Rote Grütze
A summer dessert from northern Germany (Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein) and Denmark. It is red fruit — currants, sour cherries, raspberries and strawberries — briefly boiled with juice and sugar and thickened with starch, so that the soft fruit keeps its shape. It is served cold, with vanilla sauce, cream or ice cream. It is like a fruit jelly, but full of whole fruit and much thicker. Tart currants are the backbone of the flavour — without them the dessert would be too sweet and bland.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Preparing the fruit 15 min
- Cooking 10 min
- Vanilla sauce 15 min
- Chilling 120 min
Step by step
0 / 8 donePrepare the fruit
Strip the currants from their stalks, pit the cherries, halve or quarter the strawberries. Keep the raspberries and strawberries apart — they go in at the end.
Ingredients: 250 g redcurrants · 200 g sour cherries, pitted · 150 g raspberries · 150 g strawberries · 250 ml cherry or redcurrant juice · 100 g sugar · 40 g cornflour
Firm fruit to cook, soft fruit at the end.Mix the starch
Stir the cornflour into 5 tablespoons of the juice. Pour the rest of the juice into a pan with the sugar.
Ingredients: 250 g redcurrants · 200 g sour cherries, pitted · 150 g raspberries · 150 g strawberries · 250 ml cherry or redcurrant juice · 100 g sugar · 40 g cornflour
Boil currants and cherries
Bring the juice and sugar to the boil, add the currants and cherries and cook 3–4 minutes, until they release their juice but do not fall apart.
Ingredients: 250 g redcurrants · 200 g sour cherries, pitted · 150 g raspberries · 150 g strawberries · 250 ml cherry or redcurrant juice · 100 g sugar · 40 g cornflour
Thicken
Pour in the starch, stirring all the time, and bring to the boil. Cook one more minute until thick and translucent.
Ingredients: 250 g redcurrants · 200 g sour cherries, pitted · 150 g raspberries · 150 g strawberries · 250 ml cherry or redcurrant juice · 100 g sugar · 40 g cornflour
A minute's boil — the compote turns clear.Add the soft fruit
Take the pan off the heat and gently fold in the raspberries and strawberries. They soften in the hot mixture but keep their shape. Pour into bowls.
Ingredients: 250 g redcurrants · 200 g sour cherries, pitted · 150 g raspberries · 150 g strawberries · 250 ml cherry or redcurrant juice · 100 g sugar · 40 g cornflour
Make the vanilla sauce
Bring the milk to the boil with the split vanilla. Whisk the yolks with the sugar, pour in the hot milk in a thin stream, whisking, and return it all to the pan. Heat gently, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and coats the spoon (80–82°C). Do not boil, or the yolks will curdle.
Ingredients: 400 ml milk · ½ pcs vanilla pod · 3 pcs egg yolks · 40 g sugar
The sauce coats the spoon — a finger line holds.Chill
Strain the sauce and press cling film onto its surface. Once the compote and sauce have cooled a little, refrigerate them 2 hours.
Ingredients: 400 ml milk · ½ pcs vanilla pod · 3 pcs egg yolks · 40 g sugar
Serve with the sauce
Serve rote Grütze chilled, generously topped with vanilla sauce. It is also good with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or simply cold milk.
Ingredients: 400 ml milk · ½ pcs vanilla pod · 3 pcs egg yolks · 40 g sugar
Before you start
With frozen fruit
Out of season use 750 g of a frozen mix of berries and redcurrants. Add them to the pan without thawing and cook a minute longer.
Semolina or sago
The name means “red groats” — before starch became common, the dessert was thickened with semolina or sago. You can go back to that version: instead of the starch, cook 50 g of semolina in the juice for about 5 minutes.
Storage
Rote Grütze keeps 3 days in the fridge, the vanilla sauce 2 days. Keep both covered.
