Recipe: Date & Bourbon Chantilly Cream

This recipe is courtesy of foodover50.com.

Date & Bourbon Chantilly Cream

Serves 4 people

Prep Time: 30 minutes

​Sweetened whipped cream is classically referred to as “Chantilly,” but who of us - at our age - really needs the added carbs and empty calories of refined sugar? So instead, three very appealing ingredients, a little elbow grease and maybe a fire extinguisher is all we need to whip up an indescribable dessert topping!

Ingredients

• .5 pint whipping cream
• 6 medjool dates
• 2 ounces bourbon
• 1 bunch fresh mint
• 2 cups fresh Summer berries or stone fruit

 To Prepare

In a chilled bowl, whip the cream to a consistency just before soft peaks. Then cover with plastic wrap and return to fridge.

Pit and chop the dates. Place in a small sauté pan with a splash of hot water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. This is to soften the date meat. Boil away all the water but don’t let the dates start to scorch or burn once the pan is dry.

Immediately remove the pan from the heat source, pour in the 2 ounces of bourbon and return to the heat. As soon as the bourbon starts to bubble ignite the pan and flambé the dates. Stand back and be very careful. Don’t have any thing flammable hanging close to the pan. This includes long hair!

When the flame has subsided, turn off the heat and cover the pan for a moment to extinguish.

Transfer the date meat to a fine-screened metal sieve and firmly press through the screen with the back of a sturdy metal spoon. Some of the date’s skin and coarse fiber will remain on the inside, but all the naturally sweet pulp, including all the finer dietary fiber, antioxidants, potassium and other nutrient dense vitamins and minerals should squeeze through and adhere to the outside of the sieve.

Retrieve the whipped cream​​​​ from the refrigerator. Scrape the flavor-rich date and bourbon paste from the outside of the sieve and combine it with the whipped cream. Then gently whisk the two together until thoroughly blended. This process will tint the snow-white cream to an old ivory color and bring the cream texture up to medium peaks, which is perfect.

Arrange unsweetened fresh summer berries, or stone fruit into individual serving dishes. Top with a tablespoon of the cream and garnish with a small spring of mint.

Recipe Note:

A little bit of this exquisitely rich and uniquely flavorful Chantilly Cream is all it takes to turn ripe fresh fruit into a masterpiece!