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Scotch Mist
1 gill (1/2 cup) fruit juice or curaçoa 1 pint (2 cups) whipping cream Few drops green color Few drops red color Few Maraschino cherries Pound the macaroons to a fine paste, crumble in the ladyfingers, add the fruit juice or curaçoa and one-half of the cream. Mix all well together and turn into a pretty dish. Whip up the remaining cream and divide it into two portions; color one pink with a few drops of red color and the other pale green with a few drops of green color.
Ornament the top with the cream, using a forcing bag and star tube. Decorate with the cherries.
An uncooked cream pudding built on crushed almond macaroons, thinned with liqueur and piped over with tinted whipped cream. The printed ingredient list is incomplete — the macaroons and ladyfingers are named only in the method — so quantities for them have to be judged.
- The missing quantitiesThe method calls for macaroons and ladyfingers that the list omits. Roughly 4 oz crisp macaroons and 8-10 ladyfingers will absorb a gill of liquid and half a pint of cream without going soupy; add the cream gradually and stop when the paste holds a soft mound.
- A gillHalf a cup, as the recipe itself glosses. The pint is a US pint, 2 cups.
- Macaroons means almond macaroonsCrisp, chewy almond-and-egg-white biscuits, not coconut haystacks and not the sandwiched French macaron. Italian amaretti are the closest common substitute and pound down to a fine paste readily.
- CuraçoaAn old spelling of curaçao, the bitter-orange liqueur. Any orange liqueur works; if you use fruit juice instead, something sharp — orange or sour cherry — keeps the sweetness of the biscuits in check.
- Food colouringModern gel colours are far stronger than a dropper bottle of liquid colour: dip a skewer tip into the gel and stir that in, or the pale green becomes emerald.
- Forcing bag and star tubeA piping bag with a star tip. Whip the cream only to firm peaks — overwhipped cream tears rather than pipes, and cream that has warmed will slump within minutes.
- Chill before servingNo cooking is involved, but the base needs an hour in the refrigerator so the biscuit crumbs soften and the mixture sets enough to support the piped cream. Pipe the decoration shortly before it goes to the table.
- YieldAbout six small servings. It is rich enough that larger portions are not welcome after a full meal.
The name is a joke about appearance rather than any Scottish provenance: a soft white cloud of whipped cream over something hidden beneath. Structurally this is a trifle stripped of its custard — the same logic of stale sponge or biscuit moistened with liqueur, assembled without lighting the range.