‘Little praline bricks of the nut of the moment’

Many years ago I used to work at the Home Office. Prison HQ if you must know. We had an old-fashioned way of doing things, even though this was the 1980s, decade of progress (some say). You weren’t allowed to type or photocopy your own papers, they had to be sent to the typing pool or ‘repro’. Departments we never saw and which were accessed solely via brown envelopes placed in out trays. We had a tea lady who came round with tea, coffee and buns. This particular lady also did a side order of her own cream liqueur, which was both deadly and delicious, and with the help of flexitime rendered quite a few of us out for the count post 15.00hrs.

I always think back to her, and those days, when I have a Baileys, which I don’t do these days as I no longer drink. But Baileys is one of those few drinks that seems to cross many divides and elicits an ‘ooh go on then’ if offered.

A recent addition to the Baileys chocolate stable are packets of milk chocolate-covered and Baileys-flavoured nuts (no actual alcohol, so good for me): either peanuts and cashews or almonds, both £3 from Sainsbury’s. They were bangingly sweet although did taste authentically of Baileys, but the crowd went wild for them and they disappeared faster than a blob of jam dropped on an ant hill.

At the other end of the spectrum are Pierre Marcolini’s Petits Bonheurs Praliné Pistache, £31. These were a little more me, although still very sweet: perfect little bricks, individually wrapped, of pistachio (the nut of the moment) praline, topped and tailed with white chocolate.