KEEP YOUR COOL
Fiona Smith presents cool desserts for hot summer nights.
Frosty fruit and impressive ices star in cool desserts for hot summer days, from Fiona Smith
HOT SUMMER NIGHTS need cooling desserts. Personally, my favourites for this time of year are combinations of fresh fruit with ice creams, sorbets and cream. I am also partial to a bit of ice cream and jelly! So, you will notice various combinations of these in the following ideas. Many of these desserts comprise a few elements, and not all are essential. For example, if you are looking for something simple and delicious you could just make the coconut jelly and strawberries which don’t take long. Or serve boysenberry jelly with a bought ice cream, or pistachio cake with apricots and an orange blossom-scented whipped cream. But if you do go all out, most elements can be prepared in advance, so you just need to do a quick bit of assembling, then serve.
CHOCOLATE CHERRY SEMIFREDDO SERVES 8-10 / PREPARATION 30 MINUTES / COOKING 15-25 MINUTES
This zuccotto-style dessert can be made with fresh or canned cherries. Serve with a very easy sorbet of frozen cherries if you fancy. This one is boozy, which helps the texture when freezing; you could leave out the spirits, but it will freeze firmer. 4 medium eggs
150g caster sugar, plus 2 tablespoons if using fresh cherries 100g flour
30g cocoa
½ teaspoon baking powder
25g butter, melted
300g fresh cherries, halved and stones removed,
or 1 x 425g can cherries, drained, juice reserved 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier, kirsch or brandy 250g ricotta
2 tablespoons icing sugar
200ml cream, whipped
Heat the oven to 180°C.
Grease and line the base of a 30cm x 20cm Swiss-roll tin. In a bowl whisk together the eggs, 150g sugar and a pinch of salt until thick and pale. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together over the mixture and gently fold in. Fold in the butter. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes. Cool on a rack.
If using fresh cherries, put them in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons sugar and 100ml water. Cover and simmer over a very low heat for 10 minutes until tender. Strain the cherries and set aside, reserving the juice. Measure out 100ml of cherry juice and stir in half the Grand Marnier or brandy and set aside.
Place the ricotta, icing sugar and remaining Grand Marnier or brandy in a bowl and beat until smooth. Fold in the poached cherries and whipped cream.
Line a cake tin with plastic wrap, cut the sponge in half (or to fit your tin) and put one half in the bottom of the tin. Moisten with half the reserved cherry juice. Spread the ricotta mixture over the chocolate sponge. Cover with the remaining piece of chocolate sponge (cut to fit the tin) and drizzle with remaining juice. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until needed.
To serve, take out of the freezer 15 minutes before serving. Serve with cherry sorbet if liked.
CHERRY SORBET
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier, kirsch or brandy (optional) 500g frozen cherries
Place the sugar and 150ml water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, boiling until the sugar is dissolved. Add the lemon juice and booze, if using, and leave to cool. Place the frozen cherries in a blender or food processor and blend to a pulp. With the motor running add the sugar syrup and blend to a creamy sorbet. Put in a container and freeze until needed. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving.
STRAWBERRY, WATERMELON, COCONUT & BASIL BOBA
SERVES 6 / PREPARATION 40 MINUTES PLUS FREEZING TIME / COOKING 5 MINUTES
The first time I had basil seed was in India – the oddly textured drink was super refreshing and very cooling in hot weather. Recently on a visit to Iran, I had many more basil-seed drinks, again offered for their cooling qualities.
WATERMELON, BASIL & LIME ICE
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup (packed) basil leaves
3 cups watermelon, cut in cubes and deseeded 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons pomegranate juice (optional, but adds colour)
Heat the sugar and 200ml water together in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the basil leaves and set aside to cool.
Put the watermelon in a food processor (or blender, in batches) and process until smooth. Strain through a wire strainer, pressing the flesh through with the back of a spoon. Strain the syrup and add to the watermelon juice along with the lime juice and pomegranate juice if using. Pour into a shallow dish and freeze for 2-3 hours until starting to freeze around the edges then break up the ice with a fork and freeze again until firm. To serve, scrape a fork along the surface to crush up the ice.
COCONUT JELLY
400ml coconut milk
¼ cup caster sugar 1½ teaspoons agar agar powder
Put the coconut milk in a saucepan with 250ml water and stir in the sugar and agar agar powder with a pinch of salt. Bring slowly to just before the boil (but do not boil, you want it to reach about 90℃) and simmer to dissolve the sugar. Pour into a 20cm x 20cm baking tray or similar. Leave to cool, then put in the fridge until set. Cut into cubes and store in the fridge.
