My first restaurant job was at Aqua on the Welshback in Bristol. I’d just graduated from Falmouth art college and was eager to get stuck into chef life after developing a taste for it at the Bottle Inn in Marshwood, Bridport, and at Henry’s Beard, an organic festival cafe. I found the transition from strong, environmentally focused catering to a more mainstream restaurant challenging, but I’d say I really cut my teeth there working with executive chef Jon Fraser, a veteran chef who for decades had run the kitchens at Bath Spa Hotel, cooking a global menu from Thai green curry to tiramisu.
Jon’s tiramisu was rich, bittersweet and boozy, and traditionally made with sponge fingers, but this festive take on it uses leftover panettone instead, not least because it soaks up the coffee and alcohol beautifully.
Leftover panettone tiramisu
I learned to make mascarpone cream at my first restaurant chef job way back in 2001, and still remember how insanely delicious it was. We’d make a huge tray of tiramisu, a bit like in the viral TikTok video from Onda Pasta Bar in Manchester, and serve hundreds of portions a month.
Whole egg mascarpone cream creates a very rich and satiating, yet light and fluffy texture that I find irresistible, especially when it’s paired with dry panettone, which is perfect for this dish, because it soaks up the coffee mixture and reduces food waste. The panettone I used had nuts in it, which elevated the texture of the dish by giving it it a nice, sweet crunch.
Although tiramisu is a classic dessert, like all recipes, it’s always worth tweaking the ingredients to use up what you have to hand. If you don’t have mascarpone, but have some creme fraiche, ricotta or cream cheese to hand, use that instead. The same goes for the booze: get inventive and use up any dregs of leftover spirits and fortified wines you happen to have in the cupboard – everything from marsala, vin santo, sherry, vermouth, Amaretto, frangelico, rum, brandy or a coffee liqueur will work well. I used Discarded Spirits’ banana peel rum, which gave the dish a whole new dimension.
Serves 6
4 medium eggs
6 tbsp unrefined sugar
250g mascarpone, or cream cheese or creme fraiche
150ml brewed strong coffee or espresso, cooled
4 tbsp spirit or fortified wine, marsala, brandy or rum, say
250g-300g panettone, cut into 2cm-thick slices
Unsweetened cocoa powder, to finish
Separate the egg. Whisk the egg whites and three tablespoons of the sugar to stiff peaks. Beat the egg yolks with the remaining three tablespoons of sugar for five minutes, until thick and pale. Mix the mascarpone into the egg yolk mix until smooth, then gently fold in the egg whites.
In a shallow dish, combine the coffee and spirit or fortified wine. Briefly dip a slice of panettone into the coffee mixture, just until it changes colour, lay in the base of a 20cm dish, then repeat with more slices of soaked panettone until the base is covered (alternatively, lay the slices in individual glasses or ramekins).
Spread half the mascarpone mixture over the layer of panettone, then dust with cocoa. Repeat with a second layer of soaked panettone and top with the remaining mascarpone.
Cover and chill for eight hours, or overnight, then dust the top with more cocoa powder just before serving. Once made, your tiramisu will keep for up to three days in the fridge.
