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  Quaffers® Feature - December 2001
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 Christmas pudding! |
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 It's that time of year again, and the opportunity to indulge in seasonal food and wine is hard to avoid: and that's before you sit down to Christmas dinner with family or friends!
For many people, Christmas is the only time of year that they drink certain types of wine. Sherry and port get their annual airing, dessert wines suddenly appear appetising, sparkling wines come into their own as people celebrate. Whether this is through force of habit, a willingness to push the boat out, or the only time of the year that your lone Madeira-drinking relative darkens the door, the association between these wines and the festive season is strong.
Likewise the consumption of toothsome delicacies is at its peak. Roll out all the trimmings, both savoury and sweet, wish the pre-Christmas diet had started in November, and batten down the hatches for chocolates, heavy puddings and pastries. Delicious but challenging, particularly for those who can't stand the sight of mince pies and yet another variation on leftover turkey.
However Quaffers® is here to ease the burden this year, at least on the dessert front. We have assembled easy recipes for some alternatives to the usual Christmas fare, along with a selection of celebration wines, and conducted an experiment to find out which were the most popular combinations. Naturally this is a highly subjective task, and the possible range of wines was endless. We chose:
 Prosecco from northern Italy
Zinfandel from California
Oloroso from Jerez in southern Spain
Maury from Pyrenean France
Orange Muscat & Flora from Victoria, Australia
See the consensus of our panel of experts after each recipe below. Thanks to Val, Stuart, Sam, Dan, Sally & Geoff for their selfless participation on behalf of quaffers everywhere! All the wines will be reviewed on our Wine of the Week page throughout December, with a triple helping just before Christmas.
Taste the wines with us here.
Our feature should give you some points of departure, and at the very least, whet your appetite to try an alternative to a half-pound pud or some Stilton. Make sure to use accurate metric measures for best results (1 cup = 250ml; 1 teaspoon = 5ml)!
Christmas Pudding
In the interests of offering a seasonal comparison, our first pudding was the traditional favourite. Admittedly, we cheated and used a supermarket version, which was delicious, especially with brandy cream.
 Experts' wine verdict: Orange Flora & Muscat was the most popular combination by far, with tasters enjoying the contrast of the rich pudding with the sweet fresh citrus flavours in the wine. Zinfandel was second choice, with spicy notes bringing out the spice in the pud.
Chocolate Tart
Simply gorgeous!
250g sweet shortcrust pastry, or a ready-made 20cm/8" shortcrust pastry case
 Filling:
2 tablespoons cornflour
Plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
50g butter
Topping:
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon water
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
2 tablespoons brown sugar
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to line a 20cm/8" diameter flan tin, about 2.5cm/1" deep. Bake blind at 180º C/Gas mark 4/350º F for about 20 minutes until the pastry edges are light golden brown. Remove whatever you have used to bake blind and return the empty pastry case to the turned-off oven to dry the centre of the case. After about 5 minutes remove the baked case, still in its tin, onto a wire cake rack to cool. Even simpler – use a ready-made pastry case!
Make filling. Measure cornflour into a measuring cup, then add enough flour to make one third cup of cornflour and plain flour mixed.
Tip this into a medium-sized saucepan. Add the cocoa and stir with a wooden spoon until there are no lumps.
Stir in the milk and the sugar.
Over a medium heat, stir the mixture until just boiling. Lower heat and cook gently for two minutes.
Remove from heat.
Stir in the butter until it has melted.
Add vanilla.
Pour hot mixture into the baked tart case.
Make topping. Melt the butter with the water.
Add coconut and sugar, stirring until mixed.
Sprinkle this crumbly topping evenly over the still warm chocolate filling.
Cool.
Makes 6 – 8 servings. Best served warm (it can be made in advance and heated up in a low heat oven), with vanilla-flavoured whipped cream or ice-cream. Pretty good cold too!
Experts' wine verdict: This pudding proved most difficult to reach agreement about, with tasters very definite in their preferences. The nod finally went to the Oloroso, with its nutty smoothness offsetting the very rich chocolate filling in an unexpected combination. Others opted for the Maury, with one taster simply writing "Heaven!" on her notes.
Pavlova
 Many people already have their own pavlova recipe which is guaranteed to work every time. This version comes from New Zealand, and makes a crispy outside-chewy inside confection. If your pav looks great in the oven but loses its height after cooling, give it a lift with artful placement of the whipped cream and fruit.
For an interesting variation, add four teaspoons of instant coffee granules to the meringue mixture before cooking. Later top it with whipped cream flavoured with rum, then sprinkle chocolate shavings over it.
3 large egg whites at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon malt vinegar
First prepare the baking tray. Onto it place two sheets of greaseproof paper with a 22cm/9" circle pencilled on the top sheet. Brush this circle with melted butter, then dust it evenly with cornflour.
Set the oven at 180º C/Gas mark 4/350º F, rack in the middle.
In a large bowl beat the three egg whites until very thick, but not to the point where they begin to break.
