Disgracefully Decadent Tiramisu (with a Tried and Tested Gluten Free Option and Thermomix instructions)

Put your biggest, stretchiest pants on, and attach steel girders to your dining chairs... this is not for the faint-hearted!!!

To be fair, it's only a centimetre or so of whipped cream more decadent than a standard tiramisu... and a lil' bit of grated dark chocolate... oh, maybe a couple of other bits... but don't be scared! Start this off the day / evening before you want to serve it, and it will keep for a few days in the fridge (well, if it lasts that long!).

I first started making and tweaking this almost thirty years ago, and then there was a period of drought, whereby there were delightful small people around (for which it's wholly unsuitable, unless you omit the alcohol and cook the egg yolk mixture to 70C, but more of that later!), and then coeliac disease, diabetes etc.... but now that the small people are in their twenties, it's come back as a decadent dessert option, and I had to research, re-vamp and remember a lot of it all over again!

It took me a fair while to get it all back to my version of perfection; so now that I've re-perfected it with a gluten free alternative, I'm getting it down onto my blog ASAP before I forget any of it!

I'll put "OPTIONAL" in brackets for the things that I like to add, which may stray a little from Nonnas' recipes, but it's fairly true to what would be acceptable to Italians, so you can make your own choices!

Whichever way you choose to do it, I hope you and your guests love it as much as we do!

Should serve at least 10, depending on your guests' appetites! Try to stay in charge of serving the initial portions and let people come back for seconds, and you might even be able to serve more!!! If you want to serve in individual glasses/dishes, I'd probably go with half portions of the ingredients, to make a good six portions.

Mum's Stinky Nuts!

So-called because cooking them makes the kitchen eye-wateringly "fragrant" (AKA stinky)...!

I've been making these for too many years to remember; both for myself and the family to nibble on, and to share with friends who come over, especially to go with drinks prior to diving into "proper food"!

They're very quick and simple to make in a pan, you just need to toss them for a few minutes - the longest part is waiting for them to cool down, so they become nice and crunchy! After years of making these intuitively, it took me several attempts to measure out the exact amount of spices and liquids tc. to replicate the way I make them, however after giving it a go as written, feel free to change the spice levels to your own tastes, and if you want them saltier, omit the water and add a little more soy sauce to taste - I just didn't want them to be too salty for people the first time they tried them!