PRUE LEITH’S RASPBERRY BLANCMANGE

Yesterday I binge watched the latest season of The Great British Bake Off and Prue’s Raspberry Blancmange reminds me of something that my grandmother would make when I was growing up in the ‘70’s. According to Prue this is suppose to be easy to make. Serves 12 Total Time: 40 minutes + setting time 6 hours or more.

Ingredients:

8 gelatine leaves  (1 tablespoon powdered gelatin =3 leaves so, 2 3/4 tablespoons =8)
750g/3 3/4 cups raspberries 
50ml/1/4 cup raspberry liqueur  
25g/4 tablespoons cornflour 
300ml/1 1/3 cups whole milk 
150g/1cup caster sugar 
40g/1/3 cup ground almonds 
1 teaspoon almond extract 
450ml/2 cups heavy cream 
crystallised rose petals, to decorate  

Directions:

Soak the gelatine leaves in a small bowl of chilled water for 5 minutes.  (For powder gelatin see package instructions)

Tip the raspberries into the bowl of a food processor and blitz to a fine purée. Pass through a sieve into a clean bowl, discarding the pips, then stir in the raspberry liqueur. 

Mix the cornflour with a little of the milk in a medium pan. Add the remaining milk, along with the sugar and ground almonds. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 3–5 minutes, to thicken. Remove the pan from the heat. 

Squeeze out any excess water from the gelatine leaves, then add them to the pan, stirring continuously until dissolved. Add the almond extract.  

Stir in 300ml/1 1/3 cups of the heavy cream and all the raspberry purée, combine thoroughly, then pour into the mould. Leave to set for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.  

To serve, lightly whip the remaining cream to soft peaks, then spoon into a medium piping bag fitted with a medium star nozzle.  

Remove the mould from the fridge and quickly dip it into a bowl of hot water to loosen the blancmange. Invert the mould onto a serving plate to turn out the blancmange.  

Pipe the cream around the base of the blancmange, then decorate with crystallised rose petals. Serve immediately with the langues de chat on the side.

Ingredients and Directions for the langues de chat see: The British Bake Off.