Pannetone Bread Pudding

The best way to use Pannetone over the festive season. Be sure to buy an organic brand if you are able to find it.

Ingredients
125 g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
4 tablespoons demarara sugar
750 g panettone
1 vanilla pod
300 ml of double cream
300 ml whole milk
5 large free-range eggs
100 g caster sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 ° C. Lightly grease an oven-proof dish with butter. Coat the dish with 2 tablespoons demarara sugar.

Thinly cut off the edges of the panettone and use them to coat the base and sides of the dish, press down firmly to create a pastry-like base.

Halve the vanilla pods lengthwise and scrape the seeds out, then put the seeds and the pod in a pan over a medium heat with the cream, milk and butter and simmer for 5 minutes or until the butter has melted.

In the meantime, whisk the eggs and caster sugar in a large bowl for 2 minutes until smooth. Add the warm cream mixture to the bowl  and whisk until combined. Discard the vanilla pod.

Pour a third of the egg mixture into the bottom of the cake and let it soak in for a few minutes.
Tear all remaining panettone into large pieces, leave them for a minute or two in the custard (the more it soaks up, the better!), then place it in to the oven dish. There is no need to be neat about it, you want a  both soft and crispy pieces..

Pour over the remaining custard, soak a little longer if you want and sprinkle with the remaining demarara sugar.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until set. Let the pudding rest for 10 minutes and then serve with cream, custard or ice cream if you want - it is also delicious served cold!


Biancomangiare

This is the first recipe and piece of writing from one of our new contributors, Jorgina Catala. Jorgina hails from Barcelona and recently moved to The Netherlands. We hope you enjoy this piece and we look forward to more contributions from Jorgina in the near future.

Biancomangiare, a sweet treat from the Middle Ages.

With a presence in several European countries, known as blanc manger in France, or menjar blanc in Catalonia, biancomangiare is the Sicialian version of what we could consider one of the most celebrated and well known medieval recipes. It’s name litteraly means “white dish” and emphasizes the whiteness of this sweet pudding based on almonds and white sugar.

Have you ever thought about the meaning of colour in food?

During the Middle Ages, food banquets where often used to display the power of the high classes; being able to prepare recipes with rare and expensive ingredients would give a hint of the hosts power to all the banquet attendants.

Serving biancomangiare to your guests would mean that the powerful host had access to the extremely expensive and refined white sugar, very difficult to obtain in the XIV century and would also symbolize good values as purity and refinement. The name biancomangiare was a generic name given to different kinds of savory and sweet recipes, based in chicken breast, rice, milk almond milk and other ingredients that gave the dish its characteristic white color.

Today, we are sharing with you the most traditional Sicilian sweet version, a delicious almond pudding, with a delicate almond flavour, lemony fragrance and of course, with its elegant snowy white presence.

Ingredients
1 litre of almond milk (you can buy it or do it yourself using 300gr of peeled almonds and 1,5 litres of water)
Zest of 1 untreated/organic lemon (avoid the white, it will make it bitter)
200g refined sugar
120g of corn starch (Maizena)
a pinch of cinnamon

Method
Keep aside a glass of almond milk.

Pour the rest of the almond milk in a saucepan and heat over a low flame. Add the lemon zest, pinch of cinnamon and the refined sugar.

Meanwhile mix the corn starch with the almond milk you kept aside. Once the corn starch is dissolved, add the mixture to the saucepan through a sieve.

Keep stirring the mixture, preferably with a wooden spoon, till it starts boiling. When it will starts to thicken remove the saucepan from the fire.

Pour the mixture into moulds of your preference. You can choose single portion moulds or a large one. Let it cool down to room temperature and only then put it in the fridge until thick.

The pudding will be ready after around 4 hours. You can then unmould it and decorate as you please. Its delicious eaten on its own, but you can also add some of your favourite jam, some chocolate sauce or cherries and syrup. Just remember that the biancomangiare has a very subtle taste that shouldn’t be over-powered by a strong sauce.

 


Sticky Toffee Pudding

Ingredients
75 g butter, plus extra for greasing
175 g soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
2 eggs
2 tablespoons black treacle
200g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
200g pitted dates
300 ml water
1 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Caramel Sauce
300 g sugar
300 ml cream
50 g butter
generous pinch of salt

Method
Preheat an oven to 180 C. Grease a 30 cm x 20 20 cm square cake tin with butter and line with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the golden syrup, treacle, vanilla extract and eggs, a little at a time, and blend until smooth. Mix the flour and baking powder together. Add the flour and blend, at a low speed, until well combined.

Meanwhile, place the dates in a pan with the water and bring to a boil. Blend the dates and water in a Magimix (food processor) to a smooth purée. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda and vanilla.

Pour the date mixture into the batter and stir until well combined. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is springy and golden-brown.

To make the caramel sauce, place the sugar in a pan and het gently until it dissolves and is caramelised to a mahogany colour. Carefully add the cream, stand back as it will spit and splatter. Keep on the heat, stirring now and again until the caramel dissolves. Turn off the heat, stir through the butter and salt.

To serve, cut the pudding into 12 generous squares and place serving plates. Pour over the caramel sauce and serve. Delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours