I should just preface this whole entry with the comment that this is a weird dessert, and I was surprised how much I liked it. I made it the authentic Scottish way (or so the book said), using bread, butter, berries, and sugar -- and that's it. Having tested it, it would be awesome with an angelfood or a biscuit layer instead of bread. But as with anything, I had to try it the correct way first! And I'm really not disappointed... it's just different. If you want something that's a cross between a no-bake cake and bread pudding with berries, here's where it's at -- adapted from The Highlander's Cookbook by Sheila MacNiven Cameron.
I found some white bread and blueberries at the farmers market on Saturday, so I definitely had to use those for this recipe. It would just as easily go with blackberries, raspberries, etc.
Ingredients:
1qt. fresh berries, stewed with 1/4 cup granulated sugar & 1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 lb. loaf of firm, dense white bread
1/4 to 1/3 cup soft butter
Drain juice from berries and set aside. Remove crusts from the bread and slice into thin slices, then butter both sides and line a loaf pan completely with the bread to make a complete shell. Fill the shell with the drained fruit and press down firmly. Cover the fruit with a lid of buttered bread. Mix reserved berry juice with the lemon juice and pour evenly over all. Weight down a lid or a plate on top of the pan and set in refrigerator overnight for at least 24 hours. Unmold very carefully and serve cold with cream or custard sauce. Serves 6-8.
Lessons learned: all that butter doesn't do much to loosen up the entire dessert from the pan, so in future I would put a piece of parchment paper down first in the pan before lining it with bread.
As for the custard...
I scoured the internet for a good English custard recipe. They're all similar, some varying in kinds of sugar or amounts of egg yolks, so I settled on something along these lines after combining elements from a few:
Ingredients:
8 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
2 cups whole milk
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pour the cream, milk, and 4 tablespoons of sugar into a pot and heat on medium heat until simmering, but not boiling. Add vanilla extract and stir.
In a separate bowl, combine 8 egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Whisk until light yellow.
Pour a little bit of heated cream mixture into the egg mixture bowl while whisking constantly. Add a little bit more, still whisking, then return the egg mixture to the cream mixture on the stove and stir. Stir for several minutes until custard begins to thicken. It is ready when it coats the back of a wooden spoon, and can be served hot or cold, with dessert or plain.
Beautiful eggies.
Yummy! :D
As I start this post, the weekly noon-time tornado siren test is going off. It's over 80 degrees outside, the sky is blue-blue-blue, everything is green, my plants could probably use some water, my cat is lolling around the cool stone floor, and it feels a lot like summer.
Probably because it's July. Summer felt like it took ages to get here this year. But finally. Finally!!
I traipsed over to the farmer's market this morning -- the big one this time. It was busy, but not too busy -- sometimes it's insane. It is 4th of July weekend, though, and I suppose a lot of people are out of town. It was nice. There was a lot of selection; we even splurged and had mini cinnamon-sugar donuts for a mid-market snack.
The one thing I'm not too happy about is the bread that I bought specifically for the Scottish berry dessert I made -- will show later -- because it was a little dry. So, experiment overwith, I've determined that the best bakery in town is to be found my own local once-kind-of-dinky-now-actually-pretty-good farmers market one block from my apartment. But even kind of dry bread makes good French toast. ;)
Otherwise, the produce was much better this time around. Strawberries, blueberries, sugar snap peas (guh! yum!), and red potatoes. I plan to eat the strawberries and the peas plain for snacks, the blueberries have already gone into the Scottish dessert, and the red potatoes are going to get smashed up and roasted.
Can't go wrong.
Just look at those. I can't stop gazing lovingly ...and snacking ravenously. ;)
Today, I went to work at the bookstore for a craaaazy Memorial Day Sale day. Afterward, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some buttermilk and oil for an upcoming rhubarb cake (tomorrow morning?), and I found some watermelon and those irresistable blueberries. I could eat the whole pint tonight! But I won't. I don't think. Maybe.
I stopped over for a quick dinner of burgers on the grill at nana's house, where I managed to chug two glasses of chocolate milk in quick succession. What is it about chocolate milk that makes it so chuggable? It has become a staple of any cookout. I seriously order chocolate milk at any restaurant where it is available. I could be out to a Mexican restaurant on half-price margarita night, and I'd still probably order the chocolate milk. Probably.
I was so relieved to sit down after getting home. Not to mention that my CD-rom drive in my notebook spontaneously began to function properly again after the whole computer took a nose-dive off my desk a couple of months ago onto my terrazzo floor. I'm fairly certain there is a blank CD stuck inside my computer, though, which I thought was the source of the problem, but maybe some elves came and got it out for me. Or else... who's to say. If there is a CD stuck inside my computer, I supposed it is permitted to remain there as long as it doesn't mess with my Frightened Rabbit!