MARINATED STRAWBERRIES
500g strawberries, hulled and halved juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tablespoon caster sugar
Place the strawberries, lime juice, zest and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes.
BASIL SEED & WATERMELON JUICE
3 cups watermelon, cut in cubes and deseeded juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons basil seeds (or use chia seeds)
Put the watermelon in a blender or food processor and process to a liquid. Strain through a colander and measure 300ml into a bowl. Stir through the lime juice and basil seeds and leave to swell for 30 minutes. Refrigerate until needed.
To assemble, divide the basil seed and watermelon juice between glasses. Top with layers of coconut jelly and marinated strawberries. Finally, top with watermelon, basil and lime ice.
I LIKE THE BUBBLE TEXTURE OF THIS BOBA-LIKE DESSERT, WHICH MAKES A VERY REFRESHING TREAT FOR HOT SUMMER DAYS.
ORANGE PARFAIT WITH PISTACHIO & APRICOT
SERVES 8 / PREPARATION 40 MINUTES PLUS FREEZING TIME / COOKING 30 MINUTES
ORANGE PARFAIT juice and zest of 2 oranges
4 medium egg yolks
120g sugar
1 tablespoon vodka
1 teaspoon orange-blossom water
2 medium egg whites
300ml cream, lightly whipped pistachio cake (the recipe below will make about double what
you will need, depending on the tin you use for the parfait) apricots, freeze-dried oranges, chopped pistachios, to serve
Bring the orange juice to the boil in a small saucepan and reduce by half (you want to end up with about ¼ cup). Cool.
In a medium-sized bowl, use an electric mixer to whisk the egg yolks until thick and creamy.
In a small saucepan, dissolve the sugar in 100ml water, stirring over a low heat. When dissolved, increase the heat and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes until the syrup reaches soft-ball stage (120°C on a candy thermometer). While whisking continuously, slowly pour the syrup into the egg yolks. Continue whisking until the mixture is cool. When the egg yolk mixture is cool, stir in the cooled orange juice, zest, vodka and orange-blossom water.
Whisk the egg whites until they form peaks. Fold the egg whites and whipped cream into the mixture. Pour the mixture into a 1.25-litre loaf tin lined with plastic wrap. Cut the pistachio cake to fit and place on top. Cover well and freeze for at least 24 hours.
To serve, unwrap and slice. Serve with apricots, and sprinkle with freeze-dried oranges and toasted pistachios.
APRICOTS
500g apricots, stones removed and sliced juice and zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons caster sugar
Place the apricots, orange juice, zest and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Leave to macerate for 30 minutes.
PISTACHIO CAKE 100g pistachios 125g butter 75g self-raising flour 2 eggs
75g caster sugar
Heat the oven to 160°C. Spread the pistachios in an even layer on a baking tray. Bake for 6 minutes, stirring once, until the nuts are just golden and smelling toasted. Raise the oven temperature to 180°C.
Place half the nuts in a food processor, grind finely and set aside. Chop the remaining pistachios roughly and store in an airtight container for garnish.
Place the butter in a saucepan and melt. Brush a 20cm x 20cm cake tin with some of the melted butter and dust with flour. Set aside the remaining butter to cool.
Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric beater until very thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Sift the flour and mix with the ground pistachios. Gently fold in half the flour mixture, then half the butter, repeat with the remaining flour and butter. Spoon into the tin. Bake for 15 minutes until risen.
OAT-MILK TAHO WITH PEACH & BLUEBERRY
SERVES 4 / PREPARATION 20 MINUTES PLUS DRAINING & SETTING TIME / COOKING 50 MINUTES
I have loosely based this on taho, the Filipino dessert made with silken tofu, tapioca pearls and brown-sugar syrup. The oat ‘tofu’ is set more like a panna cotta and you can make it with any milk you like, such as bought oat milk or soy, almond, coconut etc. If making your own milk, you need to start the day before to strain it. The kūmara wafers add lovely crunch, as do the freeze-dried blueberries so you could just opt for one or the other.
