Christmas tiramisu

Gary recommends planning ahead with your dessert, so make it in advance and keep it sitting in the fridge until your guests are ready for the grand finale!

SERVES 6-8 INGREDIENTS

350ml espresso or very strong coffee (at room temperature)

100g caster sugar 6 tbsp dark or golden rum 100ml cream liqueur

40 lady fingers

6 large egg yolks 150g granulated sugar 454g mascarpone cheese

(at room temperature for

20 minutes)

3 tbsp vanilla essence or seeds from 4 vanilla pods 473ml cream (cold) 3-4 tbsp cocoa powder

2 cinnamon sticks

1 nutmeg

4 star anise

8 tbsp Christmas pudding, crumbled 3-4 tbsp granulated brown sugar

METHOD

1 Pre-heat the oven to 190°C.

2 Add the espresso, star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg and cream liqueur to a pot and heat but don’t bring to a boil. Set aside to infuse.

3 Whisk in 100g caster sugar bit by bit to sweeten a little and counteract

4 the co ee bitterness. Line a tray with parchment paper and spread over brown the well, and oven bake it. add sugar Sprinkle the for a for little Christmas 12 a and further minutes, well more place with sugar pudding 7-9 into mix minutes, Once you then feel the check sugar again. has caramelised, lift out the tray

5 and leave to cool and go crispy. Now, add parchment to another tray and add the granulated sugar and place into the pre-heated oven.

6 In egg a large yolks bowl and whisk , add the on high u up speed a little. until they start to

7 Now, remove the sugar tray from the oven. The sugar should be hot but not melting. Start adding the sugar in a steady stream until the egg yolk is thick, creamy and doubled in size. Start adding the mascarpone bit by bit and all the vanilla.

8 Once the mascarpone is whipped well, turn o the mixer and add the cheese mix to a large bowl. Whip up the cream until sti and fold into the vanilla mascarpone mix.

9 Now get your serving bowl or glasses. Dip the sponge ngers into the wet mix for just 1 second then start to layer your tiramisu. Do a layer of cream, sponge ngers, cream, sponge ngers and so on. Divide the caramelised Christmas pudding in half. Make sure you sprinkle one half in the middle of your bowl and reserve the other half.

10 When you get to the top of your serving bowl/glass, make sure you nish with the cheese mixture and scrape it ush using a palate knife. Dust all over with cocoa powder then add the Christmas pudding to the top to garnish and serve. This will make a family size tri e bowl or 6-8 martini type glasses or similar.