Both
the sprinkles and the sauce are secret weapons!
You
could of course cheat by buying ready-made sprinkles like rainbow
confetti or, as I knew them back in the day “hundreds and
thousands” both of which have one major thing in common – pure
sugar. You can get organic sprinkles made from natural ingredients
on-line.
My favourite home-made sprinkle is praline - largely used for
adding to and flavouring cream, ice cream, butter cream or whatever
takes your fancy. You can use it in large pieces or shards or
blitzed into a coarse powder. It keeps well so long as you transfer
it into an air-tight jar. Should the mood take you it can even be
blitzed into a paste.
Praline
75g/3oz almonds, unblanched
75g/3oz caster sugar
Place
the sugar into a frying pan (I used a pan measuring 28cms/11” in
diameter) and then the almonds on top. Heat the sugar and almonds on
as low a heat as possible. Resist the urge
to prod/stir/mess with!
Patience is eventually rewarded the sugar begins to melt and when
the almonds begin to “pop”, and your sugar is a good colour -
turn it out onto a non-stick sheet (or oiled slab if you want to be
posh). The melting of the sugar takes approximately 20 minutes.
Leave the praline sheet where it is until it is well and truly
set. You can then break it up and blitz into a coarse powder or as
you wish. It's stating the obvious I know – you'll get 175g/6oz of
praline.
Please note that when blitzing you will need ear plugs and warn
anyone nearby that isn't totally deaf they soon will be – it's
worth the noise – like I said “tiny bits of twinkling toffee”!
Next up …
the sauce :
Sticky
Toffee Sauce
4oz
unsalted butter
8oz
soft brown sugar
2oz
chopped stem ginger (optional)
10
fl oz double cream (or whipping cream)
Heat
together the butter, sugar and ginger. When dissolved add the cream.
Simmer
for 15 minutes, stirring.
The
stem ginger in this recipe is optional but it makes a good addition
when serving the sauce as an accompaniment to nursery puddings and
ice cream.
One
batch of the recipe produces approximately 539g of the sauce, or,
over two portions to fold through ice cream. It can be frozen for
convenience.
Once again you can cheat and buy a ready-made sauce. A shop
bought sauce is usually approximately 260g per jar but you'll find
it's sweeter than home-made. It's well worth the 15 minutes making
your own.
Now for
the meringues and ice cream for the Susan ...
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