A Whisper of Cardamom: Sweetly spiced recipes to fall in love with
by Eleanor Ford (Murdoch Books, £26).
Photography by Ola O. Smit.
Three Sweetly Spiced Recipes to Fall in Love With
Carefully-chosen spices take these desserts to the next level
In A Whisper of Cardamom, Eleanor Ford shares the secrets of using a hint of spice to bring balance, flavour and intrigue to sweet dishes.
Saffron Macaroons
One biting November weekend I visited a Stockholm Christmas market, which was impossibly quaint and cloaked in snow. Amidst the marzipan pigs balancing red apples on their snouts and gingerbread hearts strung from the beams was a wealth of alluring saffron bakes. Wreaths of glazed golden bread nestled between scrolled saffron buns hailstoned with rock sugar. Saffron also found its way into white chocolate truffles, bottles of schnapps stained the yellow of Chinese silk and wedges of sticky cake. For me it had to be the macaroons, one quickly eaten in gloved fingers, another taken away to savour. Their crackled meringue-like surface hid a squidgy, fragrant, marzipanny centre. Here is my recreation of that moment, snow of icing sugar included.
Spiced Blueberry Crumble
Crumble purists, look away. This is more a formless flapjack of a topping, heavy on oats and gingery spice. But it is our house crumble recipe (known always simply as grumble) and we wouldn't have it any other way.
White Chocolate Pots with Sumac-soured Berries
This is an outrageously easy pudding - not that your guests will ever know it. They'll be too busy being enraptured by the combination of silky sweet cream and mouth-puckeringly sour raspberries. You could use other berries here too - blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, pomegranates. Sumac and pomegranate molasses both bring tartness to contrast with the white chocolate and enhance the flavour of the fruit. Just taste for sweet-sour balance and adjust accordingly.
