This dessert is like a soft orange cloud of sweetness. The base is store-bought ladyfinger biscuits (savoiyardi) dipped in milk and then sprinkled with roughly chopped walnuts. The cream is a vanilla bavarois flavoured with the fragrance of mandarins and the topping is basically mandarin juice and sugar mixed with gelatin to create a thin topping of mandarin jelly.

For the base

• 7 ladyfinger biscuits (the number of biscuits you will need, depends on the bowl in which you intend to serve the dessert. What you want here, is enough biscuits to cover the base of your bowl).
• ½ cup fresh whole milk
• ¼ cup walnuts, roughly chopped

For the bavarois

• 3 large egg yolks
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup fresh milk
• ¾ cup mandarin juice, preferably freshly squeezed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp gelatine
• 300ml cream

For the mandarin jelly

• ½ cup mandarin juice, preferably freshly squeezed
• 1 ½ tsp gelatine
• 1 tsp sugar

Method

Make the base by dipping the ladyfingers in the milk and covering the base of your bowl. Sprinkle the walnuts over the biscuits.

Make the bavarois. In a bowl of a stand mixer, put the egg yolks with the sugar and whisk on high speed until white and fluffy. Heat the milk while yolks are whisking. As soon as it boils you add it to the yolks, in a steady stream, while beating constantly. Put the mixture in a clean pot and put over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture starts to thicken. Do not boil the mixture, or it will curdle (I take the cream off the heat as soon as it starts to steam). Take pot off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and ½ cup mandarin juice. Put the remaining mandarin juice in a small saucepan. Sprinkle over it the gelatine and dissolve completely, stirring over low heat. Add the gelatin mixture to the mandarin cream and mix well. Pour mixture into a bowl and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until manddarin cream is slightly thickened and has the consistency of an unbeaten egg white.

Whip fresh cream until soft peeks form. Mix mandarin cream into whipped cream and mix well with a spatula. Pour bavarois on top of lady fingers. Chill for one hour.

Make mandarin jelly. Put ¼ cup mandarin juice in a small sauce pan. Sprinkle over it the gelatine. Place saucepan over a bowl with boiling water. Stir until gelatine dissolves. Remove saucepan from top of the water bowl and mix in the rest of the mandarin juice and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves. Pour mandarine jelly on top of the bavarois. The layer will be thin.

Chill in the fridge preferably a day before serving.