Bringebærgrøt

the glowing raspberry compote of the Norwegian summer: ripe raspberries cooked briefly with sugar and thickened in the Nordic manner with potato flour to a glossy, spoonable set, served cool under a pour of cold milk or cream

Origin: Norway

From the journey of Raspberry.

The grøt, the thickened fruit pudding, is one of the cornerstones of the Nordic sweet kitchen, a way of turning the fleeting soft fruit of the brief northern summer into a dish that can be eaten cool at the end of a meal or through a hot afternoon. Bringebærgrøt, raspberry grøt, is among the most loved: ripe raspberries, gathered wild from the forest and the mountainside in July and August or picked from the garden, are cooked only briefly with sugar so as to keep their fresh flavour and glowing colour, then thickened, in the characteristic Scandinavian way, with potato flour (potetmel) rather than with the wheat flour or cornflour of other traditions. Potato starch sets a fruit pudding to a soft, glossy, almost jelly-like sheen without any cloudiness or floury taste, and it is the secret of the clean, bright grøt. The pudding is served cool, in bowls, with a generous pour of cold whole milk or single cream over the top, the cold dairy against the sweet-tart fruit being the whole pleasure of the dish. It belongs to the same family as the Danish rødgrød and the Swedish fruit kräm, and it is the plainest and perhaps the truest way the Nordic table has of eating its summer raspberries.

Ingredients

Grøt

  • 600 g raspberries, fresh or frozen
  • 500 ml water
  • 100 g caster sugar, or to taste
  • 3 tbsp potato flour (potato starch)

To Finish

  • 1 tbsp extra caster sugar, to sprinkle

To Serve

  • 200 ml cold whole milk or single cream, to serve

Method

  1. Put the raspberries in a pan with most of the water (reserve a few tablespoons) and the sugar. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until the fruit has softened and released its juice.
  2. If you prefer a smooth grøt, press the fruit through a sieve at this point to remove the seeds and return the juice to the pan; for a rustic pudding, leave it as it is.
  3. Mix the potato flour to a smooth slurry with the reserved cold water. Take the pan off the heat, or reduce it to the barest simmer, then stir in the slurry in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Return briefly to the heat until the grøt thickens and turns glossy, but do not let it boil hard.
  4. Pour the grøt into a serving bowl or individual bowls. Sprinkle the surface with a little caster sugar to stop a skin forming, and leave to cool to room temperature or chill.
  5. Serve cool, with a generous pour of cold milk or single cream over each bowl.

Notes

Potato flour (potetmel) is the authentic thickener and gives the characteristic clear, glossy set; cornflour may be substituted, though the result is a touch cloudier. The pudding can be made with a mixture of raspberries and other summer fruits, and a cinnamon stick or a strip of lemon peel may be simmered with the fruit for extra fragrance. Bringebærgrøt keeps for two or three days in the fridge. It is closely related to the Danish rødgrød med fløde and the Swedish hallonkräm.

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Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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