Hi there gastronauts!
Well, I hope you've been managing to get out in this glorious sunshine, it's perfect picnic and brilliant barbecue weather!As soon as the sun comes out my mind turns to glorious summer puds and ice cream, I still get that automatic reflex to run and get some money when I hear the chimes of an ice cream van pulling up outside in the street!
These days I have my own ice cream maker so I can experiment with flavours you cant get from Mr wippy, my favourite is bay leaf and toasted fennel seed, but it's also useful for smooth exotic sorbets, like my mango and lime sorbet that, believe it or not, goes fantastically well with Parma ham as a starter.
It's not an expensive bit of kit really, mine was a Christmas present from my mom a couple of years ago, it was about £15 from Aldi and it consists of a double walled bowl that you freeze and a paddle with a motor that you clamp to the top to churn whatever kind of iced concoction you desire. It makes really good smooth ice cream and I keep the bowl in my freezer all the time in case I fancy turning left over custard or fruit that's over ripe into ice cream or sorbet. If you get the chance I would grab yourself one when you can. You may not use it every week but it's good to know its there when you need it! ( as you can probably guess, I have a lot of culinary gadgets that have hardly ever even come out of their box, including a ravioli maker, a pasta machine, a panini press, etc etc etc! I'm sure I'll get round to using them one day!)
If you haven't got an ice cream maker you'll be glad to know that you can still make cooling frozen desserts that are every bit as satisfying as churned ice cream, and I'm going to show you one of them in this blog. It's an Italian dessert called "semi-freddo" and, whilst it isn't as soft as ice cream, its still gorgeous and creamy and can be knocked up ready to freeze in about 15 minutes.
The second pud I'm doing this week is also easy and quick to assemble, it takes a good day in the fridge to let it come together properly before you can serve it but the actual building of it is simple and takes about 30 minutes. It's a good old fashioned English pud that uses seasonal summer fruit like strawberries or, in this case, wonderful British cherries of which there is a glut this year as the spring we've just had makes for ideal cherry-growing.
It's called summer cherry pudding, or, more traditionally, summer fruit pudding. Its usually made with left over bread for the outside case but I've used Madeira cake as its much nicer and sweeter and I know a lot of people don't like the feeling in their mouths of what is basically wet soggy bread!
As you can see from the pictures in the recipe I've also given it a real "wow!" factor by using up the egg whites left over from the semi-freddo to make a meringue. It's easier than it looks, believe me!
So I suppose we'd better get you started then!
Raspberry and Pistachio Semi-Freddo:
( makes about 8 portions if serving with the summer cherry pudding.)
Equipment:
Medium saucepan.Mixing bowl.
Balloon whisk.
Non-stick loaf tin.
Cling film.
Freezer.
Ingredients:
200g fresh raspberries.100g shelled unsalted pistachios.
3 eggs, as fresh as you can get them. ( fresh eggs make better meringues for the summer cherry pudding.)
300ml single cream.
150ml whole milk.
1 heaped teaspoon of cornflour.
75g vanilla sugar, or caster sugar if you don't have vanilla sugar. You can add about a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the eggs and sugar mix later on if you want to instead.
1 tablespoon of fennel seeds. ( this is optional, but the mild aniseed flavour of the fennel seeds goes really well with the sharp tart raspberries.)
Method:
Firstly, if you are using them, toast the fennel seeds in a dry frying pan over a high heat for about 3 minutes, as soon as you start to smell the scent of aniseed remove from the heat and leave aside to cool.
I like to crack the eggs into my hand as I find that juggling the yolk from half-shell to half -shell can lead to the yolks being broken on the jagged edge of the shell, you can also get more whites separated from the yolks this way. It's a bit messy but I think its the best way as any trace of yolk in the whites will mean you won't be able to whip them up to make the meringue.
Put the egg yolks in a separate bowl and add the vanilla sugar, or caster sugar and vanilla extract.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are pale and creamy, meanwhile, put the cream and milk in the saucepan over a low heat and gently bring up to just under boiling point, remove from the heat and allow to cool a little. You're basically making a custard here.
Add a splash of the warm milk and cream to the egg and sugar mix and whisk together.
Then pour the mixture from the bowl back into the saucepan and
whisk again.
Put the saucepan back on the heat and stir continuously until it starts to thicken.
( incidentally, I don't usually add cornflour to custard to thicken it, but the addition of it here makes the finished frozen semi-freddo less icy, its something to do with the chemical reaction between the cornflour and the cream which reduces the size of the ice crystals in the finished dessert, but I'm no scientist so am not really sure how it does it!!!)
Continue to whisk for another couple of minutes until you have a good thick custard. Set it aside and allow to cool. give it a whisk now and then to stop it forming a skin on top.
Next, line the loaf tin with the cling film, try and get it as snug a fit to the bottom as you can and make sure there's plenty of over hang to make it easier to release when its frozen.
When your custard has cooled add the raspberries, toasted fennel seeds, if using, and raspberries and fold them in gently.
Then pour the mixture into the cling film lined loaf tin. cover tightly with more cling film and pop it in the freezer.
