I always thought syllabub was something complicated with whisked egg whites. This orange syllabub with speculoos biscuit base took around 20 minutes to make and there are no eggs involved!
We had a low fat dessert yesterday so I’m making up for it today with decidedly un-low fat syllabub. In my defence I have served them in miniature shot glass sized dishes and these spoons are half size too – snaffled from the canape tray at a blog event! Would you believe they are plastic spoons?
Bubbling away on the stove I had a sugar syrup with thinly sliced orange segments and some slivers of orange zest. Do you remember I used up those sugared lemon slices on the lemon fondant fancies last week? Well these are the home made version and boy are they good. Far glossier and better looking too.
As a hangover from the rhubarb cheesecake last year I have kept a jar of ground speculoos biscuit crumbs. It often comes in useful to sprinkle over a serving of yoghurt for Ted’s pudding. Somehow “yogurt with biscuit crumbs” sounds far more enticing than yogurt alone. Ted is also highly amused that my supply of supermarket own brand speculoos biscuits each have a square hole in the centre.
I lined each serving dish with a couple of spoons of speculoos crumbs mixed with a tablespoon of the orange syrup.
Although this syllabub is extremely easy to make, you definitely need an electric mixer. Dare I say it, ideally you need a stand mixer because my arm was getting rather tired holding the hand held one on top speed for ten minutes.
Disposable piping bags are not essential – you could cut the corner off a freezer bag. Or you can forsake the bag altogether and spoon your syllabub into the dishes – bags do make a tidier job of it though.
Syllabub is most commonly made in lemon flavour over crushed amaretti or ratafia biscuits. Alcohol is generally present meaning you should not feed these desserts to children. Golly what a chore – the grown ups will have to eat them!
I am sending these orange syllabubs to Nazima and Laura at One Ingredient which this month is themed “oranges”. And since it’s yet another citrus recipe (I’m doing well this month!) I can also send it again to Karen at Teatime Treats.
Orange syllabub recipe with speculoos biscuit base
Ingredients
- 1 orange
- 100 ml water
- 100 g caster sugar
- 100 g speculoos or other biscuit such as ginger snaps or digestive crumbs
- 284 ml double cream I used Elmlea reduced fat variety
- 1 tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau orange liqueur
- 100 g icing sugar
Instructions
- Cut one quarter from the orange and slice it finely into thin quarter circle slices. With the chunk that's left cut the remaining zest into shards.
- Juice the remaining three quarters of the orange and set aside.
- Boil a sugar syrup with 100ml water and 100g caster sugar. Let it simmer with the orange slices in it - it shouldn't go dark and caramelised, you should have a thick clear syrup.
- Meanwhile, using fine grater, remove the zest from the rest of the orange and set aside.
- Using the electric mixer, whip the double cream in a medium size bowl. As it thickens add the icing sugar, orange zest, orange juice and orange liqueur. Beat until thick and it holds a ribbon trail.
- Turn the heat off for the orange slices in syrup.
- Spoon biscuit crumbs into the individual dishes/shot glasses. Spoon over 1 tbsp of the orange syrup into each and mix a little.
- Dispense some whipped cream mixture into a disposable piping bag and pipe syllabub into each serving dish/ shot glass.
- Decorate with slices of sugary orange segment and serve.
If you like these pots then you’ll love my Pinterest board “Lovely Things in Jars”.
Follow Sarah Trivuncic Maison Cupcake’s board Lovely things in Jars on Pinterest.
I love desserts in layers and in glasses. this looks great and so wintery!
Exquisite! That seasonal dessert must taste wonderful.
Cheers,
Rosa
Thank you – my husband seems to think so 🙂
Beautiful! You’re right about needing an electric whisk – I’ve seen old 18th century recipes that call for the syllabub to be whisked for an hour!
I don’t have any speculoos crumbs, but I do have some ginger biscuit crumbs, and I think they’ll do the trick too!
An hour? Yikes!! Ginger biscuit crumbs would be perfect alternative.
LOL – I did wonder where you were going talking about low-fat and syllabub in the same sentence ;o) I’d make syllabub for the name alone… Love your version and the jewel-like sparkle of the orange slivers.
Oh no – have I mixed up my tweets – it was the jelly that was low fat!!
Another lovely entry for tea time treats thanks Sarah and I am a big syllabub fan, and make if regularly for dinner parties……it’s easy and yet always downs a bomb!
Thanks – I can’t believe I’ve not done it before. I had it in my head it was something else entirely!
What a lovely syllabub! I just love the name- it sounds a terribly posh dessert but as you say, super simple to male! Thank you for entering it into TTT!
A good name always makes something sound more glam than it is!
Oh I do love a syllabub and used to make one years ago which featured lemon , sugar and white wine along with whipped cream. It was fantastic. Now adding a speculoos layer is just brilliant and my daughter is mad on the spread too. This is a dessert that all my kids would love as well as us parents. I should replace the Grand Marnier with orange juice for them, although I do give them Tiramisu made with Marsala, so maybe half & half!
Thanks for entering into One Ingredient! xxx
Yes I saw a version with wine when I was researching this. I am still unsure though what the difference is between syllabub and a fool? Fools seem to have fruit rather than juice, syllabubs usually include alcohol. But apart from that they seem pretty similar.
not had syllabub in ages. it looks so light and dreamy and the speculoos is a great idea! I just wish there were a way one could make it taste as good without using cream but it would probably need stabilisers and aeraters of some sort! We both like that you gently instruct your readers in how to make confit orange zest and make it sound simple without stating it!
Is the confit orange zest the caramelised bit? You see I didn’t even realise I was doing it!! Having now sussed what syllabub is, I’m wondering if you can make the same kind of thing with a low fat fromage frais? I’m not sure if the fruit juice would curdle it but I am going to try it out.
ooh do let me know how that goes. I’ve done a confit orange recipe too now having been inspired by your lovely recipe
I love what you’ve done with the oranges for that pud – it looks really really good too. I haven’t come across speculoos biscuits before, but it sounds like I need to check them out!
They’re usually sold as Lotus biscuits in the UK. They’re oval shaped and often served in individual cellophane packets alongside coffee in cafes.
Looks divine.
Such a pretty and elegant dessert! I love it’s simplicity too.
Thanks Lucy, they were dead easy and you get a great result.