A bowl of cream, usually served with a kissel.
Mentioned in Russian fairy tales, kissel is an Eastern European dessert consisting of crushed berries in sugar water thickened with starch. Depending on the version, the thickness of the kissel is variable. Dessert can be thin enough to drink or thick enough to eat like pudding. While it can be served hot, this dish is usually chilled before serving.
Kissel usually contains very few ingredients. All you need is fresh fruit, sugar, water and starch. While usually only one type of fruit is used, two or three different fruits can be combined. You can also include lemon juice and salt.
The fruit is almost always some kind of berry, and the berry used often depends on the region or the taste of the cook. For example, blueberries are more popular in regions where blueberries grow wild. The starch is usually potato starch, but cornstarch or arrowroot can also be used.
The way the kissel is made determines its thickness. In some versions, the berries are mashed and their juice reserved before the fruit pulp is boiled in water. After boiling, the liquid is strained, sugar is added, and the mixture is boiled again. The starch is diluted in cold water before it is also added to the mix, along with the reserved fruit juice. After mixing, the kissel is chilled for several hours.
In other versions, only part of the crushed berries is boiled, sifted, and mixed with the raw berries. The sugar, salt, and starch are mixed together, and the sifted liquid is combined with the sugar mixture and boiled. The resulting liquid is sifted through the berries and then cooled.
Others put the sugar in the boiling water first. Starch dissolves in cold water and is added to sugar water. Then the fruit puree, complete with juice, is added to this mixture. Once mixed, the kissel is served on individual dessert plates or in a large bowl and chilled. These versions generally make a thicker kissel than the others.
Less traditional versions may add non-berry fruits like apples and additional spices like cinnamon to the basic ingredients. The berry ingredient can be just juice instead of fresh fruit. These versions are not often filtered, but the starch is still combined with water and added after the sugar and fruit have boiled.
Kissel is usually served with cream or half and half. Sweetened cream can also be made by combining brown sugar and lemon juice with the cream. Crushed gingerbread cookies can be used for decoration.