Chef Juliette
Various Almond Preparations
Five almond preparations, one discipline: remove the skins cleanly, dry every kernel through, then cut, toast, or cloak it in pale caramel without letting its fragrant oils escape.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Fraises Marguerite
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2675, Fraises Marguerite, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Wild strawberries meet their equal weight of ruby pomegranate sorbet, then disappear beneath maraschino Chantilly. The lesson is drainage: leave the kirsch syrup behind, and the frozen fruit stays bright, distinct, and spoonable.
Desserts
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
Celebration
35 min
Active Time
0 min cook•1 hr 20 min total
Yield4 servings
Fraises Marguerite (wild strawberries with pomegranate sorbet and maraschino Chantilly) teaches one uncompromising lesson: fruit destined for a frozen dessert must be drained until its surface is dry. Leave kirsch syrup clinging to the berries and the sorbet loosens into slush; drain them properly and each little berry stays perfumed, bright, and distinct beneath the ivory cream.
The original formula assumed a pastry station with pomegranate sherbet already churned, a silver timbale held in ice, and enough hands to assemble dessert at the instant of service. At home, use a sharp, water-based pomegranate sorbet, a chilled stainless steel bowl nested in ice, and a scale. The book's equal quantity becomes equal weights of drained berries and sorbet, so the ratio survives its scale down to four. Churning a separate batch and keeping silver on hand are brigade scaffolding; the kirsch maceration, ruthless drainage, equal proportion, maraschino Chantilly, and last-minute assembly are the dish, and they stay.
Fold only until the ruby sorbet clings around the berries, then cover it generously with Chantilly and bring the timbale to the table beaded with cold. The decisive work happens before that fold: drain the strawberries, blot beneath the sieve, and give them five minutes more than impatience wants. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Fraises Marguerite belongs to the entremets glacés, composed frozen desserts, of the Parisian grand-kitchen table rather than to a strawberry-growing region with a folk recipe of the same name. Its structure records that service clearly: fraises des bois perfumed with kirsch, pomegranate sherbet for tart color, and maraschino crème Chantilly presented from a silver timbale banked in ice. Marguerite is the composition's title, not an instruction to shape the dessert like a daisy; the cream decoration is required, but a floral garnish is not.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
wild strawberries (fraises des bois)
Quantity
2 cups (480 ml / 300 g)
picked over with calyxes removed
superfine sugar
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 25 g)
kirsch
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
water-based pomegranate sherbet
Quantity
About 1½ cups (360 ml / 300 g), using exactly the same weight as the drained strawberries
kept frozen until needed
cold heavy cream
Quantity
1 cup (240 ml / 240 g)
divided
confectioners’ sugar
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 15 g)
sifted
cold maraschino liqueur
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g)
ice
Quantity
6 cups (1.4 L / 1.3 kg)
for surrounding the timbale
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| wild strawberries (fraises des bois)picked over with calyxes removed | 2 cups (480 ml / 300 g) |
| superfine sugar | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 25 g) |
| kirsch | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| water-based pomegranate sherbetkept frozen until needed | About 1½ cups (360 ml / 300 g), using exactly the same weight as the drained strawberries |
| cold heavy creamdivided | 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) |
| confectioners’ sugarsifted | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 15 g) |
| cold maraschino liqueur | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) |
| icefor surrounding the timbale | 6 cups (1.4 L / 1.3 kg) |
Equipment Needed
- •1 litre stainless steel timbale or deep metal serving bowl
- •Larger bowl for an ice surround
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Digital kitchen scale
- •Electric hand mixer or balloon whisk
- •Broad flexible spatula
- •Piping bag with a medium star tip
Instructions
- 1
Chill the service
Put a 1 litre stainless steel timbale or deep serving bowl, a larger bowl that will hold it, the mixer beaters, and the cream bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes. The stainless steel timbale is the honest home equivalent of silver: it conducts the cold quickly and keeps the sherbet firm while you finish the cream. Keep the ice frozen until the moment of assembly.
- 2
Macerate the berries
Place the wild strawberries in a shallow nonreactive bowl. Scatter over the superfine sugar and kirsch, then turn the berries gently with a spoon so every one is glossed without being crushed. Refrigerate for 20 minutes, turning them once halfway through. The sugar and kirsch should perfume the fruit and draw a little juice, not collapse it; longer maceration only gives you wetter, softer berries.
