After making the ewe’s cheesecake tart, I was left with 5 egg whites and this was the recipe I came up with to use them; a really smooth textured frozen dessert without the need for liquid nitrogen. It’s so easy to make, the hardest part is to boil the blackberries with sugar for 15mins. That’s it. The rest is whisking and folding it all together. The mixture is so stable that when I left one ramekin in the fridge to check how long it would be before starting to separate, it didn’t. After 24 hrs it was still intact.
I’m proud of this recipe because its creation came out of the knowledge I gained from all the various learnings over the last year and a half. Inverted sugar, stops frozen desserts hardening too much which is why liquid glucose is used often. A leaf of gelatine or jelly will make the texture of frozen desserts super smooth because it will prevent large icicle crystallisation forming during the freezing process and the storing of it.
I have written in more details about this process in my post here, How to make super smooth ice-cream or sorbet.
Gelatine & Inverted Sugar
There are chefs who use gelatine and glucose together to make ice-creams and sorbets but I wanted to make the frozen soufflé without gelatine.
Boiling down the blackberries with sugar and using their natural acidity I would create inverted sugar. What I forgot until I boiled the blackberries was how I was also creating a natural jelly, using the fruit’s pectin. I think it’s called a double whammy.
You can make this mixture as ice-cream – the beauty of it is the no need for churning/ice-cream machines.
This frozen soufflé became very soft just after 10 minutes out of the freezer. And was too soft after 15-20 minutes becoming a mousse. To turn this into a mousse use less sugar. This soufflé is designed to be eaten straight from the freezer.
My friend and canning queen Gloria tells me blackberries earlier in the season are higher in pectin than later on.
When I had these spoons out to photograph like this and they had turned into mousse the mixture stayed like this until I discarded it down the sink. The pectin holds it in place.
I have ramekins in various shapes but they seem to hold just above 150ml of water (5.5 flow, almost 2/3 US cup).
If you have no ramekins don’t let that fact stop you making this, in fact I think they would look wonderful in a pretty little cup of some kind.
The type of blackberries you buy will make a difference to how much sugar you may want to add to this recipe. The longer thinner blackberries below which seem to be a hybrid of sorts, don’t seem to have the acidity I associate with my childhood blackberries, as the fatter juicier round shaped ones at the top of the photo. I would bear this in mind with the amount of sugar you might want to add, and obviously how sweet your tastebuds are.
How to make the Frozen Soufflés
Put your blackberries and sugar in a pan with the lid on – on a LOW heat.
After about 5 minutes you should see signs of the blackberries releasing their juice.
Mix the sugar and blackberries until the sugar soaks into the juice.
Mash the blackberries, and bring them to the boil, uncovered.
Put the timer ON 15 minutes!
This is why you should use a tall pan because the juice will bubble up.
Adjust the heat to settle it into a nice gentle boil.
After 15 minutes the mixture will be reduced and thicker.
Sieve it.
Press hard and get as much of the juice as possible.
While it’s warm add the liquid glucose. If the mixture has cooled down, pop it into the microwave for 1 minute to warm up again to make sure the glucose will distribute throughout the mixture nicely.
Now let it cool.
While waiting now do the fiddly bit of preparing the ramekins. I find this part the worst, it’s where bribing the older kids comes in handy but mine have become wise to my corrupting methods.
I found the best way was to sellotape first, the clear sellotape wouldn’t stick, and in order to make sure the paper was tightly secure around the rim of the dish tie it with a string also.
“Here’s some I prepared earlier!”
Time to whip the double cream (or whipping cream). Yes I weigh it. It’s something you tend to do when starting to bake bread, much easier to weigh everything and less jugs to wash up.
If you have the tendency to like things on the sweeter side or if when testing your blackberries they gave you a sour-face moment that you don’t like, then add the extra 1-2 tablespoons of sugar to the cream.
