Recipe: Iced White Chocolate & Gingerbread Parfait

For Twelve:
Ingredients: 800 ml Double Cream; 300g White Chocolate; 50g unsalted Butter; 200g Pain d'Epices (or McVities Ginger Cake, possibly preferable); 450g Sugar; 12 Egg Yolks; 3.5 tablespoons Dark Rum; 2 tablespoons Dark Treacle; 300g Prunes; 1 tablespoon Cinnamon; 1 bottle Red Wine.

Method:
1. Using 150g sugar along with Red Wine and Cinnamon, poach prunes according to the method given elsewhere (Recipe: Marsala Posset)

2. Melt White Chocolate and Butter along with 100 ml Cream in a double boiler. When melted, pour into bowl and chill until good and firm, stirring from time to time. When firm enough, use a piping bag to pipe the mixture into 4-6 'sausage' shapes, each the length of a loaf tin. Pipe the 'sausages' onto greaseproof paper on a tray, and place this in the freezer for them to firm up.

3. Combine Pain d'Epices in a blender with 200 ml Cream, warmed slightly. Blend thoroughly, then refrigerate to cool.

4. Make sugar syrup with remaining Sugar and 8 fl oz Water. Boil until it reaches 108 degrees C, then cool, off heat, for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk egg yolks in a bowl, then add syrup to beaten yolks, and continue whisking until cool.

5. Whisk remaining Cream, then fold in both Pain d'Epices mixture, and egg yolk/syrup mixture.Mix in Dark Rum & Treacle. Chill in the fridge.

6. Grease loaf tin, and line base with greaseproof paper (probably for this quantity you will need to make two parfaits, and thus need to prepare two tins - you won't regret having a second parfait to consume at a later date). Pour a third of the mixture into the prepared tin, and freeze twenty minutes or so, to firm up. Place one or two White Chocolate 'sausages' on the firmed mixture, pour in more parfait mixture, and again freeze to firm it up. Top this with the remaining 'sausages that you want to use, and finish with the remainder of the parfait mixture. Freeze for at least eight hours.

Serve slices of the parfait along with a spoonful of poached prunes in their syrup.