Dreamy Dessert - the Mojito Syllabub
"Nimue's knickers, is that... is that armadillo bile???"
Affronted, Severus responds, "Surely you jest." Hermione wisely holds her tongue in the face of his raised-eyebrow-of-outrage. "Miss Granger, that question alone would, were you still a student, warrant seeing you never received a N.E.W.T. in Potions.
"Ever.
"It may justify retroactively revoking yours, in fact."
"That's not even an option," she chides. "There's no need to be so dramatic, Severus. You have to admit the green sludge is unappetising."
"You will cease your prattle this instant, Hermione. That is a perfectly lovely syllabub..."
"A syllabub!" She shrieks in laughter. "Your grandmother Flooed, she'd like her afters returned."
Improbably, his eyebrow shoots up even higher. "My grandmothers, both of them, Merlin rest their souls, have tragically passed." He looks suitably wounded, and for a moment the young woman regrets her choice of words.
It passes.
"Wait... You don't even like the Princes. In fact, you hate the whole line."
Caught, he smirks. "Granny Snape was perfectly unobjectionable."
"Perfectly?" She counters.
"Largely," he amends, not even slightly sheepish.
"And I believe died when you were a young boy, so long ago..."
"Can we perhaps not emphasise the precise length of time?"
It's her turn to smirk in reply. "So long ago as for you to have long since come to terms with said passing. Stop looking so hurt, you manipulative beast."
He grabs her by the waist, spinning her around, and she squeaks in pleasure.
"The problem with young people today," he begins, making her laugh once more, although those hands of his are doing quite number of tickling her ribs, "is they fail to respect..."
"Their elders?" She teases through her giggles.
He ignores her, "Traditional dishes. A syllabub is a fine thing, something for discerning palates."
"Do tell," she smiles a mite breathlessly as he stops the attack on her ribs. "So how did you make it?"
Mojito Syllabub
400 g low fat cream cheese (you can get away with .2% fat if it's available)
200 g sour cream (10% fat)
18 g (or 2 packs) vanilla sugar (or 15 g (or 1 Tablespoon) sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
105 g turbinado sugar (you can substitute demerara or even castor sugar if need be)
120 g lime juice (roughly 120 ml) (if using fresh limes, grate the peel first)
the peel from 3 limes, grated (optional)
250 g whipping cream (or reduced fat content (for example 19%) substitutes work nicely, but will require more time to cool to set)
60 g turbinado sugar
mint leaves (or the contents from 8 herbal mint tea bags, but it won't be pretty)
enough lime juice to make a thick paste (2 or 3 Tablespoons)
optional garnishes
1 lime to decorate, either in wedges or use longer shavings of the peel as garnish
small sprigs of mint
the volume of sugar varies depending on how coarse the sugar is. weight measurements are more reliable here.
1) beat the cream cheese until smooth
2) add the sour cream and beat again
3) add the vanilla sugar (or sugar and vanilla extract) and turbinado sugar. beat once more until smooth
4) beat the lime juice into the mix. if using fresh limes for the juice, grate the peel first
5) optional: grate the rind from three limes and mix into the bowl
6) set aside and beat the whipping cream in a separate bowl until stiff. fold into the first bowl and mix gently until well combined
7) cover and put in the refrigerator to cool before serving, a couple of hours is ideal
8) shortly before serving, finely chop a bunch of mint leaves and using a pestle, work them into the turbinado sugar. you can substitute demerara or castor sugars, but a coarser sugar will work better here
9) add lime juice to create a paste. 2 Tablespoons will make a thick paste, 3 will make it a little runny and thus less pretty, but the sugar lime syrup it creates is very tasty
10) serve layers of the cream mixture alternating with thin drizzled layers of the sugar / mint / lime juice concoction. finish with a dollop of the mint mixture on top
11) optional: garnish with sprigs of mint, wedges of lime, or curls of lime peel
A little historical background on syllabubs:
Syllabubs are thicker and less creamy than possets and traditionally contain no eggs. The first known recipe for one is from the 18th century, when Hannah Glasse published the recipe for "whipt syllabubs" in 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'. The recipe included "a quart of thick cream, and half a pint of sack**, the juice of two Seville oranges or lemons, grate in the peel of two lemons, half a pound of double refined sugar." After whipping the ingredients together, they were poured into glasses. The curdled cream separated and floated to the top of the glass.
** "sack" refers to a fortified wine, such as sherry, madiera or port
"And you could always add a slice of lime and perhaps a sprig of mint for garnish if you're so superficial and appearance makes such a great difference to you..." Severus continues to instruct. It doesn't sound judgemental in the least. Hermione simply rolls her eyes.
"Oh, I think I've demonstrated to everyone's satisfaction just how little appearances count for in my book. You, in particular, should know this perfectly well from personal experience." She stands there expectantly, grinning mischievously and waiting for the Knut to drop, his expression for once betraying his thoughts all too clearly... It was a very welcome development when he stopped feeling the need to be so guarded around her.
She laughs again as she sees him parse her meaning, and starts running, a strong Protego at her back only just deflecting his Rictumsempra as she ducks behind the syllabub for cover.
"Hide if you will, witch," he calls after her. "That just leaves more dessert for me."
He sounds happy. If she had to guess, that's not entirely due to getting a larger portion of the creamy dish. And if that leaves her feeling rather satisfied? It's only natural.
Happy birthday, dreamy_dragon73. 🎂🍰🎁🎉
Some of hubs' colleagues have been complaining about a lack of ingredients for cakes. (And it may have just taken us nearly two months to score some... 😕) So here's something yummy that doesn't need flour at least. Hope your birthday is a lovely one. ❤️