Chocolate cranberry puds

Categories: Christmas, December

Ingredients

• 100g plain chocolate, broken up, plus extra, melted, to serve
• 100g softened butter
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 200g soft amaretti morbidi (soft almond macaroons available from Waitrose and Italian delis), crumbled
• 100g chopped hazelnuts
• 90g fresh or frozen and thawed cranberries
• 90g fresh or frozen and thawed raspberries
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp Cointreau
• 190g mascarpone
• 100ml double cream
• zest and juice of 1 small orange
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• heaped tsp powdered gelatine
• icing sugar, cranberries and angelica, to decorate

Directions

1. Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a large bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and stir until smooth. Stir in the macaroons and chopped hazelnuts. Chill for 5 minutes. Press the mixture into the half sphere moulds to make even shells, especially around the top. Chill for 30 minutes to firm up and set.

2. Meanwhile, make the filling. Put the berries, caster sugar and Cointreau in a pan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer, stirring, for 10 minutes, until the cranberries have softened. Cool slightly, then whizz in a food processor until puréed. Cool.

3. Put the mascarpone in a bowl and beat until smooth. Gradually mix in the cream, then stir in the orange zest and sugar. Heat the juice in a small pan, then whisk in the gelatine until melted. Cool slightly, then stir half into the fruit purée and half into the mascarpone. Divide the mascarpone mixture among the holes of the chocolate-coated mould so that each one is three-quarters full, then finish each one with a thin layer of fruit purée. Cover and chill for 3 hours or overnight.

4. Turn out each mould and gently press 2 halves together to make a sphere and sit each on a small plate in a puddle of melted chocolate. Chill for 15 minutes to fix in place. Dust with icing sugar, and decorate with cranberries and angelica to serve.

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