If your holiday season is anything like mine, you’ll find yourself inundated with yeast cakes and a certain Christmassy nougat.
Honey, egg whites and almonds are shaped into an elongated slab of saccharine temptation lined with tongue melty sugar paper. Pandori and panettoni pile up on the shelves and sideboards, threatening to gather dust as the doors on the advent calendar peek open.
Here’s an original dessert that will sweeten the festivities while cleaning your cupboards: my torrone cream, 80% chocolate and salted pandoro.
Torrone cream, 80% chocolate and salted pandoro
Serves 4
Ingredients
500g white torrone, broken into small pieces
15ml Amaretto di Saronno
1 litre cream
20g dark chocolate 80%
30ml milk
20g peeled almonds, coarsely chopped
1 slice of pandoro
5ml finest quality extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt
Method
Soak the torrone in the liqueur for a few minutes. Bring the cream to the boil and stir in the torrone until it melts. Blend the torrone cream with a handheld blender and set aside for 1 hour. Strain.
Melt the chocolate in the milk to make a smooth cream.
Toast the almonds in a very hot nonstick pan.
Cut the pandoro into small cubes and toast in a pan with a drizzle of really good extra-virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt.
Serve the torrone cream in a bowl with a few drops of the chocolate milk and a line of the toasted pandoro and almonds down the centre.