1.9 KiB
Gooseberry fool with sponge fingers
Recipe yields 6 portions
Ingredients
- 1 kilograms gooseberries
- 100 grams caster sugar
- 3 heads elderflower blossom
- 1 dessertspoons elderflower cordial
- 400 milliliters double cream
- 5 pieces eggs, separated
- 125 grams sugar
- 150 grams flour
- icing sugar
Directions
Remove the tails from the gooseberries and put them in a saucepan with the sugar, the elderflower blossoms (tied together with a piece of cotton or string) and four tablespoons of water. Cover the pan and simmer the gooseberries on a very gentle heat for 20 minutes.
Remove the remains of the elderflower blossoms and liquidise the gooseberries in a blender or pass them through the fine mesh of a mouli-legumes. If using a blender, pass the purée through a sieve to remove any remaining seeds.
Whip the cream and fold in the purée (once cold). Taste for balance and then pour into glasses and leave to chill in the refrigerator.
To make the sponge fingers:
Preheat the oven to 150C. Whisk together the egg yolks with two-thirds of the sugar until the yolks are thick, pale and much increased in volume.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites, slowly adding half the remaining sugar until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
Stir in the remaining sugar and then fold together the two mixtures. Sieve the flour and then sprinkle and fold it into the mixture, making sure it is thoroughly mixed, while at the same time trying not to deflate it too much.
Load the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large plain round nozzle. Pipe out lengths of mixture the size and thickness of a finger.
Dust the finger shapes with icing sugar and bake for 15 minutes. After removing the biscuits from the oven, dust them again with icing sugar and leave for five minutes before returning to the oven to finish.
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author: Rowley Leigh, FT
tags: Puddings and Desserts