Showing posts with label gluten-free cold desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gluten-free cold desserts. Show all posts

Chocolate Mousse - Elegant, Opulent, Easy and Makes an Excellent Ice Cream when Frozen. Gluten-Free

Chocolate mousse, like the equally ubiquitous apple pie and crème caramel is one of those simple recipes that rely totally on the quality of the basic ingredients. As such therefore, it is very well suited to showcasing the best and freshest of organic produce, in this recipe, the nutrient-packed raw egg.



As we raise our own organic poultry, this is a very popular dessert with us and as I make large batches at a time, I've also found that freezing this dessert makes a wonderful and quick alternative to our usual custard-based ice creams.

The Stuff of Legends


Mousse au chocolat, the iconic French dessert, was created by Charles Fazi, Swiss confectioner to the court of Louis XVI. In 1755 M. Fazi was given the onerous task of devising an exciting and original dessert for the visit of foreign ambassadors. Legend has it that the chef spent three days and nights thinking up a recipe and this simple but sumptuous sweet was such a success that Louis rewarded him with a chateau. However, it was in the following century that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made the dessert incredibly fashionable with his variation; mayonnaise au chocolat. The artist was so often associated with chocolate mousse that in many culinary histories he is credited with its creation.

 

The Ingredients 


....are so simple:

150g or 5oz of plain/dark chocolate, of at least 70% cacao.

(I use chocolate buttons which I can buy from a bulk dispenser at my local organic shop.)

4 eggs, separated

2 tablespoons of raw milk or water




Method


Melt the chocolate in or over a bain marie and in the meantime go and collect the eggs!


Add the milk or water to the melted chocolate and mix well to a smooth paste.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

Add the egg yolks by beating them into the melted chocolate. If you whisk the eggs in this order, then you can use the same beater without having to wash it!


Pull the whites over to one side of the bowl and then add the chocolate mixture. By slowly incorporating a little of the white into the latter,  you will find it easier to add the rest while still retaining enough air within the whites to create the desired 'fluffy' effect.



Chill to allow the mixture to set and serve in individual elegant glasses to do justice to your dessert. I decorate mine with chocolate buttons and seasonal flowers.


If you can restrain yourself from eating the lot then leave the rest to freeze into a delicious chocolate mousse ice cream.


 

Alternative Recipe


Instead of the milk or water add one or two ripe bananas to the chocolate and egg yolks. Some of the pictures above show the banana version, which is equally as delicious and which I also freeze to make an ice cream!



If you enjoyed this recipe then please feel free to comment and share it with your friends.

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from an old farmhouse in Normandie,

All the very best,
Sue
©  Sue Cross 2019
Additional Images
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) standing beside his paintings (detail from a colourised photograph taken by Maurice Guibert 1895), thanks to the Pinterest board of Catherine Coffee.





Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Moroccan Gluten-free Petits Fours

When I was a child, many years ago, I was very lucky, on a holiday to the Southern most tip of Spain to visit North Africa. For a child crossing the Straits of Gibraltar with dolphins leaping around the prow seemingly spurring us onwards, it was and for all I know, still is, a magical journey to a beautiful land. There were camels in the gardens of our hotel and my sister and I got to take a short ride on a very gentle female, accompanied by her baby complete with cartoon eyelashes. I remember the sights, sounds and smells of the markets and the statuesque Berber people. As a child I noticed little of the cuisine but there is one scented memory which, like Marcel Proust's lime soaked cake crumbs, calls me back there in an instant; the smell of mint tea. This recipe for stuffed dates is normally accompanied with the same fragrant and typically Moroccan drink.

Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Organic Gluten-free Recipe
Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Organic Gluten-free Recipe
I've chosen the variety Deglet Noor to use in this recipe, which with its elegant tapered shape and soft translucent honey colour, well deserves its name; 'finger of light'.

Dates are thought to be one of the oldest cultivated crops and interestingly enough for this gluten-free recipe, are often referred to as 'the Bread of the Desert'.

