Creamy Syllabub

This is an ancient English recipe - examples in cookery books dating to the Tudor period (1550-1650 ish) have been found. I am not sure if this is an authentic version however. The originals call for milk essentially still warm from the cow !

Its a cream based dish, so rich its served in small glasses. It contains alcohol, but little more than a glass of sweet white wine, and a couple of tablespoons of sherry.

3/4 pint double cream
1 small glass of sweet white wine
1/2 glass of sherry or spirit of your choice.
3 oz caster sugar
1 lemon (zest and juice)
1 egg white, whipped.

Remove the lemon zest, with a dedicated zester, or a potato peeler. Try and avoid removing too much pith. The zest should be yellow, not white !

Soak the zest in the spirit, ideally overnight.

Add the juice of the lemon, the sherry poured off the zest, the white wine and the sugar. Stir until dissolved.

TIP: To get more juice from the lemon, microwave for 15 seconds on full power.

Whip the cream to be very very stiff.

Whip the egg white separately

Blend in the sugar solution slowly - pick a bigger bowl to do it in than I did ! This bit is MESSY. :-(

Fold in the egg white to the mixture.

Put the mixture into small-ish glasses - this is very rich. Chill and serve,