Home › The World's Kitchen › Blanc Manger with Strawberries
Blanc Manger with Strawberries
Plunge half pound sweet almonds in a pint boiling water for three minutes, drain, shell, place in a mortar and pound to a firm paste. Transfer to a saucepan, then press half pint well-picked fresh straw-berries through a wire sieve into the almond pan, pour in a pint cold milk, mix well, boil for five minutes and strain milk through a cheesecloth into a bowl. Place in a saucepan one ounce gelatine leaves with a half pint water and five ounces sugar, mix on fire with wooden spoon until thoroughly dissolved, add milk with two tablespoons kirsch, mix well while boiling two minutes, strain into a bowl and let cool off. Pour into a dome-shaped quart mould, cover, set in cracked ice and let stand for one hour, remove, unmould on a dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A classic almond-milk blancmange tinted and flavoured with strawberry, set firm enough to turn out of a mould. Two things decide whether it works: how finely the almonds are ground, and how carefully the gelatine is measured.
- The almonds are the dishSweet almonds pounded to a paste, then boiled in milk and strained, are what makes this blanc manger rather than a milk jelly. A food processor does the pounding in a minute or two; grind them with a spoonful of the milk so they emulsify instead of turning to butter.
- BlanchingThree minutes in boiling water loosens the skins, which then slip off between finger and thumb. The recipe's "shell" means skin, not crack — buy whole unblanched almonds, not almonds in the shell.
- Gelatine leavesOne ounce is about 28 g. Modern sheets vary in weight by grade, so an ounce is anywhere from about eight thick sheets to sixteen thin ones; weigh rather than count, since bloom strength also differs between brands. That is a stiff set by current taste for the roughly two pints of liquid here, but it is what allows a domed quart mould to stand up on a plate. Powdered gelatine can be substituted by weight, softened in the half pint of water first.
- Do not boil the gelatine hardThe instruction to boil two minutes after adding the gelatine is the one place the recipe works against itself; prolonged boiling weakens gelatine's setting power. Bring it just to a bare simmer to dissolve, then take it off.
- StrainingTwo strainings are specified and both matter — cheesecloth after the almond milk boils, then again after the gelatine goes in. Skipping either leaves a gritty, cloudy result rather than a smooth set.
- KirschA clear cherry brandy, dry rather than sweet. Two tablespoons in a quart is a background note; maraschino or a good framboise stands in acceptably.
- SettingCracked ice around the mould did the work a refrigerator does now. In a modern fridge allow four hours or overnight rather than one hour — the ice bath chilled far faster than a 40F shelf.
- UnmouldingDip the mould to the rim in hot water for five to eight seconds, dry it, and invert onto the plate. Serving on a folded napkin was the usual presentation for moulded dishes, and it also catches any moisture that weeps as the jelly warms.
- YieldA quart mould serves six to eight. It is rich, and small wedges are the intention.
Blanc manger — literally "white eating" — descends from one of the oldest named dishes in European cookery, a medieval preparation of pounded almonds, rice or breadcrumbs, sugar and often shredded capon, served pale and sweet-savoury at feasts. By the eighteenth century the meat had dropped away and the dish had settled into what English cooks called blancmange: almond milk stiffened with isinglass, calf's-foot jelly, or later gelatine, and turned out of a decorative mould. The strawberry version here reads as a later refinement, colouring and perfuming the white base rather than replacing it, and kirsch is a common French professional touch with fruit. Moulded gelatine desserts of this kind moved from the confectioner's bench towards the domestic table as commercial sheet and powdered gelatine became cheaper — though the pounding of half a pound of almonds by hand shows the recipe still has one foot in the older, more laborious tradition.