A FOREWORD ON ROSEWATER


Rose water in cookery Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Organic Gluten-free Recipe
I make my own rose water as I have a whole garden full of old variety rose bushes including those damask roses traditionally used to make rose water and for culinary use. If you do not have access to organic roses but want to use rose water I'm including here a couple of links, from the two major and traditional rose growing countries: Morocco and Bulgaria. Both rose waters are designated as food-grade but only one carries USDA official organic certification. If you want to know how to make your own then check out the link at the end of this article, where I show how to make and use it medicinally.


INGREDIENTS

(makes 18 Stuffed Deglet Dates you will need to double the mix for large dates)

18 dates
50g - 1¾oz of butter
½ teaspoon of rose water
75g - 2½oz of chopped pistachio nuts
60g - 2oz of powdered sugar
extra chopped pistachios for decoration

Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Organic Gluten-free Appetiser Recipe
It was only when I was making up the stuffing that I noticed the pistachios I'd purchased, the only ones on offer in my local organic store, were salted. Here, in France, pistachios are mostly eaten as an accompaniment to an apéritif. We both tasted the mixture and pronounced it delectable, rather similar to caramel au beurre salé but with more flavours and textures from the hint of rose to the crunchy pistachios. However, the original recipe would be made with unsalted pistachios but when I checked several other recipes...they added salt!.

METHOD


With a sharp knife make an incision in the dates large enough to remove the pit.

Open the date wider using the thumbs.

Melt the butter, remove from the heat and then add the rose water and the chopped pistachios. Add the sugar and mix well.

Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Organic Gluten-free Recipe

Use a potato masher or end of a rolling pin (I used the latter) to obtain a smoother 'dough'.

Divide the mixture into 18 and using a teaspoon, stuff the dates.

Place them in a cool place.

After a couple of hours press the dates more firmly together to make sure the filling is safely in place. Sprinkle with a few chopped pistachios and serve immediately.

Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Organic Gluten-free Petits Fours Recipe

I have to say that this was the first time I'd made these, as normally I stuff dates with home-made marzipan. This recipe was absolutely delicious and I'm glad I only made six because Andy reckoned that once he'd started eating them, it had been hard to stop! He also admitted he could have eaten all of them!

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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ROSE WATER TO MAKE:

Treating eye Problems & facial swelling. Herbal Infusions-Compresses-Eye Baths

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©  Sue Cross 2017 
 




Ice Scream - Raw Milk Rich Vanilla Individual Ice Cream Appetisers. Gluten-free

Recipe Organic Gluten-free Rich Vanilla Ice Cream Eyeballs
I make a lot of ice cream and particularly in the early Spring when the cows are on the new pasture and all our chickens are laying. However, I love making ice cream all year round and this is one I came up with for Halloween or a party with a horror or bad taste theme.

There is a very silly and highly coloured B Movie, based (very loosely) on Edgar Allen Poe's, The Raven and which stars four of my favourite comedy horror and noir actors; Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price and Jack Nicholson. One scene shows  a reluctant sorcerer, Vincent Price's character, Dr Craven, searching his defunct father's laboratory for ingredients, the expression on his face when he opens a box to find a whole slew of eyeballs staring back at him is, well,... priceless.


Recipe Organic Gluten-free Rich Vanilla Ice Cream Eyeballs


A FOREWORD ON VANILLA

I always use whole organic vanilla pods aka beans and for ice cream I have found the best way to get that rich full flavour is to split the bean lengthways and let it infuse into the milk overnight. I can later in the process then wash and dry out the bean and add it to my sugar storage box. However, another and perhaps easier and more economical way to do this is if I add the whole bean (un-split) to a storage box  of sugar in the first place.  This way I can keep adding sugar for as long as the bean still has the aroma of vanilla (quite a time actually!) and always have vanilla sugar ready-infused and handy for all my recipes. I tend to start with this rich vanilla custard base for all my ice cream varieties, as I find it creates an extra depth to complement all the other flavours. 


A FOREWORD ON RAW MILK

It is very easy here in France to buy raw organic milk. In fact outside farm gate sale hours, there is even a handy raw milk vending machine in the next town down the coast from us! If you live in a country where you may have to travel a long way to obtain it and thus buy in bulk, this is another handy way to store it.

