Nick Nairn's Christmas Sticky Toffee Panettone Pudding

Panettone now makes a regular appearance on British Christmas tables. This light, vanilla–flavoured Italian cake tastes great with a simple cup of coffee, but even better transformed into this delicious Sticky Toffee Pudding. This recipe is a doddle to make and will particularly appeal to people who aren’t fans of the traditional and rich Christmas pud.

Temperatures

Remove the toffee from the heat when it reaches 118°C – 120°C.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

1kg Panettone (or Pandoro)
125g unsalted butter
125g Demerara sugar
284ml double cream
25g Californian walnuts, chopped
25g dried cranberries, chopped
25g dried apricots, chopped
25g Californian pistachios, shelled and halved
Vanilla ice cream

directions

For the toffee sauce, gently melt the sugar and butter together in a large pan, add the cream and boil until thick.
Simmer over a low heat, whisking constantly. Remove once the temperature reaches 118°C – 120°C (the hotter the caramel gets the more brittle it will become — you want to be able to drop the pieces of cake in it).
The mixture’s consistency should be a little thicker than custard and it should have a lovely toffee colour.

Unwrap the Panettone and, using a sharp knife, slice off the dark crust from all over the cake and discard.
Cut the pale inside section that is left into large cubes – about the size of a traditional sticky toffee pudding portion.
Drop the pieces of cake into the toffee sauce and leave to soak for a few minutes (best done in batches).
Lift out with a slotted spoon onto a serving plate, sprinkle with walnuts, pistachios, dried apricots and cranberries and serve with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Or, if you prefer something to counteract the sweetness, use Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche instead.