Recipe: Scottish heather honey parfait with summer berries and shortbread crumble

Scotland's climate means we produce some of the best soft fruit in the world. We also have some amazing apiaries currently experiencing a boom time due to the health benefits of heather honey; what better way to flaunt our produce than a wonderful summer pudding?

The berries are all grown in Fife, with the honey being produced in Dumphries and Galloway by John Mellis. The parfait is created by making a sabayon, but don't be afraid of the culinary jargon - it's reasonably straight forward. This dessert requires quite a bit of work, but is ideal for making in advance. I suddenly had the urge to make a sabayon-based dessert after catching up with Masterchef this week, and I'm sure Mr. Wallace would be a fan.

Recipe:

For the parfait:

150 mls Scottish heather honey

300 mls double cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

4 free-range egg yolks

For the crumble:

50g organic plain flour

60g unsalted butter

70g caster sugar

25g brown sugar

I used:

1 punnet of raspberries

1 punnet of blueberries

1 punnet of strawberries 

150g caster sugar

Good few dashes of lemon juice

Few mint leaves, julienned 

Method:

1) First make the parfait, as it needs to set.  For this, we make what is known in the culinary world as a sabayon - don't be afraid! Put the honey in a pot on a low heat to gently melt it.  Boil the kettle, and fill a medium-sized pot a quarter of the way up with boiling water.  

2) Next, take a glass bowl that fits securely on the pot. Place the eggs yolks in the bowl and continually whisk over the boiling water until the volume doubles in size and is almost a cream like consistency. You want to bring it to the ribbon stage - this is where the whisk leaves a trail behind it.  

3) Pour in the melted honey and fold through.  Now, using an electric mixer, whip the cream and icing sugar to stiff peaks. Gradually fold in the honey sabayon and then fill the desired mold with the mixture.  Place in the freezer.  This could be done days in advance.

4) For the crumble, mix all the ingredients together in a food processor, then squeeze into small lumps with your hands.  Wrap them in cling film and freeze for around 30 mins.  Get the oven on to around 150C at this point.

5) While waiting, removed the stalks from the strawberries and slice into quarters.  Place all the fruit in a bowl and mix through the sugar and lemon juice.  Leave in the fridge to macerate for around 45 mins.

6) Once frozen, blitz the crumble mix in a food processor.  Sprinkle the mix evenly on a baking mat to around the thickness of a 50p coin.  Bake for around 6 mins - you want a nice blonde colour, not golden. Allow to cool then then blitz to a rough crumb in a food processor. Again, this could be done a couple of days in advance, leaving little to do if entertaining.

7) Take half the berry mixture and blend in a food processor.  Pass through a fine sieve to ensure a smooth puree and set aside in the fridge.  This mix could also be churned into a cracking sorbet.  

8) Hard work done... time to plate.  Place a generous spoon of the crumble in the centre of the plate, turn out the parfait and place on top.  Dot around the berry coulis mix as shown and then mix some of it through the macerated berries.  Arrange the fruit around the parfait, and place the mint on top. Voila!