Add one cup of the sugar in three separate lots, beating very well after each addition.
Add cornflour, vanilla and vinegar. Beat very well again so that all ingredients are evenly mixed.
Add the remaining half cup of sugar, beating it in with just a few turns of the beater.
Scrape all the mixture out onto the prepared greaseproof paper. Shape it so it fits fairly evenly into the marked circle, with a slight depression in the centre.
Put it in the heated oven for 20 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave the pavlova there until the oven is cold.
Peel the paper off the bottom of the pavlova.
Store the pavlova sitting on the second piece of greaseproof paper until ready to add unsweetened whipped cream and topping, such as fresh fruit. Our panel tasted a kiwifruit pavlova.
Experts' wine verdict: Orange Muscat & Flora features again, the orange complementing brilliantly the kiwifruit that was on the tasters' pavlova. A different fruit may have yielded a different response however! The two red wines, Zinfandel and Maury were also mentioned, but polarised opinion when discussed: people either loved the pairing, or really hated it.
Almond Bread
 Make this one a couple of weeks ahead of time, then it will be ready to go with any number of Christmas treats.
3 large egg whites
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 cup flour
70g blanched whole almonds
Allow three days to make and finish this recipe ready to serve.
Grease and flour a 500g (approx. 1lb) loaf tin
Cut a strip of greaseproof paper to fit across the bottom and up the long sides of the tin. Position the paper in the prepared tin, fixing it in place with a dab or two of loaf mixture if necessary.
Set the oven to 180º C/Gas mark 4/350º F.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.
Add the castor sugar in four or five lots, beating well between each addition until a stiff meringue mixture is made.
Use a large perforated spoon to fold in the flour and the almonds.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the paper-lined tin.
Bake for 30-35 minutes at 180º C until pale golden brown.
Leave the loaf in the tin until it is completely cold.
Remove from the tin, peel off the paper and wrap the loaf in tinfoil.
Leave for a couple of days.
Then unwrap it and use a sharp knife to cut it into approximately half-centimetre slices. (Makes about 30.) The loaf will be dense and should take thin slicing without difficulty – be daring!
Place the slices on a baking sheet.
Put into a low temperature oven, at about 110º C/Gas mark 1/4/225º F, until the Almond Bread slices are crisp.
Cool completely before storing in an airtight container. The slices will stay fresh for weeks if properly stored.
Serve as a dessert accompaniment. Particularly good with poached fruit or fruit salad!
Continuous Fruit Salad
 Why continuous? Because once you've made the initial brew, you can keep adding fruit to the leftovers for several days, while the flavours deepen and soak into the contents. This is a great recipe in warmer climates, where the supply of fresh juicy fruit at Christmas time is plentiful. However it should also work with tinned fruit. Excellent for making the non-cook feel like they have contributed to the Christmas feast – get him or her to oversee the rum flaming.
This recipe is art, not science. Quantities are a matter of guesswork, but a salad for five or six people should go into a medium-sized mixing bowl for preparation, before transfer into a more glamorous container for serving.
In the mixing bowl, combine various fruits, peeled and chopped. Pineapple, apple, kiwifruit, berryfruit, watermelon and cherries all last well. Banana, ripe pears and ripe stonefruit (peaches, nectarines) do better if added before each serving, otherwise they tend to brown unattractively.
Tinned or preserved fruit is an acceptable substitute, especially in winter when fresh fruit prices are sky-high. You can mix fresh and tinned fruit too.
The amount of fruit you use will provide more than enough juice for the mixture. If you are using tinned fruit, you will probably need to drain off some of the liquid first or the mixture will become too slushy.
Sugar to taste, if it's really necessary.
Heat approx. 100ml of dark rum in a milkpan or similar. Bring the spirit just to the boil, then light the fumes with a long taper or match so you don't burn yourself. Watch the kitchen cupboards and shelving too, as the effect can be dramatic.
As the rum flames, pour it over the fruit salad. Allow it to burn itself out before stirring the salad well to disperse the rum.
The salad should last three or four days if stored in the fridge, with more fruit additions for interim servings. If you want to make it go on for longer, give it another dose of rum after this amount of time.
If the mixture starts to go at all fizzy, it is fermenting and should be disposed of forthwith!
Experts' wine verdict: Guess what? It's the Orange Muscat & Flora, the orange flavours coping best with the variety of fruits in the salad. Prosecco was second, its dryness and acidity proving effective next to the fruit. Several tasters also commented that they wouldn't mind dipping the almond bread into a little mug of Oloroso, as these two were a great mix on their own.
Why not give us your own successful Christmas pudding combinations?
Send an email here. We'll post some of the best on the website in the New Year, so you can relive those festive moments after it's all over for another twelve months.
 Taste the wines with us here
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| Coming up next month: Western Australia is one of the Antipodes' hidden gems, with some fantastic wines to match. Quaffers® goes West for some summer sun in the January 2002 feature. |
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