Blueberries and French Cream Perfect for Valentine's Day

Submitted by Elmotoo

"Impressive and delicious for your Valentine’s Day dinner. Look for heart shaped molds for the cream! Cooks Notes: Long passive time is for cream mixture to setup."

 

• Ready In: 4hrs 25mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 2 pints fresh blueberries
• 3⁄4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 3 inches cinnamon sticks or 1 whole star anise
• 1⁄4 cup dry red wine
• 1 teaspoon minced of fresh mint

• For the French cream

• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Garnish

• fresh mint sprig

directions

1. Place one pint blueberries, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon zest and red wine in a small saucepan over moderate heat. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes or until mixture is syrupy.
2. Off heat and cool and stir in remaining fresh blueberries and mint.
3. Remove and discard cinnamon stick or star anise. Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
4. For the cream: Combine the gelatin, cream and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan over moderate heat. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir until sugar is dissolved.
5. In a separate bowl, place the sour cream, vanilla and lemon. Gradually add the hot cream mixture stirring just until the mixture is smooth.
6. Rinse a 2-1/2 cup metal mold with cold water (or use individual ramekins). Shake out but do not dry.
7. Pour the cream mixture into the wet mold. Refrigerate for 4 hours or longer until mixture is set and firm.
8. To serve: Unfold the cream by placing mold in a warm water bath for a few seconds to loosen cream.
9. Turn over onto a cutting board. Slice cream into serving pieces and with a spatula place on chilled plates.
10. Spoon blueberries around and garnish with mint sprigs.

Reviews

[realbirdlady]

An easy elegant dessert. I used in-season strawberries rather than blueberries (plus that seemed more valentine-y). The cream is great - I thought it was going to be to sweet, but the tang of the sour cream balances nicely. It is quite firm, so I had no trouble removing it from the dish and cutting even slices. I think any fruit syrup would be nice, perhaps with some chocolate shavings. I would omit the mint - it didn't seem to add much flavor, and did sort of give the appearance of dead leaves in the syrup. The instructions could be clearer, with appropriate quantities of sugar and zest listed in each section, and the addition of the cinammon stick mentioned.