organza comes in a range of colours, and can make tissue paper in a complementary colour look very elegant and grown up (eg black tissue paper and grey organza).  It is worth having a look in a fabric store for gift wrapping materials as you can create something quite unique, and fabric can overcome many of the difficulties in wrapping odd-shaped gifts.