Christmas treats 5: panettone trifles

Panettone is great. It’s delicious, and there is so much you can do with it. Quite frankly, I like it as it is, maybe with a little mascarpone sauce and rum raisins.

But these Panettone trifles are truly magical. They capture all the essence of the Panettone and they look sophisticated enough to serve at dinner parties of Christmas parties, or bring over to work for the office’s Christmas fete.

They do contain raw eggs, which means you need to make sure your eggs are fresh and possibly organic. Or you can use pasteurised eggs, which might not be as rich in flavour but are completely Salmonellosis-safe!

Ingredients

About 3 thick slices of leftover Panettone. Better if a bit stale.

300g Mascarpone

3/4 cup icing sugar

a couple of drops of vanilla essence

3 egg yolks (or equivalent from pasteurised eggs, check on the box)

3 tablespoons of Bailey’s

2 tablespoons of rum raisins

Sweetened cocoa for decoration, and crystallised violets, blueberries or cut up orange slices.

Cut the Panettone slices horizontally so to obtain several triangles about 3 inches thick. Trim the rounded edge and toast them in the toaster until they are only slightly crunchy on the outside but still moist on the inside: this will prevent the Bailey’s cream from seeping through. Fit each one of the triangles at the bottom of a small container, such as a sherry glass. I use plastic shot glasses when I bring this over to someone else’s party, so I don’t have to worry about collecting all the little glasses at the end of the night.

Mix the Bailey’s, the rum raisins and 3 tablespoons of the sugar to obtain a homogeneous paste. Dose a teaspoon or so of the mixture onto each Panettone slice in the shot glasses and put in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

In a large bowl, wisK together the rest of the sugar and the egg yolks. Add the vanilla essence (sometimes I substitute the vanilla essence with almond essence or a couple of drops of crème de cacao blanc, which is white chocolate liqueur). Add the mascarpone and whick it all together until you have a smooth, delicious cream. You get extra points here for not sitting on the floor and eating half the batch with your finger.

Pour on top of the refrigerated shot glasses, and cover it all up with a thick blanket of cocoa. On top you can add a single blueberry, a candied violet or a thin stripe cut out of your home-made candied orange slices (if you do that, you might want to add orange essence to your cream instead of vanilla essence).

I love these little trifles. They are so small they don’t even make me feel that guilty (even though I probably eat more of the stuff whilst cooking than when I serve it) and they look very festive under a Christmas tree.