Frozen blackberry soufflés
It’s so easy to make these frozen blackberry soufflés, the hardest part is to boil the blackberries with sugar for 15mins. The rest is whisking and folding it all together. The mixture is very stable.
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. There are chefs who use gelatine and glucose in the making of their ice-creams and sorbets.
Boiling down the blackberries using the fruit’s pectin is providing this recipe with its own jelly. This recipe can be made as ice-cream with no need for churning, simple pour the mixture into a tub and freeze.
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 therefore it has extra sugar to counter-balance the ice effect of dumbing down of flavour.
I have ramekins in various shapes but they all hold just above 150ml of water (almost 2/3 US cup).
Blackberry hybrids
The type of blackberries will make a difference on how much sugar is needed for this recipe. The longer thinner blackberries below which seem to be a hybrid don’t have the acidity I associate with my childhood blackberries. The fatter juicier round shaped ones at the top have the sharpness I expected and are more flavoursome which in turn will make the soufflé more flavoursome.
How to make the Frozen Soufflés
Put your blackberries and sugar in a pan with the lid on – on a LOW heat.
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.
Time to whip the double cream (or whipping cream).
Add an extra 1-2 tablespoon of sugar to the cream.
Whip the cream until it begins to hold its shape well but not fully whipped, really important not to whip until stiff, as it will be worked further when mixing. If the cream has been standing at room temperature for 30 minutes or more it will whip faster than if straight from the fridge.
Whisk the eggs whites until they just turn stiff peaks.
and after 30 seconds it’s ready, holding stiff peaks but not over-whisked.
Now for the assembly job. Add the cold blackberry mixture to the cream.
Fold it in gently to minimise loss of volume.
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 are no streaks.
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 the metal).
- 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 tastebuds)
- 5 egg whites
- a 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. 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.
- 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 pinch of salt. Whisk until the egg whites are just stiff. Once they start holding their shape in stiff peaks, stop.
- First fold the blackberry mixture into the whipped cream until it’s half mixed, stop. Now fold half of the whites into the cream mixture until they’re mostly disappeared. Fold the rest of the egg whites, this time until there are no streaks left. 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.