EQUIPMENT

I don't have an ice cream maker so this is the hand-made method but it is much easier if you have an electric whisk!

A flat edged wooden spatula or spoon and a silicon spatula to remove the last drop of custard from the pan!

I also try to use a minimum of plastic in our lives, so I recently was able to get hold of some glass food storage boxes which are freezer safe. These are particularly useful for ice cream and sorbet making.

INGREDIENTS

For the Ice Cream:

(Makes 2½ litres, around 4 UK pints or 2½ quarts of ice cream)

I always make ice cream in large amounts, one because you can never have too much and I also find it freezes better that way. You can make a lot of eyeballs out of this mix but as I've plenty more ice-cream recipes on the way, this amount of ready-made rich vanilla will come in very handy.

Normandy Cow Raw Rich Milk for  Vanilla Ice Cream Eyeballs

1½ litres (2½ UK pints), (just over 3 US pints) of raw full-cream milk
9 eggs (12 bantam)
255g (9oz) (just over 1 cup) blond cane sugar
250ml (8 fl oz) (1 cup) raw thick cream
A vanilla bean split lengthways (or ready-infused into the sugar above)


METHOD

For the Ice Cream



Place the vanilla bean in the milk in a heavy bottomed pan and heat to below boiling point, just when you start to see water vapour rising off the milk. Remove from heat and leave to stand - I tend to leave it overnight but that is not necessary.




Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they have a creamy, frothy consistency.

Re-heat the milk to below boiling.







Add the milk to the egg and sugar mixture and whisk well.



making organic gluten-free ice cream
Use the same pan you had the milk in (no need to wash it!) to slowly heat the mixture. Some people are scared of making egg custard this way, they are worried they will end up with 'scrambled egg' but if it bothers you then you can use a bain marie. If you are unaware of this method, just place your pan in another wider pan ( a frying pan, for example) containing a couple of centimetres (an inch) of warm water, so that your custard mixture is not in direct contact with the heat but sits inside the pan of heated water. Personally, I think if you have your custard on a gentle heat and are constantly stirring, you will be fine. At this point you need to put a good film on your computer, as it will take around 20 minutes constantly stirring the mix before the custard is ready. You will know when because it will start to coat the back of the spatula - as in the picture above.






Leave your custard to cool.






When cool add the cream and whisk thoroughly.






Pour the completed ice-cream custard into your freezer box, using the silicone spatula to get every last precious bit.

Put the box into the freezer. I have a really simple freezer, so my ice-cream is left overnight to get to the part-set stage.

When the ice-cream is part set, you need to break up the ice crystals to form a smooth creamy texture.

Recipe Organic Gluten-free Rich Vanilla Ice Cream

Recipe Organic Gluten-free Rich Vanilla Ice Cream Process
Tip the contents of the box into a large bowl and using an electric whisk make a smooth paste.

Return the ice cream into the box and put back in the freezer. Leave to set again.

I usually get the ice cream out once more, when it is part set and repeat the process.


Once the ice cream is fully set you will be ready to go on to the next stage.

INGREDIENTS 

For the Eyes:

I chose very simple organic ingredients, two sorts of chocolate; milk and plain, cocoa, to make the flecks in the irises, powdered sugar to add a glint to the pupil. I built up the eye onto a chocolate 'button' which gave me the round shape, I can buy these from the jar in my local organic store, so just got the amount I needed.

I actually made the icing sugar from the same cane sugar I had used in the custard. I just needed to put it through a coffee grinder. Organic sugar isn't white so it doesn't have the same look as non-organic icing sugar but that didn't bother me!

METHOD

For the Eyes:



So that everything was ready for me to make the eyes, I slowly melted my two chocolates in glass pitchers/jugs,standing in hot water.





I just used the tip of the knife to roughly outline the iris of the eye in milk chocolate.









Then I sieved coco onto the eyes to add coloured flecks to the iris.





Recipe Organic Gluten-free Rich Vanilla Ice Cream Eyeballs Elements
Using a spoon I could then drop the dark chocolate pupil into the eye.




I added the icing sugar 'glint' with the end of a crab fork.



