Snow Queen Snow Balls

Recipe courtesy of Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering, from her Delicious Gluten Free Cooking ebook.

With life hopefully opening up, I made one of our favorite desserts again, but as individual portions that you can pull out of freezer—”snow balls” instead of a Snow Queen. It’s always been very popular at parties. So very easy, quick to make and freeze, and naturally gluten-free. It’s basically whipped cream and crushed meringues frozen. However, for many of us desserts to feed a bundle of people is more than we want tempting us in the house, so smaller is better! Individual portions are becoming more popular as a way to control portion sizes, plus it looks prettier on a plate. Kids love a dessert made just for them. This is truly a dessert made in heaven with the slight crunch from the meringues, the mild almond liqueur flavor and the punch of flavor from the raspberries. Made in minutes, frozen within an hour or two so great for unexpected guests, and compatible with lots of different liqueurs and sauces. Don’t prepare it more than 1 week in advance as the meringues will lose their texture. Even if snow balls soften a little, they still taste wonderful and are like an Eton Mess, a recipe of whipped cream, meringues and strawberries.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup (180 ml) whipping or heavy cream
• 1–2 tbsp (15–30 ml) amaretto, or any almond-flavored liqueur you like. For a stronger almond flavor add 1 tsp almond extract to the liqueur.
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) sugar
• 3 oz store-bought meringues, or make meringues with 3 egg whites.
• Raspberries or strawberries.

Instructions

1. Whisk cream, sugar and liqueur until stiff.
2. Break meringues with your fingers into small pieces, but not crushed fine, and fold the pieces into the cream mixture. Taste and add more sugar if you prefer. Note: any frozen dessert tends to need more sugar than a room-temperature dessert.
3. I used a number 12 scoop, roughly 1/3 cup, and made 6 balls from the mixture. Put them on a plate lined with plastic wrap or in paper cupcake liners and keep in the freezer for at least an hour or two. Note: they won’t freeze solid, and the snow balls will melt rapidly in the heat.
4. Remove from freezer and peel the plastic wrap off the snow balls, or serve in cupcake liners.
5. Decorate with raspberries, raspberry sauce, chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries or other fresh fruit.

Alternatives

• Try hazelnut liqueur to marry with the raspberries.
• Try a coffee or chocolate liqueur and serve this with my chocolate mousse recipe before whipping the mousse.
• Try orange juice concentrate, grated orange rind and orange liqueur.
• Liquor stores sell ¼ cup “nips” of liqueurs for a few dollars, so mix and match different liqueurs to see what you like best or to offer options for guests.
• If you are dairy free, try whipping the solid coconut milk cream from the top of a can of chilled full-fat coconut milk (not the “lite” Asian-style coconut milk).

About Chef Oonagh Williams

I have written a monthly recipe column for Beyond Celiac since January 2011. I have a Culinary Arts degree as well as celiac disease and other food allergies, so I know food and live this way daily. Remember that most real food is naturally gluten-free until manufacturers mess around with it, and only baking really needs changing. Real food is now being called clean eating.

Obviously talks and appearances are currently canceled, but you can connect with me on Facebook at Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh or on LinkedIn. I’ve just filmed recipes at home for New Hampshire’s ABC WMUR’s Cooks Corner and they are being aired. I am also being included in the nationwide library database of online presenters.

For new recipes and lots of advice, my e-cookbook Delicious Gluten-Free Cooking is only $20 and available to download at www.glutenfreecookingwithoonagh.com. It has tips, full-color photos, and recipes like grandma’s comfort soup, shrimp and crab bisque, English trifle, buffalo chicken, tiramisu, dinner party fare, and more. Follow the link to see the table of contents and thumbnail photos of the full-size photos in the e-book.