- 3
Drain them hard
Tip the strawberries into a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl and leave them for 15 minutes, turning them once with the lightest hand. Set the sieve on a folded clean kitchen towel for another minute so the towel draws moisture from beneath, but never press the fruit. The berries are ready when their surfaces look nearly matte and no syrup gathers below them. Weigh the drained berries and note the exact amount; that weight determines how much pomegranate sherbet you will use. If they still glisten with free syrup, give them another five minutes. This is the dish, not a dispensable precaution.
Keep the drained kirsch syrup for a fruit drink or another dessert if you wish, but none returns to Fraises Marguerite. One spoonful is enough to loosen the sherbet. - 4
Whip maraschino Chantilly
Reserve 1 tablespoon of the cold cream. Whip the remainder with the confectioners’ sugar in the chilled bowl until it holds soft peaks, then drizzle in the cold maraschino liqueur while whisking. Continue only until the crème Chantilly holds a supple medium peak suitable for covering and piping. If the liqueur loosens it, set the bowl over ice and whisk briefly; if the cream turns grainy, work in the reserved cold cream by hand until smooth. Keep one-third in a piping bag fitted with a medium star tip and refrigerate both portions.
Add the maraschino only after the cream has body. Alcohol thins an unformed foam, while softly whipped cream can receive it without complaint. - 5
Cohere fruit and sorbet
Move the pomegranate sherbet from the freezer to the refrigerator for 8 to 10 minutes, just until a spoon can cut through it while it still holds a firm mound. Weigh out exactly the same amount as the drained strawberries. Flatten the sherbet in the chilled timbale, add the berries, and make four to six broad folds with a cold spatula, stopping as soon as the sherbet coheres around the fruit. Stirring breaks the berries and melts the sherbet. If the mixture loosens into slush, ça se rattrape: spread it in a shallow chilled metal tray, freeze for 8 to 10 minutes, then fold it once and continue.
- 6
Fill and decorate
Pack the ice into the larger chilled bowl and settle the empty timbale into it so the ice reaches halfway up its sides. Dry the inside, spoon in the strawberry and sherbet mixture, and level it without compressing the fruit. Cover the entire surface with the maraschino Chantilly, then decorate with the reserved piped Chantilly in generous rosettes or a simple fluted border, exactly as the original preparation intends. Serve immediately, or hold it nested in ice for no more than 15 minutes before spooning it into chilled dessert cups. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Fraises des bois are intensely perfumed and truly seasonal. If they aren't good, wait for them; the honest cousin is the smallest, ripest cultivated strawberry you can find, quartered if necessary, but its perfume will be gentler and the change won't be invisible.
- •The pomegranate sherbet here is a water ice, not the dairy sherbet sold under that name in some shops. Choose one tasting chiefly of tart pomegranate. The cream belongs above it in the Chantilly, not inside it.
- •Maraschino is a clear cherry-stone liqueur with a faint almond character, not syrup from cocktail cherries. It is distinct from kirsch, and the two are not interchangeable in this composition.
- •Serve Fraises Marguerite as soon as it is assembled. A long freeze hardens the strawberries before the sherbet softens enough to eat, so leftovers remain pleasant but lose the texture that defines the dish.
Advance Preparation
- •The serving bowls, cream bowl, beaters, and dessert cups can be chilled several hours ahead.
- •The maraschino Chantilly can be whipped and refrigerated for up to 2 hours, with the decorating portion held in its piping bag. Whisk it once by hand if it relaxes.
- •Macerate the strawberries close to service. Once thoroughly drained, they may wait in their sieve over a bowl in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour.
- •Assemble the berries and sherbet no more than 15 minutes before serving. The ice surround is for brief service, not long storage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 210g)
Calories
370 calories
Total Fat
22 g
Saturated Fat
14 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
6 g
Cholesterol
70 mg
Sodium
40 mg
Total Carbohydrates
38 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
34 g
Protein
2 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Entremets (Sweets) - Cold Fruit Entremets
Browse the full collection
Chef Juliette
Various Preparations of Filberts and Hazel-nuts
A pastry pantry lesson in one tray: filberts warmed only until their red skins release, rubbed clean, cooled, and chopped into a fragrant mise-en-place for cakes, creams, pralines, and petits fours.
Chef Juliette
The Buttering and Glazing of Moulds
The smallest pâtisserie discipline decides whether a cake leaves its mould intact: clarified butter in every corner, followed by the lightest veil of dry flour or fécule.
Chef Juliette
How to Beat the Whites of Eggs
Four whites, one spotless bowl, and a patient change of speed: whisk gently until loosened, then briskly to glossy stiffness, with powdered sugar waiting if the foam begins to granulate.