Pink Non-delight

If carrots probably are my favourite vegetable, then raspberry - but sharing it's no 1 spot with pineapple - is my favourite fruit. Not only because it's pretty and pink.

So when I browsed through the mouthwatering new cookbook called Darling strawberries - a book, I admit, I basically only bought because the cover picture was so lovely, and pink. Strawberries are not a favourite fruit of mine, I don't care if they're one of the true symbols of Swedish summer - even if the quality of Swedish strawberries really, very much can be questioned nowadays... - and everyone just seems to rave about them. They still have that disgusting little snuff inside...

But yes, in the right recipe they can be good, and if of good quality, I do eat them. And of course the recipes can be used for other fruits. Like pink ones. Raspberries for example. So I made the pretty Mazarin cake with blue poppy seeds and strawberries into one with raspberries. And, well, it was really much ado about nothing in my opinion.

First of all, I really hate it when the recipe states that you should let the pie pastry rest in intervals, in the fridge, in the freezer, pre-bake the pie shell, let it cool down, don't use a mixer, blend everything carefully by hand, mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet one in another, THEN mix them together.

Really, spare me! I can do with some of the features, but not all. And frankly, in my humble opinion, the outcome hardly ever becomes better or worse choosing the one or the other way of doing it...

This recipe had a lot of those features, and yes I went through them all... Not much good that did. Not much of a Mazarin-taste to it, just a very basic pie with raspberries and poppy seeds. Served with whipped cream, yes it went down to its final tummy-destination without too much trouble. But nope, I won't be bothered with baking it again.

This was my first try out of a recipe in that book, since it didn't turn out all that well I haven't really had the inclination to try another one. Yet.

But I did make another raspberry dessert the other day, this time from the lovely photographed ice-cream book by Susanna Tee. I was a bit excited about the whole thing, since cream crowdie by the author is said to be the Scottish national dessert - even if I've never ever during all my numerous trips to Scotland over the years, have seen that in a single restaurant menu... So, you Scots out there, is this the national dessert or not?? -

The recipe was so simple and quick, the wait for the whole thing to freeze was on the other hand very looong - or so it seemed. Now I wish I could say it was worth the wait. It wasn't. This ice cream version of cream crowdie was just so bland and flavourless, all the whipped cream = ice cream tasted oily, the crunchy oats made it a bit surreal, the raspberry-flavour shone with its absence, not to mention the honey and whisky...

Guess what, I won't do it again. Such a waste of good ingredients! But I'm pretty sure I'll try it as a traditional crowdie, skipping the ice-cream part.

And well, the best way probably, I think, to enjoy raspberries are fresh all by themselves, sunripened and juicy. Or frozen with a scoop of high quality vanilla icecream/whipped cream...