If Diana Henry were ever to write a book about ice cream it would be a happy thing, the handful of recipes she includes in 'How to Eat a Peach' are worth the price of the book alone, and of all of them the one I most wanted to try was the chocolate and PX ice cream.
This was partly because it sounded like a wonderfully rich, slightly decadent, flavour, and a lot because I love Sherry in pretty much all its forms and am always interested if I see something different I can do with it.
I'be got a good excuse for a boozy ice cream coming up, which made a good excuse for a practice run to see if it really would be as good as it sounded (it is), I'm delighted with the results. The ice cream is rich, satisfyingly chocolaty, and very boozy - the raisin flavour of the Sherry makes it taste something like a good Rum truffle and it will make an excellent end to a dinner.
Pedro Ximenez is not the cheapest Sherry, but don't be put off by that - this is a special treat kind of a thing, and there's enough wine left in the bottle for everyone to be able to drink it too. The recipe is Here along with some other useful information about Pedro Ximenez, but honestly, buy the book - it's worth it.
And now my mother has returned and the dog has someone else to bother, so I might get that nap after all.
Hard to think of anything more delightful than PX and Lady Detectives!
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly coming up blank!
DeleteYears ago I worked in a hotel kitchen and was responsible for making the desserts for their fine-dining restaurant. It had a Mediterranean theme and every month the country changed (France, Spain, Italy, etc.) I remember making a wonderful chocolate sherry cake and also have fond memories of making Port ice cream for Portugal month (clearly nobody noticed that Portugal isn't on the Mediterranean, it's on the Atlantic, but whatever.). I remember the storeroom sent up a bottle of tawny Port that turned out to be very expensive, as they had no idea It smelled heavenly and made amazing ice cream. Good times.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I have to track down the Diana Henry book and buy an ice-cream maker!
Your chocolate and Sherry cake sounds incredible. I'd say that sounds like an amazing job too, but I've worked in kitchens and know the downsides. Still, for kitchen work it sounds awesome. The Diana Henry book is great, well worth checking out.
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