SHF #7: It Is The Rabbit!

Molasses & White Wine Zabaglione

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup crème fraîche
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons white wine
• 2 tablespoons molasses (we used Brer Rabbit Full Flavored molasses)
• 1/2 cup sugar

Method

• Start by whipping the heavy cream and crème fraîche until stiff peaks form.
• Set aside.
• Beat egg yolks, wine, molasses, and sugar over a double boiler until pale and thick.
Geeky Science Quote Detour:

“Egg yolks are also beaten in some culinary procedures, but because of their high fat content, and the fact that the yolk proteins are not easily surface denatured, they foam less effectively than the albumen. Zabaglione, a warm, richly frothy mixture of yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine, is the only well-known whipped yolk dish”
– On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Harold McGee



Why We’re Not Purists Detour:

We would have preferred an electric mixer (thus making this dessert take even less that 20 minutes to prepare), but, alas, we were stuck with an old egg beater. Purists, however, like the whisk, which is just fine if you don’t mind carpel-tunnel syndrome or a nasty case of bursitis.

My mom got bursitis years ago from washing my diapers in the sink during a ten day storm and power outage. You think she’d ever use a whisk? Oh, wait, she hates to cook.

• Add egg mixture to heavy cream/crème fraîche mixture. Fold till combined.

Molasses Brittle (a garnish)

Ingredients

• 1/2 c water
• 1 c sugar
• 1 tbl butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbl molasses
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Method

• Boil all ingredients until brittle in cold water (hard crack stage)
Random Babbling Detour:

In a perfect world we would cook the brittle with a candy thermometer and just wait till the temperature hit somewhere around 300 degrees Fahrenheit. But since we don’t have one, we cooked the old fashioned way, taking small dollops of the sugar mixture on a spoon and dropping them in cold water, working our way up through the six stages of sugar: Thread, soft-ball, firm-ball, hard-ball, anger, bargaining, depression, and so on. The key of course is to avoid the final stage of acceptance that you’ve overdone it and your sugar has indeed burned.

Random Conversational Detour:

Chopper Dave: This is the soft ball stage so I need to kick it up a notch.

Mrs D: Oh, you really didn’t say that.

(Mrs D. proceeds to write down what Chopper Dave has just said.)

Chopper Dave: If this ends up on the blog, I won’t speak to you for a week. You have to stipulate I was joking. (adopting a Taco the Octopus demeanor) I won’t be compared to that silly “bam” fellow.

(Mrs D. smiles and keeps writing.)



• When the sugar mixture reaches the hard crack stage, pour it onto a silpat or parchment and let it cool, then break it into pieces of desired size for the zabaglione garnish.

Makes up to 6 portions.

The result: A zabaglione in which the molasses flavor is featured but not overpowering. You can’t help but know that it’s molasses, and yet it’s not at all heavy like one would expect from a typical molasses dessert.