Recipe - Gooseberry Burnt Creams

1 pound Tart green gooseberries
4 ounce Caster sugar (or more)
5 ounce Granulated sugar
One half pound Fromage blanc or quark*
One half pt Double cream

*Note: Creamy Greek yoghurt may also be used instead of fromage blanc or
quark. Choose a heavybased saucepan with a large surface area. Put the
topped and tailed gooseberries into it, still moistened by the water in
which they have been rinsed. Cover and cook over very low heat until the
fruit is perfectly tender. (It does not matter if the berries collapse in
cooking here as they will be crushed to a pulp for serving.) Crush the
cooked fruit with a potato masher and cook for several minutes more,
without the lid but just stirring occasionally, until most of the juices
have evaporated leaving a thick fruit puree. Add caster sugar to taste and
stir until melted. Spoon the puree into 8 individual cocotte dishes and
leave until cold. Beat the fromage blanc, quark or yoghurt into the cream
until smoothly mixed then whisk until fairly stiff. Spoon the creamy
mixture over the cold puree and level the tops. Cover and chill in the
freezer for about 45 minutes until the cream firms up. Dissolve the
granulated sugar in 1 tablespoon warm water in a pan placed over low heat.
Then turn the heat up and cook until the sugar carmelises to a rich shade
of gold. Quickly pour the burnt sugar evenly over the chilled creams and
set aside for 20 minutes or so until the caramel sets in thin brittle
sheets of gold.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini