Being more a savoury than sweet person, I must admit, that when it comes to this particular dessert I may have changed sides. Because it has everything I like! Sweetness of course, different textures, creaminess and lightness and the lovely combination of sweet and salty in the sauce.

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you my favourite dessert: Iced chocolate nougat parfait with honeycomb and butterscotch sauce.

Neither one of the recipes are my own, although I have altered the nougat parfait a bit. But even so, I am just proud for bringing them together. As the last of four courses and plenty of wine on New Year’s Eve people still asked for seconds and loved it. I think that illustrates just how good this is.

You can also prepare it all ahead of time, and just heat up the butterscotch sauce, which makes it ideal for dinner parties. With that said, I must admit that although most of this dessert is fairly straight forward, one element can be rather tricky; caramelizing the hazelnuts.

But fear not, Delia can provide help with this very useful tutorial.

Iced chocolate nougat parfait with honeycomb and butterscotch sauce, serves 6

Adapted from Michel Roux Jr’s recipe.

I doubled this recipe too serve nine, but you could easily stretch just one batch to eight or nine people.

150 g caster sugar

150 g blanched hazelnuts

200 g chopped dark chocolate, not too bitter

6 egg whites, at room temperature

225 g caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla

375 ml double or whipping cream, whipped until soft peaks

Start by melting the sugar in a saucepan (use Delia’s guide for a good result) until golden brown. Add the hazelnuts and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Spread/pour the mixture onto a tray lined with baking parchment. Leave to cool and set. Then roughly chop or break up the caramel by using a wooden spoon. 

In a bain marie, beat egg whites and sugar frothy until the sugar has melted. Then remove the bowl from the heat and continue to whisk until the bowl has cooled and you have stiff peaks in the meringue.

Fold in the hazelnuts, chopped chocolate, vanilla and whipped cream using a spatula. Pour the mixture either into individual containers or one large container, lined with clingfilm. I prefer to use a bread tin. Cover the mixture with cling film and tin foil. Freeze over night.  

Honeycomb, 1 batch

I used about half of this to serve nine people, but no point making half a batch, the honeycomb is so tasty and can either be eaten like sweets or used as sprinkles for icecream or other puddings.

Adapted from this recipe.

80 g butter

160 g caster sugar

80 g golden syrup

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Line a 20 cm tray with parchment paper. Heat up butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan on low-medium heat until the sugar has melted. Turn the heat up and let the mixture boil rapidly, without stirring until golden in colour, about 5 minutes. 

Add the bicarb and stir, but take care as this makes the mixture bubble a lot. Pour the mixture into the lined tray and leave to set. Then cut into pieces.

Chop or crumble in a pestle and mortar for rough crumbs for the parfait. 

Butterscotch sauce, 1 batch

One batch sauce is enough for two batches of nougat.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe.

60 g butter, I used salted

110 g soft light or dark brown sugar, not Muscovado

120 ml double cream

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and let it boil for 5 minutes until the mixture has thickened. Stir occasionally. Add salt and vanilla after taste. Can be kept in the fridge for three days and can be reheated.