INGREDIENTS 

For the Raspberry sauce:

2 heaped dessert spoons raspberries
1- 2 dessert spoons of blonde cane sugar

METHOD

For the Raspberry sauce and finishing the dish:


I cooked this quickly in a small pan on the top of the stove until it began to thicken to a syrup, I kept stirring it with a wooden spatula, as it is such a small amount and I didn't want it to burn.

I placed the spoons and the dish in the freezer first.



When the sauce was cool I smeared it all over the bottom of my plate and then began to form the eye balls.

Recipe for Organic Gluten-free Rich Vanilla Ice Cream Eyeballs

I only have a rudimentary ice cream scoop so I made two halves of the eye balls and then moulded them together. Between making each one, I rinsed my hands in cold water, to add to the cooling effect. If you can get hold of a fancy ice cream scoop then you will get a complete eye ball in one go!

 Organic Gluten-free Rich Vanilla Ice Cream Eyeballs Recipe

The 'blood' smeared on a chilled plate also stopped the ice cream from melting. We also added more sauce over the top of the eye balls to make it even gorier!

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017 





Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples' with Wild Hazelnut Topping. Gluten-free Halloween/Bonfire Party

Sometimes it's important, albeit a little crazy, to create a recipe which should be prefaced with the words 'difficult and finicky'. This is one of them. I'd seen photographs of both  stuffed grapes and caramel candy covered grapes but I wanted to make a dessert on a stick that had both.  The grapes this year are very juicy, we've had a lot of rain and when a friend gave me a bunch of these beautifully photogenic Chasselas Rosé Royale I decided to seize the moment. This variety is both a wine and table grape and it has the advantage of being large and so foolishly I thought it would be easy to work with! My initial idea was that they would be great for a Halloween or Bonfire party but they are actually just so satisfying to sit and eat on a cold Autumn evening and congratulate yourself on having made them.

Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples'  with Raspberry Mascarpone & Wild Hazelnuts organic Gluten-free recipes

That said, they are completely delicious and if you and your guests all pitch in together it could be an idea to have an evening making them as a sort of 'grape fondu' party. My main advice is don't dip the grapes in the caramel just pour it on with a spoon and then roll in the topping. Most importantly,  make sure the grape skins are dry before you start to work on them!

Left Chasselas Rosé Royale. At this time of year many French people take a grape 'cure', a traditional detox. The organic shops thus provide as many varieties as possible.


INGREDIENTS

(makes 20)

For the Caramel:

60g - 2oz blonde cane sugar
1½ tablespoons of cold water

 

For the Sticks:

20 large grapes
10 raspberries
1 teaspoon raw cane sugar
65g - 2¼oz Mascarpone cheese
10 chopped hazelnuts
Confetti/Sprinkles (optional)
20 cocktail sticks



METHOD & Pre-Assembly


For the Sticks:

Make in this order for ease of assembly!

Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples'  with Mascarpone & Wild Hazelnuts




Shell and chop hazelnuts finely.



Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples'  with Raspberry Mascarpone & Wild Hazelnuts recipe




Mix the raspberries and the Mascarpone.








Cut the grapes in half and remove seeds with the tip of a knife.






Divide the Mascarpone mixture into 20 and using a teaspoon add to one half of a grape. 

Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples'  with Raspberry Mascarpone Gluten-free Organic recipe

Push a stick through the grape half and Mascarpone mixture until it comes through the other allowing enough of the stick to spear the matching half of the grape. 

Place stuffed grapes on a plate and when you have completed half of them start the caramel. Then continue with the grapes.

For the Caramel:

The great thing about caramel is that once you have completed the initial stage, you must leave it alone, so this gives you time to complete the grapes!

Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples'  with Raspberry Mascarpone Gluten-free organic recipe
Dissolve the water in the sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan over a low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Do not allow to boil until the sugar has completely dissolved into a syrup.

Once the sugar has dissolved boil rapidly without stirring until a caramel colour appears at the edges of the syrup, at this point you can lower the heat, or in my case move it away from the main firebox. As the caramel colours develop further, swirl the pan gently a couple of times to spread the caramel evenly. When the caramel achieves the desired thickness (largish bubbles) it is ready. If it hardens in the pan whilst you are using it return the pan momentarily to a gentle heat and it will melt. 


