Pages

12.31.2015

Diplomate au Kirsch

"Serve It Forth," by M.F.K. Fisher (North Point Press, 1989; copyright 1937 by M.F.K. Fisher)

For 8 or 10 people

  1. Cut 8 small dry sponge biscuits into half-inch cubes. Into slightly smaller cubes, cut a scant half-pound of fruits candied in syrup. 
  2. Soak the fruits in kirschwasser for 30 minutes. Drain them, and moisten the biscuit cubes with the same kirsch.
  3. Whip 3 cups of cream, sweet and very cold. When it is whipped, season it with powdered sugar and add a little vanilla flavor.
  4. Put the whipped cream, the biscuits, and the candied fruits into a mould and mix them well. Cover the mould with a sheet of white paper and seal with its cover. (Be careful to butter the lip of the mould under the paper, so that salt will not make itself a part of the composition.)
  5. Then put the mould for 2 hours into ice, finely chopped and very salty--about 2 pounds of salt to 10 of ice.

The Liquid Cream to Pour Over the Diplomate when It is Taken from the Mould Just Before Serving
  1. Into a double-boiler stir 1 full cup of milk, 2 egg yolks, 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, and 1 teaspoon of fine flour.
  2. See that the mixture does not boil, and when it thickens take it from the stove. Then perfume it amply with kirsch.
  3. Let it get very cold (either on the window-sill in winter or in summer, in the ice chest), and pour it over the Diplomate and serve at once.