Raspberry and yogurt sorbet

Even though July has not been so very summery as one could wish for, the summer generally is a good reason enough to make sorbet. A week ago I made the most incredible lemon yogurt sorbet with a good splash of limoncello..it was creamy, tart and refreshing in the same time. Inspired by that lemony goodness I decided to make sorbet again, still with yogurt because it really takes this otherwise quite icy dessert to a different level, this time with raspberries though.
I use liquid glucose in my sorbets and ice creams, it stops it from freezing rock hard and makes it more smooth and creamy. The addition of some sort of alcohol will also prevent it from freezing too hard. Liquid glucose can be replaced with white corn syrup and of course you can leave the booze out if there will be children eating the dessert.
I have an ice cream maker at home but for this small amount of sorbet I just make it by hand with the help of a plastic container and a freezer.
This recipe will make 6 good sized portions.

200 grams raspberries (fresh or defrosted)
200ml water
140 grams caster sugar
40 grams glucose
200ml yogurt
20ml limoncello

Combine water, raspberries and sugar in a pot. Bring to boil and let simmer for 10min. Strain through a fine sieve and add glucose, stir until melted and let cool down. Stir in yogurt and limoncello to the raspberry mix and freeze in a plastic container. Keep stirring the mix every 20min or so until the mix is frozen but not solid.

Raspberry chocolate parfait

Sometimes I don't really think things through before starting to cook or bake something and the result will always be a bit of a surprise then. This was the case when making this parfait; all I knew was that I wanted a yummy dessert and that I had to use what was in my freezer and cupboard. I always keep a bag of frozen raspberries in the freezer, I like to eat them defrosted with yogurt in the morning or to put in sponge cakes or muffins. Chocolate is another must have ingredient that always hangs around either my fridge or cupboard, dark, milk or white...
These two ingredients go so well together so there was no doubt the flavour of the dessert was going to be nice. Semifreddo has been a hit the last few times I made it so I decided to make something similar, but in French it is called Parfait.
The dessert went down a treat together with fresh raspberries and hot chocolate sauce.

Parfait
2 eggs, separated
200ml cream
60 grams caster sugar
40 grams dark chocolate
60 grams raspberries

Melt chocolate and let cool down. Whisk egg yolks and 30 grams of sugar until white and fluffy. In a separate bowl whip cream until soft peaks appear. Beat egg whites in a third bowl, when soft peaks appear start adding the sugar bit by bit while beating to a firm meringue. Divide the egg yolk mix in two and mix with raspberries in one bowl and chocolate in another. Add half of the cream to the raspberries and the rest of the cream to the chocolate. Last gently fold in the meringue. Pour in the chocolate mix in a tin and the raspberry on top. Freeze for 4 hours. Take out in room temperature 10min before serving.

Chocolate sauce
2tbsp cocoa powder
2tbsp caster sugar
1tbsp golden syrup
3tbsp water
1 pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a pot, stir until well combined. Bring to boil and let simmer for 3-4min while stirring. Serve hot on the side of the parfait.

Blackberries; jam and biscuits.

A couple of weeks ago Martin and myself went for a walk in the evening around the area we live in. Not too far from our house there is a little stream that has blackberry bushes growing all around it and I have been there several times this summer to see how long it will be before the berries are ripe enough to pick. Little did I know that this very evening, walking down along the stream, the berries were just sitting there ripe and ready, waiting to be picked. Since we were without baskets or buckets I took my scarf off and used as an improvised bag to carry the berries in and within 20min we had picked around a litre.
I decided to make a jam out of the berries just the way i did the Raspberry jam earlier this year, and after a couple of weeks in the fridge the jam was turned in to shortbread biscuits with lemon icing. Lovely with a cup of tea.

Dough
130 grams butter, room temperature
60 grams caster sugar
200 grams plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1 egg

Icing+filling
5tbsp icing sugar
jucie and zest of a lemon
50ml blackberry jam

Beat sugar and butter until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and continue beating until smooth. Add flour and baking powder and quickly work into a dough. Divide in to 6 pieces, shape rolls the length of the baking tray and gently push down a little. With your finger make a well in the middle of the roll and fill with the jam.
Bake on 180C 12-15min, or until golden in colour.
Mix icing sugar with a little lemon juice to create a smooth icing. Drizzle icing over the jam/pastry lengths and cut in to 2 cm wide biscuits and sprinkle some lemon zest on top.

Jam

These lovely rhubarb are from Martins parents garden and have been living in my freezer for a couple of weeks now, waiting to be used in something. So the other day I was making raspberry jam and decided to try making rhubarb jam as well. It is so delicious on toast or freshly baked bread, I think I will even try to make rhubarb jam cakes.
Jam sugar is now available in the super market here in Ireland and it makes life so easy when making jam. All you need is jam sugar and what ever fruit or berries you like.

Rhubarb jam
170grams rhubarb, chopped
120grams jam sugar
1tsp vanilla sugar
1/2tsp cardamom

Mix sugar and rhubarb in a pot and let melt on low heat. Bring to the boil and let simemr for 3-5min, test if the jam i ready by putting a small bit on a cold plate, if it sets within a minute it is ready. Add cardamom and turn of the heat, let stand for 5min. Transfer to clean, hot jars.

