' MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !'

Warm Fig Bread pudding , Bourbon and butter sauce , Drunken sultanas , Blood orange marmelade , Bourbon glazed walnuts , Chantilly cream , melted chocolate and mint leaves.

        First off I just want to wish everyone a very merry and safe Christmas and New Year and thank you all for your support and kind words over the past few months, will be back to blogging in the new year. This is a little take on things christmasy and with the alcohol makes you warm and festive.
       For the fig bread pudding I poached dried figs in red wine, thyme and sugar until soft. The figs were then blended to a puree before adding cream, milk and sugar. In a large bowl I cubed white bread and poured the mixture over the bread and allowed the bread to soak up the liquid. I then spooned the bread mixture into greased muffin tray inserts and baked in a 180 deg.c. oven for about 25-30 minutes. In a fry pan I dry roasted some chopped walnuts adding to this butter and sugar, coating the walnuts. I then poured in some bourbon and simmered allowing the mixture to reduce and thicken to a syrup. The nuts were then removed and set aside. The cream was simply whipped thickened cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract. The marmalade was made by simmering down blood orange juice, zest and sugar to a jam consistency. The sultanas were steeped in Jim Beam bourbon overnight and this was the bourbon used to make the bourbon butter sauce.
        To plate I placed the bread pudding in the centre of the plate spooning the bourbon butter sauce over the top of the pudding and pooling the sauce around the base of the pudding. I then piped some chantilly cream on the pudding and on the plate at 11 o'clock, 2, 5 and 8, each dollop of cream received a mint leaf. Next I placed the candied walnuts to the left of each cream on the plate following with the melted shaved dark chocolate then the marmalade and finishing with the drunken sultanas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !