Gorse Flower Jelly and Ice cream
The gorse flowers were amazing on our recent trip to Whitby. We brought a bag full home instead of kippers!
The recipes are below. As a special decoration I crystallized some flowers to go on top. To do this mix an egg white with a tablespoon of water and paint the flowers with it. Toss the flowers in caster sugar and lay them on baking parchment. Dry them in an airing cupboard or similar warm place. When they are completely dry you can store the flowers in an airtight container for a couple of weeks.
Gorse Flower jelly
- ½ ltr water
- 2 large handfuls of Gorse flowers
- 3 tbsp Sugar
- ¼ tsp Citric Acid
- 4 sheets of Gelatine
Put the water, flowers, sugar and citric acid into a pan and bring to the boil stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. While you are waiting for the pan to boil put the Gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soften for 5 minutes. When the flowery syrup comes to the boil remove it from the heat and leave for around 5 minutes for the flavour to develop. Remove the gelatine from the water when it is ready and squeeze out any excess liquid. Put it into a clean bowl big enough to hold all the liquid. Taste the syrup and when the flavour is good strain it through a fine mesh sieve onto the gelatine and stir until dissolved. Refrigerate for a couple of hours to set the jelly.
Gorse Flower Ice cream
- 200ml Milk
- 2 Egg yolks
- 150g Sugar
- 200ml Double Cream
- 2 large handfuls of Gorse flowers
- A few grains of salt
Put the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a large bowl and beat until well blended. Put the milk and flowers in a pan and heat on a medium heat until very nearly boiling. Then pour immediately onto the egg and sugar mixture stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a clean bowl pressing the flowers to extract all the flavour. Add the double cream and leave to cool. If you have an ice cream maker, pre-cooled it and churn for 30 minutes or until ready. If you do not have an ice cream maker put the mixture in a freezer proof box and freeze until nearly set, then stir vigorously. Repeat this until the mix becomes ice cream.