Icewine Sabayon

  • Icewine SabayonI love wine, and since I also have a sweet tooth, icewine is my friend.
    What’s a girl to do with an intense dessert wine that tastes like honey, apricot, tangerine and pineapple?  Drink it, naturally.  (And why not bake with it, too?)

    This Icewine Sabayon recipe has been burning a hole in the black binder where I keep the hundreds of pages of recipes I fantasize about  baking one day.  So after having ice wine on a recent trip to Toronto (Inniskillin, no less- do it right!), I was officially inspired to blow the dust off this easy-to-make, mousse-like recipe.

    (Sabayon, by the way, is like zabaglione- if that means anything to you.  Basically this is a custardy/moussey dessert, and is perfect with fresh fruit at the end of a meal.  Serve it with the icewine, of course… and enjoy liberally.)

    Recipe adapted from Food & Drink magazine

    1/2 cup icewine

    3 egg yolks

    2 tablespoons granulated sugar

    1. In a large, heatproof bowl, whisk all three ingredients together.
    2. Fill a large pot of water 1/3 full, and bring to a simmer.  Place the bowl with the egg mixture overtop the water (ensuring the bowl does not actually touch the water) and whisk constantly for 5 – 7 minutes (until the egg mixture thickens and almost doubles in volume).  Make sure the water is simmering and not boiling beneath the bowl.
    3. Pour the warm sabayon into glasses/bowls with berries; serves 4.

    Tips:

    • Selecting the icewine… as the experts say, when you are cooking with wine, you should always use the best you’re willing to pay for (meaning: don’t think that you can cheap out since you’re cooking the stuff).  Icewine is pricey, because it’s hard to come by- so choose a bottle that you would like to drink as well as bake with.
    • No icewine?  You can substitute Champagne/sparkling wine, port, sherry, or a sweet Marsala wine.
    • Hot bowl!  I have burned my fingers many a time by forgetting that the simmering water beneath the bowl is actually… hot.  So now I wear the Ove Glove and can hold onto the bowl while whisking like a maniac, sans burning flesh.  (Use a tea towel or any oven mitt to hold the bowl in place while you whisk away.)
    • Fruit options are totally up to you.  I like the contrast that blackberries and raspberries create against the yellow cream, but you could pair with any fruit of your choice.
    • Hot or cold?  That’s the beauty of the sabayon- you can serve it either way.  (Some recipes encourage you to broil the sabayon after pouring it overtop fruit, so it creates a nice crust… if you try this, please let me know how it turns out.)

    Cheers!

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    March 10th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: , ,

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