Sweet woodruff mousse, oat crumble, sorrel sorbet
If you’re not able to find sweet woodruff, you can use a cinnamon stick along with the tonka beans to recreate the sweet almost vanilla-like flavour of woodruff.
Ingredients
For the mousse
- 500ml/18fl oz double cream
- 170ml/6fl oz full-fat milk
- 3g dried sweet woodruff
2 tonka beans, to taste
- 90²µ/3¼´Ç³ú caster sugar
- 50g/1¾oz free-range egg yolks
- 5g cornflour
For the oat crumble
- 150²µ/5½´Ç³ú toasted oat flour
- 60g/2¼oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 112g/4oz caster sugar
- 27ml/1fl oz oil
- 2g ammonium carbonate or baking powder
For the green powder
- pinch dried spinach
- pinch dried sweet woodruff
For the green sorrel sorbet
- 4 sheets gelatine
- 210g/7oz liquid glucose
- 350g/12oz caster sugar
- 150²µ/5½´Ç³ú spinach, blanched and refreshed
- 450g/1lb sorrel, blanched and refreshed
- 300ml/10fl oz lemon juice
To serve
Method
To make the mousse, put the cream, milk, woodruff and tonka beans in a pan and bring to the boil.
In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, egg yolks and cornflour and pour the flavoured cream over it.
Pour the liquid back into a clean pan and warm up gently to 85C, using a kitchen thermometer to check. Leave to cool for an hour and then strain the liquid through a sieve into a clean bowl. Place in the fridge. Whip just before serving.
To make the oat crumble, preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7 and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place the flour in a bowl and rub the butter in until you have a breadcrumb consistency. Add the sugar and mix well, then stir in the oil and baking powder. Spread out on the prepared baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.
To make the green powder, mix together the dry spinach and dried woodroof. Set aside.
To make the green sorrel sorbet, soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water.
Bring 1 litre/1¾ pints water, the liquid glucose and sugar to the boil in a pan. Drain the gelatine and then add the soaked gelatine to the pan and remove from the heat.
Check the temperature of the sugar water using a kitchen thermometer. Once it is at 8C, mix the spinach and sorrel with the sugar water. Place in a blender and blend until smooth, then add the lemon juice. Transfer the mixture to a suitable container for the freezer, and freeze for 1 hour 30 minutes, then whisk with a balloon whisk or a fork to break up any ice crystals that have formed and return to the freezer.
Keep mixing the sorbet every hour for the next 4 hours to break up the ice crystals. You will not need all of the sorbet (or the mousse) for this recipe – store the sorbet in the freezer for another time, and the mousse in the fridge.
To serve, put some raspberries in the centre of each serving bowl, then top with the mousse and then the sorbet. Garnish with the crumble and a dusting of the green powder.
