I spotted a recipe for Bavarian Cream in one of my cookbooks when looking for something else, and when I got my last batch of strawberries, I studied a few recipes to find one that worked. The first thing I noted was that most called for Lady Fingers lining the dessert glass, so I had to hunt a recipe for those, too. Solution found in my 1930 Encyclopedia of Cookery. Well, now that I can make them, is English Trifle far behind? Anyway, first....
LADY FINGERS
2 eggs, separated
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a large baking tray and line it with parchment.
Beat the egg whites until soft. Add some of the sugar (less than half) and beat until stiff. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until very thick. Fold in half the egg white, then the flour, then the other half of the egg white. Scoop into a pastry bag with a 1/2" round tube, pipe finger length cookies onto the tray, and bake for 8 minutes. Remove the paper from the sheet with the lady fingers on it, allow to cool, and remove from the paper. Makes about 4 dozen. I had to threaten my husband with a wooden spoon to keep him from eating all of these while I made the strawberry part of the dessert. (And you know he was scared. He's only a foot taller, and only outweighs me by about 90 pounds.)
STRAWBERRY BAVARIAN CREAM
1 envelope plain gelatin
2 tbsp. cold water
1 cup crushed strawberries
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
Pour the cold water into a large bowl, and sprinkle the gelatin on top of it; let it sit about 5 minutes to soften. Hull the strawberries and crush in the food processor. Then, warm and stir the gelatin in the large bowl, which will start out looking a lot like a bowl of wet sand, over a pan of hot water, double boiler style, stirring occasionally, until it's dissolved. Remove from the hot water,s Stir in the crushed strawberries and chill until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Whip the cream with the confectioner's sugar until medium stiff; stir into the strawberry mixture and refrigerate for about an hour. Line parfait or dessert glasses with the lady fingers (I spooned a bit of the strawberry bavarian cream into the bottom of each glass so the cookies would stay upright), then fill the glasses with the cream. Serve topped with strawberries and, if desired, blueberries.
Luscious. Cool. Creamy. Fattening. And pretty, too!
4 comments:
If I knew how to write the sound of a whistle, I would insert it right here. [Imagine me whistling the Wow! whistle] Not only does the Bavarian Cream look good, so does your crystal! Beautiful presentation. All that work and I bet they were devoured in seconds. Yum. You can add this to the list of stuff to make for me. :-) Oh, I'll also be waiting for that English Trifle posting.
Most elegant Marjie, have you got some Presidential candidate dropping by?
I think they would, knowing the potential votes they have in your home!
That strawberry bavarian cream looks so good! Nice presentation!
Paula, these are cut glass goblets that I found on clearance one day for 50 cents each! Can you believe that?
Peter, Presidential candidates would certainly get an earful around here! With 7 voting age, highly opinionated redheads, they'd do well to be frightened. But they can come on by and get that earful!
Kevin, it was delicious. Again, my dearly beloved said the problem was that there wasn't enough.
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