von Tessa Mellinger
25 March 2021
COOKING ROOM
Easter Recipe: Sweet Filled Easter Eggs with Spruce Parfait and Red Clover Sorbet
This Easter dessert does not need to hide! With a sophisticated recipe for spruce parfait and red clover sorbet in an egg, you can impress everyone at Easter. What looks (and tastes) very elaborate is actually child’s play. The ingredients are a highlight because they come straight from nature. By using spruce syrup and red clover, one harnesses their delicious power and conjures up the forest and meadow on the plate. Or better said, in the egg cup! The hosts from Culinarium Alpentraum show step by step how to create this springtime dessert recipe.
Really clever: An Easter recipe that delights.
With this dessert, the seven hosts of the Culinarium Alpentraum have come up with something very special once again. The association of hosts and chefs loves to experiment with – literally – natural ingredients from outside and prefers to serve regional ingredients. This is also the case with this recipe, where they create two different dessert ice cream variations using spruce and red clover, which are then beautifully presented in eggshells. A simple trick that makes the sweet dish just a little more extravagant (and photogenic). After all, the eye eats too! Below, we explain to you how to obtain the few – but good – ingredients and how to recreate the ice cream in just a few easy steps.
Easter Recipe: Sweet Stuffed Easter Eggs with Spruce Parfait and Red Clover Sorbet
Fichte and Clover: the Power of Nature
The Easter season truly marks the beginning of spring, and finally, nature blooms again after a long winter. In doing so, it brings forth many wonders that we humans can take advantage of, also because they have healing effects on us. The spruce promotes blood circulation, has anti-inflammatory properties, helps relieve coughs, and much more. Red clover is also anti-inflammatory and rich in vitamins and contains particularly high amounts of vitamins and isoflavones. Additionally, it is said to have an anti-aging effect. These positive effects are further enhanced because the ingredients must first be gathered during a rejuvenating walk. The searching and picking of the young spruce shoots and red clover is almost meditative and a welcome break in the fresh air.
Spruce parfait in egg: Ingredients & Steps
For the spruce egg – a parfait or semi-frozen ice cream – the most important ingredient is prepared the day before: spruce syrup. Young spruce shoots are used for this. By the way, we call them "Maiwipferen" here in Tyrol, because the fresh shoots are not available all year round, but – depending on the weather and location – only between May and early June. If you are too early, the shoots are still too small; if you are too late, the efficacy decreases and the flavor is less aromatic. The most important rule when foraging: never take much from one tree, but little from many different ones, so as not to harm it sustainably. One more tip: it’s best to collect the shoots in a glass container, as plastic and aluminum are not suitable, because the effect is quickly destroyed here too.
The syrup can later be used for all sorts of really good things: served with sparkling wine as a creative spruce Hugo, taken in high doses for coughs or sore throats, or of course simply diluted with water as a delicious refreshment. When stored in the refrigerator, the syrup has a shelf life of several weeks.
Ingredients:
- 500 g spruce shoots
- 1.75 l water
- 750 g sugar
Preparation:
Bring the young spruce shoots to a boil with water. Then strain the water through a sieve to separate it from the shoots – be sure to catch the water and place it back in a pot on the stove. Cook together with the sugar for some time until the desired consistency is reached. Then transfer to bottles and let cool.
The Spruce Parfait: Ingredients & Recipe
For about 10 eggs
Ingredients:
- about 80 g egg yolk (about 4 eggs), pasteurized or beaten "warm cold"
- 30 g cane sugar
- 50 g spruce tip syrup
- a few fresh, finely chopped spruce shoots
- 0.5 cl Swiss pine schnapps (alternatively: larch liqueur, herbal schnapps, etc.)
- juice of half to one third of a lemon
- 200 ml cream (carrageenan-free)
- pinch of salt
- vanilla
Preparation:
Separate the eggs (see tips below) and briefly boil the empty egg shells in a pot. Beat the yolk of four eggs in a water bath at about 70 degrees with a whisk until warm. Immediately repeat the process over a cold water bath. Now fill the egg yolk, cane sugar, a pinch of salt, and some vanilla extract into a bowl and beat into a homogeneous, stiff mixture. Then mix the spruce syrup, Swiss pine schnapps, the juice of a lemon, and fresh, finely chopped spruce shoots well and fold it into the cold egg mixture. Whip the cream until stiff and gently fold it in. Immediately fill the parfait into a piping bag and fill the mixture into the empty egg shells. Then place the filled eggs in the freezer and take them out about 15 minutes before serving. Garnish as desired and serve.
The Spruce Parfait
Red Clover Sorbet in an Egg: Ingredients & Steps
The red clover syrup for the second cream is also made the day before, as it should cool overnight. You can find red clover in spring and summer in meadows, by the roadside, or sometimes even in your own garden. When gathering, you should definitely pay attention not to pick in meadows or paths that are often visited by dogs... you know why!
Red Clover Syrup: Ingredients:
- 800 g water
- 30 g sugar
- 150 red clover flowers, plucked
Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat them to about 80° Celsius. Allow to briefly boil, remove from heat, and let cool overnight. You should save some fresh flowers for the sorbet the next day.
Red Clover
Red Clover Sorbet: Ingredients & Recipe
For about 20 eggs
Ingredients:
- 25 ml red clover syrup
- some fresh flowers
- 250 g sugar
- Juice of 2 untreated lemons
- 225 g water
Pour the red clover syrup, sugar, lemon juice, and water into a pot (the ratio of sugar to water should be 1:1). Mix in as many red clover flowers as possible and bring to a boil. Strain while catching the liquid. Fill this into an ice cream maker or freeze it in a Pacojet. If you don’t have an ice cream maker or a Pacojet, you can also make the sorbet without them: Pour the liquid into a not too small bowl and place it in the freezer. After one hour, stir thoroughly with a whisk and repeat this approximately every 30 minutes until the sorbet reaches the desired consistency. Depending on the freezer, this takes 3 to 4 hours. In the meantime, boil the eggshells in water.
Then fill the sorbet into the eggshells, decorate as desired, and serve.
Sweet Filled Easter Eggs with Spruce Parfait and Red Clover Sorbet
Properly cracking eggs: How to do it right
Everyone knows that eggs sometimes don't separate or cap perfectly. To avoid unnecessarily breaking eggs, here are a few tips:
The best way to cap them works, of course, with boiled eggs. So keep the shells from the Easter brunch of the previous days, so you automatically have enough shells for the desserts in the evening. A sharp knife usually works well for capping, but it becomes really perfect with a egg capper made of stainless steel. No matter how you do it – capping eggs together with the family as a challenge is a lot of fun!
Easter eggs differently: the "Fabulous Seven" of Culinarium Alpentraum rock the kitchen
The Culinarium Alpentraum consists of a total of seven hosts who mainly have one thing in common: their passion for excellent and regional cuisine. And a lot of talent, that goes without saying. Another requirement is that they are family businesses. This way, the knowledge about preparing traditional and conventional cuisine is passed down from generation to generation while the young hosts bring fresh air into the kitchens. The establishments that came together in 1997 are spread throughout the entire region. They include the Gasthof Dorfkrug in Mösern, the Restaurant Weidachstube in Leutasch, the Gasthaus Brücke in Leutasch, the Waldgasthaus Triendlsäge in Seefeld, the Gasthof Tiroler Weinstube in Seefeld, the Gasthof Hirschen in Reith, and the Gasthaus Krüner Stub’n. Where so much knowledge, experience, and talent come together, pure enjoyment is created!
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