Assembly - Finishing


Using a warmed teaspoon add the caramel to the top half of the grape.

Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples'  with Raspberry Mascarpone Gluten-free Organic Recipe


Roll the grape in the hazelnuts or sprinkles.

Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples'  Gluten-free Organic Recipes


Place on a dish and powder the plate with a few pieces of hazelnut and sprinkle 'confetti'.


Stuffed Grape 'Toffee Apples'  Gluten-free Halloween/Bonfire Party

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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Mini Pavlova With Raw Cream and Seasonal Fruit - Gluten Free Cold Appetiser

Pavlova was created and named in honour of the Russian prima ballerina when she toured New Zealand and Australia in 1926 and again in 1929. There have been various claims as to the recipe having earlier origins in both Germany and the US.

Mini Pavlova from 100 Gluten-free Organic Party Recipes


History of the Pavlova Recipe
Essentially when I look at a Pavlova I think 'tutu' and 'light-as-a-feather'. I also wanted something to remind me of a Swan Lake tiara, which incidentally I made from scratch for a costume. You can find the link if you are interested at the bottom of this page. In mini version these are a cross between a Pavlova and a meringue nest and there is something rather wonderfully decadent in being able to eat one in just a few bites!

Left is a Swan aka Dying Swan costume worn by Anna Pavlova in the four minute ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine and first performed in St Petersburg in 1905. It was captured on film in 1925 and is on YouTube! This solo was later influential in interpretations of Odette in Swan Lake.

A Foreword on Choosing Fresh Fruit and/or fruit compote or purée as garnish or fillings

Pavlova recipe using peaches
For assembling the Pavlova, I used fresh seasonal fruit from our garden or fruit given by friends. Where the fruit is over-ripe I advise making, as I have here in the case of the raspberries, a compote or purée. This is because otherwise the fruit will be too juicy and therefore too soggy for the recipe. This is of particular importance of course, if you are making and assembling these in advance for a party. All I have done is to add a little sugar to the fruit and then reduce the water content by heating it to thicken it. In the case of purée, when the fruit is really juicy, I have mashed the fruit in situ and thus allowed for more water to be removed in the cooking.

Temperature

Preheat the oven to 150°C or 300°F

FOR THE MERINGUE;


Ingredients

(Makes 20)
3 egg whites
175g (6oz) blond cane sugar - ground finer in a coffee grinder or liquidiser
½ teaspoon of lemon juice

 

Method

Whisk the egg whites until very stiff and dry.

Whisk in half the sugar and continue until the mixture is stiff and shiny (see photo left).

Gently fold the rest of the sugar and the lemon juice into the meringue.


Place spoonfuls of meringue on baking paper, lightly brushed with coconut oil.

Using a teaspoon gently open up the centre of each meringue to create a nest shape. You can if you wish make a flat circle of meringue and then build up the sides of the 'nest' with a piping bag.

Mini Pavlova Gluten-free Organic Recipe


These meringues cooked  in 20 minutes but I like meringues crisp on the outside and chewy within. Also many people cook their meringues at two temperatures i.e. 5 minutes at 180°C or 350°F and then turn down the oven to 120°C or 250°F for a further 20 minutes. Using a wood cooker with residual heat in the cast iron body, I don't have that sort of immediate temperature loss, so I chose an intermediate temperature and it worked.

Store the meringues in an airtight tin until needed.

FOR THE FILLING

Mini Pavlova Gluten-free Organic Appetiser Recipe
Cream and fruit are the traditional fillings for Pavlova and in particular passion fruit. I used one big heaped teaspoon of cream per Pavlova. For the fruit I chose from what I had to hand, peaches, apricots and raspberry. The cream I use is raw it comes from our local organic pastured Normandie rare breed dairy and if you are interested we got up at dawn one morning and filmed the morning's milking and helped make the cream.

We stopped drinking pasteurised milk some years ago and we fetch it from the farm once a week and freeze it. The cream lasts fine, that is if there is any left but you can freeze it as well (see link below).

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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