The weather has been fabulously hot here.  I can hardly even remember what rain is like.  Every day this month we’ve had clear blue skies and high temperatures.  While it has been wonderful to have such sunny skies, the heat has certainly taken its toll on us and I have been avoiding the oven like the plague.

On the weekend we celebrated my Mom’s 58th birthday.  We were a bit late in celebrating so we decided to do it up right with a big meal with many courses.  We made a lot of things, but I could not bring myself to bake a cake on such a hot day.  We opted instead for dessert which showcased the fresh fruit in season right now – red raspberries!

The raspberries were sauced in their own puree and sat atop a soft pillow of jelly vanilla cream.  It was my first stab at working with gelatine and I was pretty pleased with the results.

I got the recipe from a Food & Drink magazine that my Mom had lent me a little while ago.  Although I was nervous to use the gelatine for the first time, it came together very quickly and only needed a few ingredients.  I think it will definitely become part of the summer dessert repertoire.

I hope to share at least one more recipe from the birthday dinner so stay tuned!

Raspberries & Potted Cream

(note: 1 Tbsp of gelatine was one envelope in the KNORR package.  While the package said to use with 2 cups of liquid, I followed the Food & Drink recipe, which had 3 cups and it set just fine.)

POTTED CREAM

  • 1 Tbsp of gelatine
  • 1/4 cup cool water
  • 2 cups whipping cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract or about half of a large vanilla bean
  • 3 Tbsp. of sugar
RASPBERRIES
  • 1 1/2 cups of raspberries (the fresher the better!)
  • 2 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. water
small mint leaves to garnish
For the cream, sprinkle the gelatine over the water in a large mixing bowl.  In a saucepan combine the milk, cream, sugar and vanilla extract.  If you are using a bean, split it and scrape in the seeds.  Put in the pod to infuse the milk while heating.  Slowly heat the cream while stirring, until it comes to a simmer.  Fish out the bean or strain the cream and then pour it over the gelatine.  Stir well so the gelatine dissolves.  Divide the mixture into 4-6 glasses.  Cover each glass with cling wrap and refrigerate at least six hours or until set.
For the raspberries, combine a half cup of berries with the water and sugar.  Mash it up with a fork.  Toss in the remaining raspberries and stir to coat.  Top the set cream with the berry mixture and garnish with mint leaves if desired.  You can chill it again until you are ready to serve.