Jamie’s bonkers chocolate pannetone pudding

Have I told you that my very good husband likes baking? Don’t get me wrong, he’s not in the kitchen every Sunday whipping up baked goods for the week or anything (just putting that out there for when he reads this), but he likes to turn out a bread, cake or pudding on special occasions.

In the past he’s tackled croissants (all the kneading, all the butter) and sourdough bread (‘feeding’ his starter for weeks on end). For a recent event he made Jamie Oliver’s pannetone pudding. My man knows I love a pudding and this one was out-of-this-world amazing. It would be, wouldn’t it? Jamie plus a pannetone plus chocolate (plus Bart, but sorry, that’s my own special ingredient) has all the makings of a hit.

This pudding is richer than Scrooge McDuck (who, incidentally, has been found to be the third richest, um, man in the world), so go easy on the serving sizes. I like mine with ice cream, but custard was the general favourite.

What you need

125g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
4 Tbs demerara sugar
750g plain panettone
1 vanilla pod
300ml double cream
300ml whole milk
5 large eggs
100g golden caster sugar
60g quality dark chocolate (70%)
60g bitter orange marmalade

What you do

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease your baking vessel – Jamie recommends a 28cm loose-bottom pie tin, but Bart made his in a large porcelin baking dish. Depends on how pretty you want to be, I guess! – and then tip in the demerara sugar, shuffling it around until the dish is fully coated. Tip excess sugar into a bowl for laters.

Cut about a third of the pannetone into slices about as thick as two slices of bread and then into strips. Lay the strips down into your dish, completely covering the base and sides. Press down firmly to smudge the pannetone together and create a shell. Break the rest of your pannetone into large chunks.

Halve the vanilla pod lengthways and gently scrape out the seeds. Put both the seeds and pod into a saucepan on medium heat and add the cream, milk and butter. Simmer for 5 minutes until butter has melted. While mix simmers, whisk the golden caster sugar with the eggs until smooth. Keep whisking as you blend in the hot cream mixture. Discard the vanilla pod.

Pour about a third of the mix onto the pannetone shell and leave to soak in for a little bit. Now, take your leftover chunks on pannetone and add them into the cream bowl, giving them a good slosh around so they can soak up lots of the yumminess. Layer them into the dish, adding a chunk of the chocolate and a dollop of the marmalade here and there as you go.

Once you’ve added all of the pannetone, pour over any remaining custard and leave it to soak in for a couple of minutes. Then sprinkle on the remaining demarara sugar and pop into the oven for around 25 mins until set.

Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before serving with lashings of ice cream or custard. Oh my!

Are you a pudding person?