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French Easter Cream
1/3 cup raisins 1/4 cup brandy 2 cups cream 1/2 cup sugar Yolks 3 eggs 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine 2 tablespoons cold water Maraschino, Slow gin, Brandy} 1/4 cup each 1 teaspoon vanilla Seed raisins, add brandy, and cook in double boiler until raisins are soft. Make a custard of cream, sugar, egg yolks and salt. Remove from range, add gelatine soaked in cold water. Strain, cool slightly, add flavorings, stir until mixture thickens, then add raisins. Mould and chill. Remove from mould, and garnish with Sauterne Jelly (colored violet), cut in cubes, and fresh violets.
A molded liqueur-scented Bavarian cream, set with gelatine and dressed for the Easter table. The hinge is the custard: it must thicken over water without ever simmering, or the yolks curdle and no amount of straining will save the texture.
- Custard temperatureCook the cream, sugar, yolks and salt only until it coats a spoon, about 175-180F. Above roughly 185F the eggs scramble; the recipe's later straining will catch small lumps but not a broken custard.
- Gelatine measureA tablespoon of granulated gelatine is a little more than one modern 1/4-oz envelope. Two tablespoons of cold water is not enough to bloom it evenly -- use about 1/4 cup and it will still dissolve in the hot custard without thinning the set noticeably.
- The alcohol loadThree quarter-cups of liqueur plus the brandy from the raisins is close to a cup of spirits in 2 cups of cream. Alcohol interferes with gelatine, so this mixture sets softly; chill at least 6 hours, overnight for a clean unmolding.
- Sloe ginThe sweet, dark-red gin infused with sloe berries. It is still sold.
- MaraschinoThe clear cherry-pit liqueur, not the syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries. Substituting the syrup will make the cream cloyingly sweet and pink.
- Seeding raisinsThe raisins called for here had seeds and needed splitting by hand. Modern seedless raisins go straight into the double boiler with the brandy, and are plump in 10-15 minutes.
- Cream and the stirring stageCream -- Use heavy cream.