La grande bouffe

Well, yesterday was our ninth wedding anniversary. Hubs sadly had to work and I had some council duties to do in the morning.

I had chosen the pudding - a torte of pancakes featured in the current edition of Good Food magazine. Our neighbours at Red Brick have been invited round for Shrove Tuesday and C is a chocoholic, so I wanted to make something that blows him away. Hubs was my practice run guinea pig.

Hubs was allowed to choose the main course and I thought he would go for something light, but he chose a Brie and cranberry parcel with filo pastry.

I had tried to buy all the ingredients in ASDA Barnsley the day before, but could not get chilled filo pastry or green peppercorns. So after visiting Matlock, I went to three supermarkets in Chesterfield. Morrisons didn't have either ingredients, but I did pick up a bottle of Alpha Montes Cabernet Sauvignon for £12 (which is about as much as we ever pay for wine, as we're not millionaires.)

Sainsbo's yielded the filo pastry and the big Tesco had the peppercorns.

The pancake recipe was easy. Make a caramel, add blanched hazelnuts - cook and spread out to cool on an oiled baking tray. When it is cool, blitz it in a chopper to make little sprinkles.

The chocolate sauce for the layers involved 250g of 80% Fairtrade chocolate, 50g of butter, 50 mg of demerara sugar, 300ml of half milk, half double cream melted in a bowl suspended over a simmering pan. A good slosh of rum was added at the end.

After making 10 pancakes, the torte is assembled in a sringform cake tin. Each pancake has a layer of chocolate smeared on it, then a sprinkle of the hazelnut mixture. Nothing goes on top of the final pancake. It can then be left. Keep aside the leftover chocolate sauce and sprinkles.

When you want to eat it, it is put in to a preheated oven (180 celcius), covered by foil and heated through for 20 mins. It is then served with chocolate sauce, and whipped cream with a sprinkle of sprinkles and some shaved chocolate.

It was the most cardiac inducing dessert that I have ever had, thoroughly delicious, but so calorific. Particularly after we had it after the main.

The main was a whole brie, with a cranberry and green pepper sauce, wrapped in filo pastry with a butter and ground almond layering. To add to the cholestrol count I also made individual Pommes Dauphinoise with red onion and garlic grated in between the layers. It was served with roasted asparagus.

It was all lovely, but this morning I still felt full, and am craving slightly healthier food! For when C comes I intend to serve the pancakes with a Galliano icecream! Bring it on!