Raspberry and vanilla jam
200grams raspberries
200grams jam sugar
1/4 vanillapod (only the seeds)
Mix raspberries, vanilla and sugar in a pot. Bring to the boil and let simmer for only 2 min. Turn off the heat and let stand for 10min. Transfer to clean, hot jars.

Wild strawberry and vanilla liquor

When I was in Sweden this summer I spent a few days out in our country house, and at this time of the year the fields are full of little wild strawberries. I picked more than a litre and brought it over to Ireland to save some of the taste of summer. But what do you do with a litre of wild strawberries that has been in a plastic jar on a 2 1/2 flight? Well, the only sensible thing was to put them in a bottle of Eau de Vie and sugar and let the alcohol take flavour from the berries and then turn into lovely liquor.

The other day the bottle had been sitting in my window for a few weeks and it was time to strain it and flavour with vanilla. The only problem was that I am not the owner of a muslin cloth that is usually used to strain liquids that you want to become clear. Looking around for a tea towel or something similar I found one of those textile shopping bags that I for unknown reason had washed. I felt so smart when I decided to put this bag in a fine sieve and strain the liquor through it. It worked a treat; out came perfectly, clear red liquid that smelled just like summer it self!

1litre berries

330ml eau de vie

400grams sugar

Put 200grams of the sugar in a bottle together with the berries and alcohol. Let stand in a sunny window for 2 weeks. Add the rest of the sugar and leave for another 2 weeks until the sugar has melted. Strain the liquor and poor into a clean bottle, add more sugar if you like it sweeter. I also put a 1/4 of a vanilla pod in the bottle. Let stand in a cool, dark place for a couple of months and then open on a cold autumn day and remember the summer.

Blueberry jam cakes

If there is one thing you will see a lot of on my blog it is blueberries. It is one of my favourite berries and they are not just very tasty; they are good for you too. They are full of antioxidants and are classed as one of the new "super foods".

In Sweden we pick buckets full of blueberries in the forrest just around the corner from our country house. Usually we freeze some and the rest we make jam of, and if you have a jar of homemade blueberry jam you have to make these little jam cakes. It is so easy and just the perfect thing to have with a cup of tea or coffee.

200 grams butter, roomtemperature

85 grams sugar

1tsp bakingpowder

300 grams plain flour

4-5tbsp blueberry jam

2tbsp icing sugar+water

Beat sugar and butter until pale and fluffy. Mix bakingpowder and flour, add to the sugar/butter-mix. Mix just enough until it forms a dough. Divide into 20 pieces. Roll little balls and put in small muffincups. Make a little well in the middle of the dough with your finger and fill with 1/2tsp of blueberry jam.

Bake on 175C for 18-20min. Let cool down. Mix icing sugar with just enough water to create a thick icing. Drizzle on top of the cakes.

Serve with a cup of tea or coffee!

Raspberries and lemon...

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I love raspberries and lemon together in cakes, so yesterday while waiting for the truffles to set I made some muffins. I flavoured the mix with lemon and put a few raspberries on the top just before i baked them. The result was a very fluffy muffin with a lovely flavour. The recipe is for 16 big muffins.

150ml milk

75grams butter

220grams sugar

240grams plain flour

2 1/2tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1 lemon, zest and juice

raspberries

Heat milk in a pan and add butter to melt. Set a side. In a bowl whisk eggs and sugar until white and fluffy. Mix flour and baking powder, add through a sive to the egg and sugar mix. Add milk and butter, juice of a lemon and the lemon zest.

Fill muffincups to 2/3, put 3-4 raspberries on top. Bake in the lower part of the oven for 15-20min on 2ooC.

Blueberry-cardamom bakewell

Bakewell tart is sort of new to me, we do have something similiar in Sweden but I cant remember that I ever tried to make it. This one I made on Saturday and I have done some small changes to suit my taste. I think blueberries, almonds and cardamom is a lovely combination...The recipe is for a small tart, say a sandwich-tin, so if you want to make a large one just do the double amount of the recipe.

Pastry

25grams castersugar

50grams butter,at roomtemperature

75grams plain flour

1 eggyolk

Almondfilling

75grams butter,at roomtemperature

75grams castersugar

75grams ground almonds

1tbsp plain flour

1 egg+1eggyolk

Topping

3tbsp blueberryjam

1tsp castersugar

1/2tsp cardamom,ground

2tbsp flakes almonds

Mix flour and sugar,rub in the butter til it forms crumbles. Add the eggyolk and quickly mix til it forms a dough. Roll out between cling film and line the baking tin. Put in the fridge while making the almondfilling.

Beat eggs and sugar til white,slowly add egg and eggyolk. Fold in flour and ground almond.

Spread the blueberryjam over the pastrybase,gently spread the almondfilling on top of the jam in an even layer. Sprinkle with almonds,sugar and cardamom.

Bake for 35-45min on 160C/gasmark 4. Cake is finished when a skewer comes out clean.