Eton mess with whipped mascarpone

Sometime around a year ago, when the world was in full Royal wedding hype mode, I heard, on one of the half dozen TV specials I willingly got sucked into, that Prince Williams favorite dessert is Eton mess.

Eton mess is named after the famous English college, Eton. The Legend is it was created when a beautiful dessert, destined for either a school picnic or the dinner hall (depends on who is telling the story) was accidentally smashed just prior to the meal. As there was not any time to begin making a new dessert, the mashed up concoction of meringue, cream and berries was served and was a big success.

And really it is nothing but a mashed up concoction of meringue, cream and berries. Traditionally, I believe the components are supposed to be mixed up or layered up together ahead of time but I enjoy setting out dishes of whipped cream, macerated berries and smashed meringue cookies and allowing guests to build their own. I always like an interactive dish that allows guests to tailor to their tastes.

This is also an excellent make ahead dessert. The berries can sit out, puddling up their juices in a bowl with lemon and sugar. The whipped cream can be made hours in advance and left to chill in the fridge. The meringue cookies, well, someday I am sure I will make my own, but until then Trader Joe's has a nice little tub of them and I do not believe the end dessert product suffers for it. I just stash a few into a large ziplock baggie and give a couple of pounds with my fist. (Also, I have noticed guests like to help out with this step too.

I have a deep abiding love for mascarpone (see here, and here) and a few months back stumbled into a recipe for whipping it up with heavy cream. It was one of those key culinary moments of pure delight- when the thing that you love actually can be made into something you love even more. More substantial in texture than whipped cream, I like to served whipped mascarpone when, for dessert, I am craving something with tangy sourness but do not have the time or motivation to make a full on cheesecake.

whipped mascarpone

8 oz. mascarpone
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. Start the mixture out on low to ensure the mascarpone is evenly incorporated into the heavy cream. Raise the mixer speed to high and whip until soft peaks form. (I stand eagle eyed at the mixture because this whips up very quickly and it is the merest of milliseconds between lovely whipped delight and just plain butter.)

While most whipped cream recipes call for the addition of sugar, I do not add it here. Especially with Eton mess, the sugar component comes in from the meringue cookies and the berries. But if serving alongside something less sweet (a biscuit-y strawberry shortcake, for example) feel free to add a couple tablespoons of granulated sugar at the start.

Jackie's maple syrup ice cream with walnuts and espresso

As if it is not clear by now, I love food. I love eating it, making it, shopping for it, talking about it and writing about it. I also love thinking about how memories of previous meals influence a recipe or cause a food idea to come together. So, how did it come to be that I am sharing with you a dessert for maple syrup ice cream with walnuts and espresso?

One of my favorite books ever, is Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. It is a wonderful memoir from a literature professor about living and teaching in Iran. In the book, the author describes eating one of her favorite desserts, ice cream with cold coffee and walnuts. Small details like this are part of what make it such a wonderful read.

Cold coffee with ice cream is a real treat. I first enjoyed it at a restaurant in India. Big scoops of creamy sweet vanilla ice cream was served in a tall highball glass, submerged in cold, smoky dark coffee. It was not blended up, but rather like a coffee version of a root beer float.

I grew up eating a lot of ice cream. My parents owned a pizza and ice cream parlor. Eating pizza and ice cream, for us, was not reserved for special occasions- it was a regular part of our lives. This became even more true once I was old enough to work summers in the restaurant. For breakfast, almost every day, I would have a slice of hot plain cheese pizza topped with a large slice of fresh tomato. In the late afternoons, when the restaurant would quiet down a bit, I would sometimes catch my Dad taking a break from the heat of the pizza ovens by taking a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and drizzling birch syrup over it. Birch syrup is like maple syrup, except it was made from local birch trees. The sticky dark birch syrup against the cool vanilla ice cream has a similar flavor profile as the cold coffee and ice cream. (Sadly, the birch syrup company went out of business a few years back. My husband and I, however, still have quite the stockpile of their syrups. In addition to their classic birch flavor, they also made syrups from local berries: cherry, blueberry, etc. High-bush cranberry is my husbands absolute favorite.)

For Christmas, my sister bought me a copy of The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook. It is a collection of recipes from the celebrated Tom Douglas Seattle bakery. (If you watched this past season of Top Chef Seattle, you saw quite a bit of Tom Douglas.) While perusing the book, I saw this recipe for maple syrup ice cream. It reminded me of my Dad's predilection for birch syrup and vanilla. It is quite possibly the easiest ice cream recipe ever (no eggs, no need to cook a custard base) and has all the wonderful flavors of smoky sweet maple syrup.

After I made the batch, I was thinking about how to best serve it. All alone or as a topping for another dessert? I decided to do a spin on espresso con affogato, the Italian dessert of dumping a shot of hot espresso over cold ice cream. This time, as a nod to Azar Nafisi, I topped the maple syrup ice cream with a bit of chopped walnuts first.

The resulting dessert would be a perfect end to a brunch or light dinner. Mostly, for me, the enjoyment of it is in pulling together, in a single bite, different strands or experiences in my life: time spent with my Dad in the restaurant, a trip to India, and a favorite book.

Recipe from Tom Douglas' Dahlia Bakery Cookbook (Jackie is Tom Douglas' wife)

Jackie's maple syrup ice cream

2 cups cold heavy cream
3/4 cup cold milk
1 1/4 cups pure maple syrup, preferably grade B
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1) Put the cream, milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt in a bowl and, using a whisk, mix lightly, just enough to combine everything well. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

2) Transfer the ice cream to a container. Cover and freeze for a few hours or overnight, until the ice cream is firm.

My final step: rough chop a few walnuts and sprinkle over a few small scoops of ice cream. Fresh brew a shot of espresso or strong brewed coffee. Pour the hot coffee over the ice cream.