Category: Puds

1 punnet of strawberries (8oz)
4 tablespoons of good quality, clear honey
About 8 ounces of gluten-free sponge cake of your choice (NOT fruit cake)
Sherry or fruit juice to moisten the cake
2x 200ml tubs of crème fraiche

• Wash and hull the strawberries, cut into small dice and place in a bowl. Add the honey and stir together. Set to one side and leave until the honey has drawn lots of juice out of the strawberries.
• Cut the cake into small cubes, place in a large bowl and moisten thoroughly with sherry, orange juice or best of all, a mixture of the two. Set aside until the cake has absorbed all the liquid and is thoroughly soggy.
• When the cake is soggy and the strawberries have exuded lots of juice, add the strawberries to the cake and mix thoroughly.
• Add the crème fraiche and mix thoroughly.
• Put in the fridge for at least an hour for the flavours to amalgamate.
• Serve in soup bowls as a dessert and make sure everybody wears a bib!

Gluten-Free Variation on a Theme of Cranachan

Double cream
Creme fraiche
Ricotta cheese (optional calorie saver)
Unwaxed lime juice & zest
Mixed, dried fruit, soaked to plumpness in Sherry, Marsala or port to taste (at least 24 hours)
Finely chopped tropical fruit mix (Holland & Barratt)
Gluten -free biscuits crushed
Stem ginger in syrup, the ginger very finely chopped.
Whisky liqueur
Vanilla Caster Sugar or Honey.

Whip a quantity of cream to the softly whipped stage in a bowl that will cope with at least three times its whipped volume.
Add half its quantity again of creme fraiche and/or ricotta gently whip in.
Add the juice and zest of limes (one lime per 1/4 pint of cream as a guide) to taste, and whip in, remembering that the lime will react with the cream and thicken it. You should have a stiff mix at this stage.
Add sufficient dried fruit soaked in sherry so that the mix is nicely speckled with fruit with enough of the sherry to loosen the mix to thick school custard consistency.

Add the tropical fruit mix -approximately the same volume as the sherried fruit.

Add sufficient crushed GF biscuit crumbs (coconut ones are nice) to make a stiff mix – rather like softened butter.

Add finely chopped stem ginger, with syrup, and whisky liqueur to taste until the mixture is back to thick custard consistency, remembering that the biscuit crumbs will soak up the liquid and firm up the mixture.

Box and keep in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

Taste and test for taste and consistency. Adjust using lime juice and/or whisky liqueur and/or vanilla caster sugar or honey.

The end product should spoon easily into sundae glasses or expresso cups.
Drizzle with ginger syrup from the stem ginger jar.

SERVE IN SMALL QUANTITIES – THIS IS RICH, ALCOHOLIC, AND TRULY DELICIOUS!

For those who cannot or choose not to have alcohol, elderflower or ginger cordial make good substitutes. If using ginger cordial, adjust the amount of stem ginger.

You can add to the five-a-day count by serving this over poached or fresh fruit.