Author Notes
In Europe, strawberry season started a few weeks ago! My French Cook fancies this fruit so much that she couldn't wait to come up with new ideas for colorful and tasty desserts. Strawberries are a healthy treat, whether they are served plain or with brown sugar, with cottage cheese or a creamy curd, or even with a drizzle of lemon juice. One piece of advice she gives to cooks-to-be: try to get organic strawberries, the regular ones are often loaded with pesticides and other chemicals.
When my wife has some time, she enjoys preparing a flavorful curd which she then uses to dress up verrines for the dessert. Verrines have been quite trendy here in Europe: they can be easily prepared, and you can come up with a creative and tasty set-up to impress your guests. Here the dessert was prepared for adult guests: the Cook used crème de cassis, a bit like Bailey's, only with blackcurrants. For children, she would have used blackcurrant syrup instead. she added some blueberries and off we go! It's a quick and easy recipe which only needs to be prepared a bit in advance to allow the curd to cool down in the fridge. —cookfromprovence
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Ingredients
- Blackcurrant curd
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4
yolks
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50cl
milk
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60 g
flour
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4 tablespoons
blackcurrant or other red fruits syrup or cream
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70 g
powder sugar
- blueberries and strawberries
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150 g
strawberries
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150 g
blueberries
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2 tablespoons
ice sugar
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4
grounded cookies (I used speculoos, a Belgian cookie)
Directions
- Blackcurrant curd
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Heat 35 cl of milk to boil.
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In a bowl, combine yolks and 70g sugar. Add the flour, whisk well, then add the 15 ml milk until you get a really smooth cream.
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Pour the boiling milk: it should drizzle over the cream. Stir gently. Pour the mix into the pot.
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Thicken over low heat, stirring constantly until it boils. Stir in 2 tablespoons crème de cassis (or black currant syrup, or red fruits syrup). Cool.
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When the curd is warm, pour it into 4 glasses. When the cream reaches room temperature, cover the glasses with plastic film and refrigerate.
- blueberries and strawberries
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Wash blueberries and strawberries. Cut the strawberries into small cubes.
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In a bowl, combine fruit with sugar and 2 tablespoons crème de cassis (or red fruit syrup). Place bowl in refrigerator.
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When it's time to serve: add a layer of fruit in the glasses or glass jars containing the curl. Cover with a thin layer of speculoos (or cookie) powder. Serve immediately.
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