Degustabox Review and a recipe

Christmas has come early this month in the form of my regular Degustabox. I look forward to receiving this surpirse food box every month and have set myself a challenge to bake something using at least one of the ingredients in the box. It is tricky sometimes as there's a mix of sweet and savoury food products, drinks, snacks and confectionery and of course the element of surprise where you just don't know what you are going to get! 

It's a no obligation monthly subscription which costs £12.99 including delivery. You get 9 to 14 surprise products and it's usually a good mixed selection of goodies. I have a special discount code for all my readers if you are interested in signing up a box for yourself or for a family memeber/friend You get a £3.00 discount when registering by using this code LRIQI which makes it just under a tenner for a goodie box including delivery. 

So what was in this month's Degustabox?

 1 packet of Barbeque flavoured pop chips. I've tried these before and I love the flavour and texture of them. They are not fried or baked but "popped" with a little heat and pressure.  

 1 box of Pukka clean green tea which has a hint of lemon. I love Pukka teas and this is no exception. It has a clean taste and feels refreshing with the hint of lemon.

 1 bottle of Eisberg Alcohol Free Wine - made in exactly the same way as regular wine with the alcohol removed. It also has less calories than regular wine. I'm saving this for Christmas day so I will update on the taste later. 

 4 cans of Gloworm which is a premium mixer to compliment selected spirits. It's sugar free and taurine free and is available in 4 flavours - Raspberry & Orris for Vodka, Cucumber & Apple for Gin, Pear, Spice & Lime for Rum, Ginger & Lemongrass for Bourbon. A great idea for a cocktail party! 

 1 pack of Kent's Kitchen meal kit which provides 3 clever pots with natural ingredients which you can store in a cupboard. Just add a few fresh ingredients and you have a ready made authentic meal. 

 1 bottle of Frylight Infuse Chilli - made with natural chilli extract, this spray adds a bit of spice to your cooking! I love the spray formulation as it's no mess and no fuss. You can add more sprays whilst cooking to increase the flavour.  

 1 jar of Bonne Maman Coarse Orange Marmalade - I love Bonne Maman jams and I've used this marmalade a few times. It's really zesty and zingy and I like the thick shred orange peels. This is the ingredient I decided to bake with this month, see below for the recipe.  

 2 packs of Choco Leibniz from Bahlsen. Butter biscuit wrapped in chocolate The caramel flavour has a caramel centre which is really tasty. 

1 pack of The Chia Co Oats + Chia - wholegrain oats and chia blended with fruits and coconut oil. Just add water to make a dairy free breakfast. 

For my recipe this month I decided to use up some leftovers and the Bonne Maman Coarse Orange Marmalade. I had some leftover chocolate chip panettone from making my tiramisu trifle and I thought it would be a good base for bread and butter pudding. I've made this previously with stale croissants and marmalade and it worked beautifully as it did here. In fact I think these are better than the croissant puddings. The chocolate chip panettone works really well with the marmalade and being baked in custard is a bonus. I'm sure Paddington Bear would approve of this recipe! 

 

 butter the slices of panettone and add a blob of marmalade on top. Pour over the custard mixture and bake. 

 Freshly baked 

 I served mine with custard but it would also work with cream or brandy butter if you're feeling particularly festive! 

A large bowl of leftover chocolate chip panettone (I forgot to weigh them)
Butter  and marmalade for spreading
300mls double cream
150mls milk
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons caster sugar (i used less as there's sugar in the panettone)

• Place the cream and milk in a pan and bring to a boil. 
• Remove from the heat.
• Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. 
• Pour the cooled cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking as you go.
• Grease a baking dish with butter. 
• Spread butter and marmalade on pieces of panettone and arrange them with the spread side facing upwards as shown. 
• Pour the custard mixture over the panettone and leave to soak for at least 30 minutes or until soft. 
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown.  
• Serve warm with custard or cream. 

Disclaimer: I was sent a Degustabox for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review or to create a recipe. All opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post.

Tiramisu Trifle

I had a Christmas party yesterday and made a lot of festive food for the table which I will be blogging about throughout the week. Every party needs a dessert centrepiece and this year I decided to make a trifle. It was mainly inspired by the Waitrose Christmas Dessert Campaign. Their research shows that the top 5 desserts that people enjoy as a tradition in households at Christmas are the following:

• Christmas Pudding
• Christmas Cake
• Mince Pie
• Chocolate Yule Log
• Trifle

Which one is your favourite and what are you making this year? Personally I'm not a fan of the first 3 so my plan was to make either a chocolate yule log or a trifle. I'm planning to make a yule log for Christmas day so I started thinking about how to put a twist on the traditional trifle. Italian cuisine is ony of my favourite cuisines and if I eat at an Italian restaurant I will almost certainly order tiramisu for dessert. Hence my tiramisu trifle. Waitrose kindly sent me a gift box which included a gift voucher to purchase the ingredients for this recipe. 

This trifle is made with pears poached in marsala wine and mulled wine spices, chocolate panettone soaked in marsala wine, traditional custard and Baileys infused cream. This is topped with Christmas sprinkles from Waitrose. I debated about making a coffee jelly but sadly ran out of time. The trifle was absolutely delicious and really was the star of the day. It's quite boozy but not overly so and anyway it just isn't Christmas with a tipple of alcohol in your dessert! 

I'm sending this to Baking With Spirit hosted by Janine from Cake of the Week. The theme this month is Christmas and this trifle definitely says Christmas!

 Baileys, Marsala wine, Chocolate panettone, double cream, custard, pears, mulled wine spices 

 I've never tried a chocolate panettone - I have some leftover to make panettone bread and butter pudding - look out for the recipe 

 waitrose sells mulled wine wpice packs which contains everything you need to make your own mulled wine

 pour about 3/4 bottle of marsala wine and 100g caster sugar into a pan. Add the mulled wine spices.

 Peel the pears and cut the bottom of so that it can stand upright.  Place the pears in the mixture on a low to medium heat. Cover and allow to cook, turning the pears ocassionally.  Finally stand them up so that the whole pear is infused with the wine and spices. 

 Slice each pear in half and layer the pears on the outside of the dish

 they look really pretty from the outside

 add chocolate panetoone and fill the gaps with more panettone

 pour the rest of the marsala wine on top of the panettone and leave to soak 

 add a layer of vanilla custard - I love how it fills the gaps between the pears 

finish with a layer of Baileys infused cream just because it's not Christmas without Baileys! 

 with Christmas sprinkles. Looks good on the festive food table

 Here's what the rest of the table looks like. The Christmas banner is from Waitrose

Disclaimer: I was sent a gift voucher from Waitrose to buy ingredients for this recipe along with the Christmas decoration and Christmas sprinkles. All opinions expressed are my own.