OAT ‘TOFU’
1 cup oats
1 tablespoon sugar 1½ teaspoons agar agar powder
Put the oats in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Add 250ml
boiling water and leave to cool. Transfer to a blender or food processor, add 300ml cold water and blend for about 1 minute (reduce the time a little if using a high-speed blender). Strain through muslin or similar, then place in the fridge overnight, stirring once or twice to help the liquid through.
Measure 500ml of the strained liquid into a saucepan and stir in the sugar, agar agar powder and a pinch of salt. Bring to just before the boil (but do not boil) then simmer for 2 minutes to dissolve the sugar. Pour into a 20cm x 20cm baking dish or similar container. Leave to set. Cut into cubes and store in the fridge.
TO SERVE
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 200g purple-fleshed kūmara
4 ripe, soft peaches or bottled peaches 125g blueberries freeze-dried blueberries (optional)
Heat the oven to 150℃.
Put the brown sugar in a saucepan with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil. Boil for about 10 minutes to thicken. Stir in the cinnamon and vanilla.
To make the kūmara wafers, slice the purple kūmara into thin slices, then dip each in the syrup to coat and lay out on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake for 30-35 minutes, turning halfway through. They will be a little soft when you remove from the oven but will crisp up when they cool. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.
Peel the peaches if liked, slice and put in a bowl with the syrup and set aside.
To serve, layer glasses with pieces of the oat 'tofu', blueberries and peach slices. Pour over some syrup and finish with a kūmara wafer and some crushed, dried blueberries.
PEANUT-BUTTER ICE CREAM, BOYSENBERRY JELLY & TOASTEDPEANUT BRITTLE
SERVES 8 / PREPARATION 30 MINUTES PLUS CHILLING & CHURNING TIME / COOKING 35 MINUTES
A classic and fun combination; I like to use smooth peanut butter for a velvety ice cream then add crunch with brittle (or just a topping of toasted peanuts which is also great). The brittle is an easy version without the usual corn syrup. The butter will separate a bit but can be easily poured off when finished.
PEANUT-BUTTER ICE CREAM 250ml whole milk 250ml cream
200g smooth peanut butter 4 egg yolks
125g caster sugar
Put the milk, cream and peanut butter in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring to dissolve the peanut butter, until just before the boil (but do not boil).
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in a little of the hot milk, then stir in the remainder. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and stir constantly for 10-12 minutes until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not allow to get too hot or the mixture will curdle.
Remove from the heat and cover with a disc of baking paper pressed onto the surface to stop a skin forming. Cool and then chill well in the fridge.
Churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine, according to your machine instructions. Freeze until ready to use.
BOYSENBERRY JELLY
500g boysenberries (frozen are fine) ½ cup sugar juice of ½ lemon
4-5 leaves gold gelatine
Place the boysenberries, sugar and 1 cup water in a saucepan, bring to the boil to dissolve the sugar, then boil for 5 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve; you should have about 500ml of juice. Stir in the lemon juice.
Soak the gelatine in cold water for a few minutes to soften (use 4 leaves if you are setting the jelly in glasses or 5 leaves if you want to use a mould and turn the jelly out to serve). Squeeze out the gelatine and add to the hot berry juice to dissolve. Pour into 8 glasses or one 2½-cup mould that has been lightly oiled. Chill and allow to set for 4-5 hours for small glasses and at least 12 hours for one large jelly.
TOASTED-PEANUT BRITTLE 1 cup blanched peanuts 125g butter
1 cup sugar
Heat the oven to 180℃. Spread the peanuts on a baking tray and cook for 10 minutes to achieve a deep golden colour, stirring occasionally. If you have bought toasted peanuts, you may want to put them in the oven for 5 minutes to get them nice and dark golden. Chop roughly then spread in an even layer over a piece of baking paper on a baking tray. Sprinkle with salt if liked. Set aside.
Put the butter and sugar in a heavy-based pan over a medium/high heat and bring to the boil, stirring. When the butter and sugar have melted, stop stirring and continue boiling for about 5 minutes to reach 150℃.
Pour the toffee evenly over the peanuts and leave to harden. Pour excess butter off and discard. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Serve the ice cream and jelly scattered with brittle. ■
CREDITS Luigi Bormioli Supremo stemless wine glasses (page 73) from Stevens; Rachel Carley Perennial side plates (page 75); porcelain rectangular platter from Città; Spiegelau pilsner beer glass (second from left, page 77) from Wine Central; Schott Zwiesel Tower glass (far right, page 77) from Day and Age. All other props are stylist's own. For full details see the Credits Index.