Just outside the kitchen is a tiny stone-floored room whose narrow wooden shelves are home to dried noodles and beans, rice, grains and sugars of all hues. It is where I keep the homemade damson jam and grapefruit marmalade, preserved fruit and mincemeat, and pots of fig chutney.
At Christmas, the stoppered jars are joined by glowing curls of candied orange and citron peel; marrons glacés in pleated golden foil; and sugar-crusted fruit jellies of orange and lemon and blackcurrant. There are bars of nougat and soft and chewy turron; panettone and cellophane bags of rose and lemon Turkish delight that I buy loose and caked in icing sugar from one of the Turkish shops down the road.
There is cake, too: a sultana and cherry freckled cake awaiting its blanket of primrose-hued marzipan, a stollen in a hinged wooden box, and a flat, snow-white disc of panforte, its icing-sugar surface studded with almonds, hazelnuts and candied peel. To their right are paper-wrapped, soft-crumbed amaretti in a golden tin. That dense, vanilla-scented panforte is the prince of Christmas sweetmeats. I’m not sure it is worth making your own. The best are on the soft side, wrapped in brown paper and string and are light for their size.
I am making an ice-cream parfait for after Christmas dinner. A dessert to keep in the freezer and serve in slices (and, should you wish, trickled with dark, sweet sherry.) Think of a classic vanilla ice, but warmed with the butterscotch notes of maple syrup and flecked with crumbled panforte. A luxurious dessert, as befits the season, we served it with strips of candied peel. It has a hint of Christmas pudding about it, but this is lighter after Christmas dinner and, with luck, will please the plum-pudding naysayers.
You may need something for the carol singers that is less work than rolling pastry and making mince pies. Some soft almond and dried-fruit cookies might be the answer. (Made a few days in advance they keep well in an airtight tin.) I will also mention they are good for crumbling into hot custard or ice-cream or for passing round with coffee after dinner.
A parfait of panforte and amaretti
A soft, cut-and-come-again frozen parfait you can slice straight from the freezer. No special equipment is required, though you will need a 22 x 12 x 8cm rectangular cake tin, and lining the tin with clingfilm or baking parchment makes for easier removal.
double cream 750ml
egg yolks 5
caster sugar 5 tbsp
panforte 300g
soft amaretti 175g
maple syrup 150ml
candied peel to serve
Pour the cream into a saucepan, bring it almost to the boil, then remove from the heat. Beat the yolks and sugar together with a food mixer or large whisk until they are pale and fluffy. Stir the warm cream into the egg and sugar mixture, then rinse and dry the saucepan, return the custard to the pan and place over a moderate heat, stirring until the sauce is thick enough to lightly coat the back of the wooden spoon.
Remove the custard from the heat and cool quickly, either by pouring into a cold bowl and stirring for a few minutes to encourage the steam to leave, or by putting the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice. Once the custard has cooled, put the bowl in the fridge and leave till cold.
Break or slice half the panforte into small crumbs. Crumble the amaretti likewise then fold into the cold custard. Stir in the maple syrup. Transfer to the lined cake tin, pushing the mixture deep into the corners, then smooth the surface with the back of a spoon, fold over the clingfilm and freeze for at least 4 hours. Cut the panforte parfait into 3cm slices and serve.
Christmas fruit cookies
If you have two baking sheets, you can bake the cookies in relay, preparing one tray while the other is in the oven. Makes about 50 small cookies
butter 200g
light muscovado sugar 125g
caster sugar 75g
plain flour 300g
salt ½ tsp
baking powder 1 tsp
eggs 2
dried apricots 50g
candied peel 125g
almonds 100g, whole, skinned
pistachios 125g, shelled
icing sugar for dusting
Set the oven at 175C/gas mark 3½. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. I find this is best done using a food mixer with a flat beater attachment, but you can do it by hand, too. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork to mix yolks and whites.
Chop the dried apricots into small pieces, followed by the candied peel. Chop the almonds and pistachios.
Add the beaten eggs to the creamed butter and sugar, a little at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour if the mixture appears grainy. Stir in the remaining flour, then the fruit, peel and nuts. Make sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined but take care not to overmix.
Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Place heaped teaspoons of the cookie dough on the baking tray, leaving enough room for each to spread a little. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the biscuits are pale nut coloured. They should still be soft when you take them from the oven. Let the baked biscuits rest for 5 minutes, then lift them on to a cooling rack with a palette knife.
Continue with the remaining mixture. This should make 50 small cookies. Toss the cooled cookies gently in icing sugar.
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