Freeze for a minimum of 4 hours, or overnight, just to be on the safe side. When its good and frozen remove from the freezer and give it 10 minutes to soften a bit before slicing and serving. You can serve it on its own, maybe with a chocolate sauce or raspberry coulis, or it goes great with the summer cherry pudding!
Summer Cherry Pudding Recipe:
( makes two puddings, enough for 4 people to share.)
Equipment: (for the puddings.)
2 large ramekins, approx 4" diameter by 4" deep. ( I bought my ramekins from the 99p shop.)Cling film.
medium saucepan.
A good long serrated knife, to make it easier to slice the cakes without crushing them.
Equipment: (for the meringue.)
Very clean and dry metal mixing bowl.Balloon whisk.
Piping bag and star nozzle.
Chefs blowtorch.
Cherry stoner, if you have one, or small sharp knife.
Ingredients:
2 x all butter Madeira cakes ( sorry but I didn't take note of the weight of each cake, I bought them from ASDA as you can see.)350g of frozen morello cherries. ( I used these as I had them already in the freezer, but you can use all fresh cherries if you want.)
200g of fresh English cherries. Or 600g if not using the morellos.
6 tablespoons of caster sugar.
3 egg whites, saved from the Semi-Freddo recipe.
1/4 of a teaspoon of cream of tartar.
Method:
If you don't have a cherry stoner then you will have to halve the cherries and dig the stone out.
If you are using the morello cherries put them in the saucepan along with 3 tablespoons of the sugar and put on a medium heat on the stove.
If you are using all English cherries then put about 3/4 of them in the saucepan with 3 tablespoons of the sugar and a splash of water and put on the stove on a medium heat.
While the cherries are stewing, line the ramekins with clingfilm, making sure its a good fit on the bottom of the ramekins and there is plenty of over hang.Next, slice the cakes lengthwise about 1/2 inch thick.
Gently push the cake slices into the side of the ramekins, don't worry too much if the cake breaks up, once the bits are in there push them against the side gently but firmly until there is a complete ring of cake. If you see any gaps, just fill them in with spare bits of the cake, then cut a square large enough to fill in the hole at the bottom. What you're looking for is a completely encased ramekin, as in the picture. Don't squash the cake too much as the juice from the cherries wont soak through when you put in the stewed cherries.When the cherries have been gently bubbling for about 10 minutes, add the rest of the fruit and continue to stew for a couple of minutes. ( the idea here is the first cherries you put in will be nicely stewed down and will release their juice whilst the second lot of cherries you put in will still have a bit of bite to them. )
let the stewed cherries cool for a few minutes and taste to check for sweetness. I like them to be not too sweet as the Madeira cake is quite sweet itself, but if you've got a really sweet tooth then you can add more sugar if you like.
Once the cherries have cooled a little spoon them into the cake cases and press down. get plenty of juice in there too so that it soaks into the sponge nicely.
Cut another 2 pieces of the Madeira, big enough to fit over the base of the ramekin entirely, then trim to size.
Gently tease out the overhanging clingfilm and wrap it over the base as tightly as you can.Press down on the base and pop in the fridge. It might be a good idea to weigh the puddings down with something, a tin of beans standing on top of the puddings is ideal .
Now, once you've done the same with the other ramekin, it's time to leave them in the fridge overnight so that Madeira cake and stewed cherries become one with each other.
The Next Day!
Meringues Method:
In your clean dry metal bowl, whisk the egg whites to semi-stiff peaks. (the classic test of this is to turn the bowl upside down, I'm sure you've either done it before or seen it done.)
When you are happy with them you can start adding the sugar. Add 1 tablespoon and whisk in, then repeat for the second and third tablespoon.The egg whites will take on a more silky look and will stiffen up more.
Finally, add the cream of tartar and whisk again for a couple of minutes. You should have firm, glossy looking meringue.
Fill the Piping bag, with nozzle inserted, gently with the meringue then twist the end of the piping bag until you can see the meringue just starting to come out of the nozzle.
Gently ease the clingfilm out whilst lifting the ramekin off and the pudding should release easily.
Now you can go mad with the meringue! you can do any pattern you want, just make sure the pudding is covered.
Then you can light your blowtorch and gently lick the flame over the meringue to colour it up. ( just a quick note, I don't know if the meringue would be suitable for pregnant women as you're not actually cooking the egg whites, just giving them some colour. They won't make you ill, and it's perfectly safe, but I know pregnant women are usually advised against eating stuff like this, sorry!)
The juicy cherries, the rich buttery cake and that light-as-a-feather meringue along with the sharp raspberries, crunchy pistachios, and aniseed tang of the fennel enrobed in that creamy cool semi freddo makes one hell of a summer dessert!
Well, I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog. I think it's probably my favourite looking and tasting pud I've ever made!
Look forward to seeing you next time when I'll hopefully be able to bring you a full report of Low n' Slow's pop up I'm helping out with this weekend, as well as another recipe blog later in the week! No rest for the wicked, eh?
Until next time then,
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