Recipe: Make our Salted Honey Parfait with Stem Ginger and Honey Madeleines

Make our classic French stem ginger and honey Madeleines with creamy salted honey parfait.

Honey is one of those magical ingredients that makes everything taste better. It's an ambrosial floral nectar that takes porridge, cakes, biscuits, stews (anything you can imbue with its scent) to the next level.

My absolute favourite honey (after a lot of tasting) is the one produced by Michael Coe of Great Tilkey and sold as Suffolk Honey in East of England Co-ops as part of the society's Sourced Locally initiative. It's satisfyingly runny without being so damn sticky the jar adheres itself to everything else in the cupboard (rice, odds and ends of pasta, bits of flour) and the flavour brings notes of caramel, lavender, honeysuckle and rose.

No wonder it won Producer of the Year at the Co-op's annual awards ceremony.

Ingredients as fine as this need little done to them. My favourite outings for this little beauty are a drizzle here and there over French toast. Or a spoonful on top of spicy gorgonzola picante with a nugget or two of walnut.

But this week's recipe of a parfait (basically a frozen mousse) absolutely shows the honey off at its best). Elevate the dessert by serving it with halved ripe peaches, drenched in sugar, grilled until caramelised and freckled with fresh thyme. A real celebration of the height of summer.

I used silicon madeleine moulds for the cakes because they look cute, but you could make these in paper cupcake cases.

Salted honey parfait with honey and stem ginger madeleines

(Serves four)

Ingredients

For the parfait

4 large egg yolks (reserve the egg whites)

100g runny honey

Large pinch salt

300ml double cream

For the madeleines

100g each caster sugar, melted butter, plain flour

1 egg yolk

2 egg whites

1tbsp honey

1tbsp stem ginger syrup

1 piece stem ginger finely diced

Method

Whisk the egg yolks for the parfait with a large pinch of salt.

Warm the honey in a pan then pour it over the egg yolks and whisk until thick – it should fall in glossy ribbons.

Whip the cream until thick, then fold into the yolk mix. Pour into four round dessert moulds and freeze for three to four hours.

For the madeleines mix together the butter, sugar, flour and egg yolk. Add the ginger and honey and syrup. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.

Spoon into madeleine moulds (it will make 10) and bake at 190C for 12-15 minutes until risen and spongy.

Serve the parfait with the madeleines and a drizzle of honey.