Grilled Fruit Trifle

Directions

1. To make the mulled cider, place the cider into a pan and gently over a low heat, bring to 60°C (140°F). Once that temperature is reached, add the remaining ingredients and gently simmer for 5 minutes, maintaining the temperature. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool, before straining the cider (discarding the spices) and setting aside for use in the jelly.

2. For the cider jelly, combine the cider, vermouth and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and allow the mixture cool to room temperature. Add the lemon juice, zest and gelatine and allow the gelatine to soften in the mixture for about 20 minutes. Return the pan to the heat and warm the mixture over medium until the gelatine has completely melted. Pass through a fine mesh sieve and set aside.

3. For the Florentine, place the crème fraiche, caster sugar, glucose syrup and honey into a pan and gently melt over medium heat. Combine the mixed peel, pine nuts, pecan nuts, cashew nuts and flour in a bowl and blitz in a mini food processor to a coarse crumb. Combine the syrup mixture with the nut mixture and place in the fridge for 1 hour. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 190°C (374°F). Remove the mixture from the fridge and place between two sheets of baking parchment. Roll the mixture 2mm (0.08 in) thick, then remove the top sheet and place onto a tray to bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and use a cookie cutter (several mm smaller in diameter than the serving glass you will be using) and press out Florentines. Set aside.

4. To make the spiced custard, place the milk, cream and all the spices in a pan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Boil for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally then remove from the heat. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar to ribbon stage, then whisk in some of the warmed cream to temper. Slowly add the remaining warm cream mixture, whisking continuously then return the mixture to the pan and over a moderate heat, bring to exactly 76°C (168.8°F). Keep the mixture at this temperature for 2 minutes, then stir in the gelatine. Once the gelatine has completely melted, pass the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Set the bowl in a larger bowl of iced water to cool quickly. Once cooled, pass the custard a second time through a fine mesh sieve cover the surface of the custard with cling film to prevent a skin from forming. Cover and place in the fridge to chill.

5. For the ginger pancakes, whisk the egg white to stiff peaks. In a separate bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients along with 35g (1.23 oz) water and mix until well combined. Add the whisked egg white. Cook small pancakes (one teaspoon of batter) in a hot, non-stick pan. The recipe will yield about 30 pancakes which will be approximately 30mm (1.18 in) in diameter.

6. To grill the apples, peel and remove the core of each of them and cut in half lengthways. Slice the apples very thin using a mandolin. Brush the softened butter on one side of each apple slice and sprinkle over the caster sugar. Heat the Grill plate and place each apple slice sugar-side down and cook until caramelised.

7. For the Chantilly cream, simply whip the cream, sugar and vanilla seeds together to firm peaks. Transfer into a piping bag and keep in the fridge until needed. To caramelise the pistachios, heat the oil in a pan and add the pistachios, sugar and salt, stirring continuously until the sugar turns into caramel. However, remove the pan from the heat before it turns golden and continue to stir until the caramel hardens, ensuring the pistachios do not clump together. Once hardened, separate the caramelised nuts.
8. To finish, start by gently melting the jelly in a pan over low heat. Place a double layer of apples along the inside of the bottom half of the serving dish or glass. Layer the mini pancakes to cover the apples. Pour enough warmed jelly to just cover pancakes, the place in the fridge to set. Once set, pour a little more warmed jelly to come up 1cm and place a second time in the fridge to set. Once set, add the layer of spiced custard and then the Florentine. Pipe on the Chantilly cream and top with the caramelised pistachio and candied peel.