Whip the cream until it’s beginning to hold its shape well but it’s not, definitely not, fully whipped, really important as you’re going to be working it further when mixing.
It should have a voluptuous look about it. If the cream has been standing at room temperature for 30 minutes or more it will whip faster than straight from the fridge.
It’s best to use the whisk on medium speed in order to prevent over-whipping.
Now wash the whisks really well with soapy water because you’re about to whisk the egg whites and they don’t like fat – unlike me.
For experience cooks out there you know you can whisk the egg whites first and then without having to clean the whisks you can whisk the cream secondly.
The reason I suggest the other way is because if you let the whites stand (it’s easy to get distracted) they will start to weep. The liquid part of the egg white won’t be held within the foamy suspense for long.
To the egg whites add a large pinch of salt. Salt in desserts enhance the flavour of them.
I have in my hand 1/4 teaspoon measuring size, and as you can see the salt I have is less than half of that 1/4 size teaspoon, so really just a large pinch.
Salt also helps with stiffing up the protein, and it does this for either eggs or cream .
Whisk the eggs whites until they just turn stiff peaks. I’m almost there…
…needs a few seconds more…
and after 30 seconds it’s ready.
Just holding their stiff peaks but not over-whisked.
Now it’s a matter of an assembly job. Add the cold blackberry mixture to the cream.
Fold it in gently to minimise loss of volume you’ve just worked so hard to create.
When it’s halfway, stop…
…and half of the egg whites.
…and fold the whites in gently.
Add the rest of the whites.
Keep being gentle…
…until there’s no streaks.
Make sure there’s no unmixed mousse in the bottom of the bowl.
Fill in the dishes to the rim first to make sure there’s enough mixture for all the ramekins.
Use up the remainder of the mixture distributing evenly between the ramekins.
Put them in the freezer.
If you want to, once they’re frozen, you can smooth out the top with a pallet knife (first dipped in hot water to warm it up), but I must tell you, personally I like the uneven surface…and this time it’s not because I’m being lazy.
Frozen Blackberry or Raspberry Soufflés – with super smooth texture
Serves 6
Prepare 6 ramekins or smilar cups as above.
- 300g blackberries
- 200g sugar
- 30g of liquid glucose
- 400g double or whipping cream (400ml is fine will give just short of 400g)
- 1-2 tablespoons of sugar optional (depending on sharpness of fruit and your tastebuds)
- 5 egg whites
- a large pinch of salt
Boil the blackberries with the 200g of sugar on a very low heat with the lid on, for 5 minutes until you see signs of the berries starting to breaking down. Mash the mixture down, it doesn’t matter there are berries intact and sugar undissolved, you’re warming the mixture to make the mashing easier. Once the berries are all mashed, with the lid off, bring the mixture to the boil and get it to a gentle boil for 15 mins. By the end of that time the mixture will have reduced some and become visibly thicker. Use the timer, getting distracted is easy.
Sieve the mixture into a clean bowl add the liquid glucose while still warm to dissolve properly. Let this cool down completely, you don’t want to add warm mixture to whipped cream.
Prepare the ramekins.
In a large bowl whip the cream with the extra sugar (if using) until showing signs of holding its shape but it’s not fully whipped. Clean the whisks in soapy water to now whisk the egg whites.
In another large clean bowl whisk the egg whites with the large pinch of salt. Whisk until the egg whites are just stiff. Once they start holding their shape in stiff peaks, stop.
Next it’s an assembling job. First fold the blackberry mixture into the whipped cream until it’s half mixed, stop. Now fold half of the whisked whites into that cream mixture until they’re mostly disappeared. Fold the rest of the egg whites, this time until there are no streaks left and no unmixed mixture on the bottom of the bowl. All the time the folding is slow and gently to maintain as much volume as possible.
Fill all the ramekins to the top of the rim first and then go back and use the remainder of the mixture to create height. Freeze overnight before serving. Serve straight from the freezer decorated with blackberries.
