These impressive desserts are made using the Candle Moulds from Pavoni Italia to create the chocolate shell and flame, which hides a rice pudding with fig poached in mulled wine, a mulled wine panna cotta and shortbread discs for structure.  The flame is dusted with gold metallic powder, and we've served the dish with a warm mulled wine flavoured chocolate sauce for a Christmassy delight.

Mulled Wine Panna Cotta
  • 225g Double Cream
  • 200g Milk
  • 20g Sugar (A)
  • 6g MSK UltraGel 5
  • 20g Sugar (B)
  • 15 drops Mulled Wine Flavour Drop

Place the cream, milk and sugar (A) into a pan and bring to the boil.  

Mix together the UltraGel and the sugar (B).  Add this to the boiling cream and continue to boil for 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Whisk in the mulled wine flavour.  Pour the mixture into a tray and chill until set.

Rice Pudding
  • 1.5ltrs Milk
  • 150g Sugar
  • 225g Arborio Rice
  • 2 Vanilla Pods
  • 100ml Double Cream (lightly whipped)

Place the milk, sugar, rice and vanilla into a pan over a medium heat and cook until the rice is soft and almost all the liquid has been absorbed.

Pour the rice onto a tray and spread out to a thin layer. Cover and cool the rice.

Once the rice is fully cooled fold in the whipped double cream.

Shortbread
  • 75g Icing Sugar
  • 165g Butter
  • 200g Plain Flour
  • 1 tsp Speculoos Spice

Beat the butter and the sugar together until smooth.

Mix together the flour and speculoos spice.

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until the dough starts to come together, taking care not to over work the dough.

Roll the dough into a flattened ball and cover with cling film, then place in the fridge to rest for a couple of hours.

Remove from the fridge and roll out to a thickness of 0.5cm.

Place the dough on a lined baking sheet and bake at 150°C for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cut circles using a 4cm diameter cutter.

Return to the dough to the oven for a further 10 to 15 minutes until cooked.

Mulled wine poached figs
  • 1 btl Red Wine
  • 500g Sugar
  • 250ml Fresh Orange Juice
  • 1 Vanilla Pods
  • 1 Cinnamon Stick
  • 5 Star Anise
  • Peeled Zest of 2 Oranges
  • Peeled Zest of 1 Lemon
  • Fresh Black Figs

Mix all the ingredients together apart from the figs and bring to the boil. 

Add the figs to the liquid and place a disc of silicone paper over the top of the liquid to ensure the figs are fully submerged.

Gently simmer the figs in the poaching liquor until soft.

Remove from the heat and cool.

Warm spiced chocolate sauce
  • 500ml Cream
  • 175g Caribe 45% Milk Chocolate 
  • 10 to 15 drops of Mulled Wine Flavour Drop

Gently warm the cream and chocolate together until the chocolate is fully melted.

Add the flavour drops to the warm sauce.

Construction 

Using a 4cm ring mould build up the desert using layers of each of the elements starting with a disc of shortbread and finishing with a poached fig.  In our example the shortbread is on the bottom, with a thick layer of rice pudding above it, then a disc of panna cotta either side of a sliced fig, more rice pudding, and then the poached fig on top.

For the flame, we've dusted some gold metallic colour powder onto the chocolate.

Serve with a jug of warm chocolate sauce on the side.