Berries In Champagne Recipe | The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures

TIP OF THE DAY: Berries In Champagne

December 28, 2015 at 8:36 am · Filed under Fruits, Nuts & Seeds, New Year's Eve, Recipes, Tip Of The Day

For an easy, light dessert to cap off your New Year’s Eve dinner, we nominate berries marinated in Champagne or other sparkling wine.

Some sparkling wines are vinified to be sweet (see below). But if you can’t find one, or have dry sparkling wine on hand, you can mix it with a bit of agave (a great low-glycemic sweetener) or honey to sweeten the marinade.

You can also use simple syrup if you have it on hand. It’s more difficult to dissolve sugar; but if that’s all you have, pulse it to a superfine consistency in a food processor.

If you sweeten the marinade, note that agave is twice as sweet as honey and sugar, so you need less of it. Agave is like honey in sweetness and viscosity, but without the unique honey flavor.

Final tip: Champagne is expensive, so for the marinade you can substitute a more affordable sweet wine like Moscato. It can be found for just $8 or $9 a bottle. Splurge on a sweet-style Champagne to serve with the berries; or continue on with the Moscato.

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Marinate berries for 30 minutes before serving. Photo courtesy TruWhip.

RECIPE: CHAMPAGNE MARINATED BERRIES

Ingredients For 8 Servings

1/2 cup sweeter-style Champagne or other sparkling wine

Optional: agave or honey to taste

2 pints berries—ideally assorted raspberries, sliced strawberries, and whatever else tastes good
seasonally

2 cups whipped cream (substitute 8 ounces mascarpone)

Optional garnish: 8 amaretti cookies, coarsely crumbled

Preparation

1. COMBINE the Champagne and agave in a large bowl. Add the berries; toss gently to combine. Cover and chill for 30 minutes or longer.

2. PLACE 3/4 cup berry mixture in each of 8 bowls. Top each serving with 1/4 cup whipped cream or a dab of mascarpone. Divide the crushed amaretti cookies among servings.

Veuve Cliquot Demi Sec Champagne
TOP PHOTO: Brut Champagne is the most
commonly-purchased style, but it’s too dry
and acidic to go well with desserts. BOTTOM
PHOTO: Instead, look for a demi-sec
Champagne, which has more residual sugar
to match the sweetness of the dessert.

THE SEVEN LEVELS OF SWEETNESS IN CHAMPAGNE

Champagne is made in seven styles, or levels, of sweetness. The sweetness comes from a step in the secondary fermentation of Champagne, when the bubbles are created. The process is called dosage (doe-SAZH): a small amount of sugar is added into the wine bottles before they are corked. The sugar also reduces the tartness/acidity of the wine.

Primary fermentation of Champagne: In the classic méthode champenoise used to make Champagne, Cava and American sparkling wines, the primary, or alcoholic, fermentation of the wine transforms the grape must (the pressed juice of the grapes) into wine. Natural yeast consumes the natural grape sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Secondary fermentation of Champagne: To create a secondary fermentation, the dosage is added to the wine. The the added yeasts eat the added sugar, again creating alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Based on the amount of sugar in the dosage, the seven levels of sweetness based on residual sugar (what’s left after the secondary fermentation) are:

Brut Nature/Brut Zero: 0-3 g/l* residual sugar

Extra Brut: 0-6 g/l residual sugar

Brut: 0-12 g/l residual sugar

Extra Dry†: 12-17 g/l residual sugar

Dry: 17-32 g/l RS residual sugar

Demi-Sec: 32-50 g/l residual sugar

Doux: 50+ g/l residual sugar

________________________________________
*Grams per liter.

†It’s a paradox in the Champagne industry that “dry” indicates a sweeter wine; as do sec (which means dry in French) and demi-sec. Doux, the sweetest style of Champagne, does mean sweet.

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