Summer Delight: Berries on Lemon Buttermilk Mousse

Isn't this just wonderful. Long summer days, with cotton candy clouds gliding past a sea of baby blue skies. As I sit out in my back yard the fragrance of lavender and mint in the air, I can hear the laughter and clinkering of glasses as somewhere in our neighborhood people are celebrating.

Yesterday evening we too were celebrating. Nothing special - just summer. August is here and as we know we are headed into the bleaker and rather somber part of the year we wanted to get the most of what summer is bestowing upon us. It's been hot, sunny and simply picture perfect days.

Sure some complain - but then there are moaners for everything - right? Our motto yesterday was simply Summer. And no one was complaining!

Berries, to me illustrate everything summer. Like precious jewels they gleam in their glorious bright colors. How can one resist such treasure?

The pale green of the gooseberries, the ruby colored red currents, the deep purple blackberries, sapphire colored blueberries and finally the deep maroon cherries are the colors of my dessert palette. A bounty I brought back from my mother-in-law's paradise she calls a garden.

After all your guessing I'm afraid no one was able to come up with the right answer. It was a pudding of sorts - a buttermilk lemon mousse, but you see that was only a sidekick to the berries. The berries were really the stars, transformed into a jello-like dessert - a pleasure on it's own I am sure. However, I wanted to bring the puckery tart flavor of lemon into the game. What I had in the fridge was more than enough to create the perfect summer dessert. 

Ingredients
Printable version of recipe here.

For the Buttermilk Lemon Mousse

500 ml buttermilk
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
6 sheets white gelatine
80g Quark
1-2 tablespoons sugar

For the Berry Jello

500g mixed berries, I used gooseberries, blackberries, blueberries, red currents and cherries.
250 ml sour cherry juice
3-4g powdered gelatine
1/2 vanilla bean
2-3 tablespoons sugar

Method

For the Buttermilk Lemon Mousse

In a bowl of cold water soak the gelatine sheets for 5 minutes.

Heat about 3-4 tablespoons of buttermilk in a saucepan. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine and dissolve it with the hot buttermilk in the saucepan. Remove from heat. Mix in the lemon juice, zest and sugar and stir to dissolve.

Pour into a bowl and refrigerate just until the mixture starts to gelatinize.

Whip the quark until smooth then fold into the lemon buttermilk mixture. Divide into small glasses and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

For the Berry Jello

If using cherries make sure they are pitted.

Scrape the vanilla bean out and mix it, together with the pod into the sour cherry juice. Pour into a saucepan, adding the powdered gelatine and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for about 2 minutes.

Add the berries and cherries and sweeten as desired. After about two minutes remove from the heat. Place in a bowl and refrigerate preferably overnight.

Notes:

• The consistency of the jello is not typically like the jello dessert we all had as kids. It's slightly more saucy, which is what you want.
• If you get flavored lemon/lime buttermilk then go ahead and use it. Follow the recipe above omitting the lemon juice and zest. A super easy dessert!
• If you like you can flavor the berry jello with other spices like cinnamon or star anis. Substitute the vanilla with one of these spice, while heating the juice.
• If the dessert is for grown-ups, add a shot of Kirsch, vodka or rum.
• The fact that this recipe has a total of about 3-4 tablespoons of sugar makes it rather light on the hips ;-)
• Are you moaning because I used quark? Stop it - Eva of Sweet Sins has the perfect quark recipe. If you do not want to make your own quark - then you may substitute with sour cream.

 

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Verdict

It's the pure anticipation that gets to me. Often when I make desserts for parties or get-together, I am doing a bit of tasting here and there. But never of the entire dessert! After the long meals, with a lot of laughter and story-telling it is finally time to bring out the dessert. I myself can hardly wait to dip my spoon into the creation to see if I'll be stultifying myself. Then a relief on my face and a burden drops when I see that everyone has gone silent and I hear the still sighing of satisfaction. 

You might like these satisfying desserts from WFLH:

	Chocolate Chile Pots De Crème
	Lemon Meringue Pie
	Strawberries, Cream and Cake
	A Sweet Potato Flan

From around the blogs:

• Becks & Posh's not so white but simply scrumptious Almond Pavlova with Cherries
• A Mad Tea Party's delightful Rose Petal Preserve
• Addicted Sweet Tooth's addictive honey parfait with blood orange gratin 

Daily Tiffin Reading Tip:

Using Artificial Sweetners - Is it worth it? by Mansi

 

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