ALL YEAR ROUND // Recipe for four

Mulched pine caramels

In spring and summer we head out to the forest and place taps in about 15 to 20 large radiata pine trees. The best time to collect the sap is between October and January here in Australia, when it’s running up and down the tree. When we’ve finished tapping the tree, we always fill the tap hole with a wooden plug to prevent harm to the tree from invasive insects and disease. If you can’t get pine sap, or resins from another tree such as birch, you could use molasses instead. Molasses can be quite strong though, so be careful how much you use.

CHOCOLATE SHELLS

300 g (10½ oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces

You will need 9 ml (¼ fl oz) spherical chocolate shell moulds here. Heat the chocolate to 34°C (93°F) over a double boiler (or put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Hold the chocolate at that temperature for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Pour into the moulds and leave to set in the fridge until ready to serve.

SALTED PINE CARAMEL

50 g (1³/₄ oz) spring pine sap

300 g (10½ oz) fine cane sugar

360 g (12³/₄ oz) cold butter, chopped

20 g (³/₄ oz) pink Murray salt

Heat 30 ml (1 fl oz) water with the pine sap to 70°C (158°F) and cook for 20 minutes. Strain the liquid and add to the sugar in a saucepan. Cook until the mixture reaches 180°C (356°F) on a sugar thermometer, then remove from the heat and stir in the butter until melted. Add the salt and leave to set in the fridge until it has a paste-like consistency. Spoon into a piping bag and fill the chocolate shells (left).

MULCHED PINE

200 g (7 oz) young, green pine needles, fresh from the tree

Wash and dry the pine needles. Chop as finely as possible (we use a spice grinder) to make a fine mulch. Coat the chocolate caramels in mulched pine and keep chilled until ready to serve.