This hasn’t got the temple-aching sweetness of Turkish Delight, nor its palate-cleaving glutinousness, but rather it is a cloud-light spoon-pudding version which attempts to catch its aromatic essence.
That it requires no cooking, merely some pouring and whisking, doesn’t hurt either.
INGREDIENTS
Makes: eight 150ml / 6oz glassesMETRICCUPS
- 175 millilitres cointreau
- juice of 2 lemons
- 125 grams caster sugar
- just under 600 millilitres double cream
- 2 tablespoons rosewater
- 2 tablespoons orange-flower water
- 2 tablespoons pistachios (finely chopped)
METHOD
- Whip the cream to soft peaks in a freestanding mixer. If you haven’t got one, don’t worry – but I would then advise a hand-held electric mixer.
- In a separate bowl, combine the Cointreau, lemon juice, flower waters and sugar. Then gradually beat this mixture into your whipped cream, and keep whisking until you have a creamy mixture that’s light and airy but able to form soft peaks. I always think of syllabub as occupying some notional territory between solid and liquid; you’re aiming, as you whisk, for what Jane Grigson called “bulky whiteness”. Whatever: better slightly too runny than slightly too thick, so proceed carefully, but don’t get anxious about it. You can anyway probably see the texture it is from the picture.
- Spoon the syllabub in airy dollops into small glasses, letting the mixture billow up above the rim of the glass, and scatter finely chopped pistachios on top.
