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Recipes: Desserts with a Herb Flavour
Lavender flower icecream
8 tbs vodka or gin
3 tbs lavender flowers
6 egg yolks
125ml lavender honey (or runny honey)
250ml thick double cream
Warm the spirit until hand hot in a small bowl and add the flowers. Leave for one hour to infuse, with a lid on the bowl. Strain well through a tea strainer, squeezing the flower heads to extract all the scented spirit.
Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks with an electric beater. Heat the honey to boiling and slowly pour onto the egg yolks whisking all the time. Continue to whisk until cool, and then stir in the lavender flavouring.
Fold in the thick cream, whipped double cream maybe used instead. Transfer to either a freezer proof bowl or an ice-cream machine and freeze.
Serve decorated with lavender petals.
Refreshing fruit and mint sorbet
200ml fruit juice (grapefruit, orange and pineapple are all good)
50g sugar
150 ml water
5 large sprigs of lime mint
I egg white
Lime mint flowers or leaves as decoration
Boil the sugar and water together until the sugar is dissolved. Chop the mint leaves finely and add to the syrup, leave to one side to cool for 30 minutes.
Add the chosen juice to the mint mixture and strain into a freezerproof bowl or an ice-cream maker.
Freeze until semi-frozen, this will take 45min to 1hour in the freezer, times in an ice-cream machine will vary according to the model. At this point, beat the egg white stiffly and fold into the semifrozen mixture.
Refreeze until firm but not completely solid.
Serve decorated with the lime mint flowers or leaves.
Chocolate and Violet Sorbet
30 sweet violet flowers
175g caster sugar
50g Cocoa powder
125 g high quality dark chocolate
Warm 500ml of water in a saucepan with the caster sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, do not allow the syrup to get too hot. Add the washed violet flowers to the warm syrup and leave to infuse for up to 1 hour.
Remove the violets with a slotted spoon, and rewarm the syrup in the pan. Add a little syrup to the cocoa in a small bowl and blend well before returning the cocoa mixture to the pan. Break the chocolate into small pieces and add to the pan, whisking well to dissolve the chocolate.
Bring the mixture to the boil, then immediately remove the pan from the heat and place in a pan of iced water for at least 15 minutes.
When the mixture is completely cold pour into an ice-cream maker and churn until set, then transfer to a plastic container and freeze overnight before serving garnished with violet flowers.
This sorbet is lovely at the end of a rich meal and can be served with a raspberry sauce easily made by processing raspberries with a squeeze of lemon juice in the food processor and then straining the sauce through a sieve to remove the seeds before serving with the sorbet.
Creamy summer fruit salad
500g summer fruit
(Strawberries, raspberries, cultivated blackberries can all be used either alone or mixed)
250ml double cream
2 tbs golden castor sugar
125 ml greek yoghurt
3 tbs orange juice
20 lemon balm leaves – finely chopped
The leaves from 5 sprigs of pineapple mint – finely chopped
Mix together the sugar, yoghurt and orange juice and fold the mixture into the whipped cream. Stir in the fruit and the herbs and spoon into a decorative serving dish.
If the ingredients were not chilled, then refrigerate before serving, garnished with sprigs of the herbs.
Midsummer fruit salad
3 nectarines – halved, stoned and sliced
250g seedless grapes
2 thin skinned oranges – peeled and sliced
250g seasonal soft fruit i.e. loganberries, raspberries, strawberries.
125g blueberries.
3 tbs brandy
250 ml orange juice
1tbs each of thyme, lemon balm and fruity mint (lime or pineapple) – chopped
The fruit content of this salad is infinitely variable, according to the season.
Put the prepared fruit into a pretty serving bowl and sprinkle over the herbs. Pour over the juice and the brandy and mix gently. The juice maybe sweetened if desired before adding to the fruit.
Chill the salad in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.
Raspberry and basil cream pots
An unusual and delicious dessert.
500ml double cream
6 – 8 stalks of basil – leaves and stalks torn roughly into pieces
(cinnamon basil is lovely but any type of basil can be used)
4 egg yolks
1 tbs caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
150g raspberries
Start the night before you need to dessert!
Very gently warm the cream in a small pan, but do not allow it to boil. Add the torn basil and cool, refrigerate overnight in the pan.
The next day beat the sugar with the egg yolks in a large heatproof bowl. Reheat the cream, but do not boil, strain through a sieve onto the egg mixture, mix the cornflour with a little water and stir this into the cream and egg mix.
Place the bowl containing the basil flavoured cream over a pan of boiling water and heat gently, stirring all the time, until the cream has thickened. This will take about 10 minutes.
Divide the mixture between 4 individual ramekin dishes. Sprinkle over the raspberries and leave to cool. Either serve immediately or refrigerate until required.
Mint chocolate mousse
(Serves 4)
225g good dark chocolate (with a high % cocoa solids)
4 eggs – separated
2 tbs brandy
2 tsp finely chopped grapefruit mint leaves
Whipped cream and grapefruit mint flowers to decorate
Melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave or over in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until smooth. Beat the egg yolks together and add to the chocolate. Beat thoroughly and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
Whip the egg whites to the soft peak stage and fold gently into the mousse.
Spoon the mixture into 4 pretty glass bowls and chill for 2 hours. Just before serving, decorate with swirls of whipped cream and mint flowers.
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