Chocolate mousse logs
Chocolate mousse
Ingredients
200g Dark Chocolate
100g Butter
5 Egg Whites
4 Egg Yolks
100ml Cream
Method
- In a large bowl beat egg whites to soft peak.
- Beat cream to soft peak.
- In a large sauce pan melt the butter
- Remove from heat and stir in chocolate to melt
- Whisk in egg yolks
- Fold the chocolate mixture and cream into the egg whites
- Place into piping bag
- Roll acetate tubes 8cm long and 1cm wide, sticking with tape to hold its shape.
- Fill tubes by means of piping in chocolate mousse.
- Allow to freeze fully
Assemblage
100g Melted Dark Chocolate
Frozen chocolate mousse cylinders
Method
- Holding the unwraped cylinders at both ends between your fingers, dip into the melted chocolate.
- Place onto parchment paper on its length and allow to set
- Scratch surface with a sharp skewer to resemble the bark of a log.
Passionfruit Mousse Domes
Passionfruit mousse
Ingredients
100g White Chocolate
100g Cream Cheese
40g Egg Whites
20g Castor sugar
20ml Passionfruit puree
Method
- Melt chocolate over a double boiler.
- Soften cream cheese in a kitchen aid.
- Whisk egg whites to stiff peak gradually adding sugar while whisking.
- Combine chocolate, passionfruit and cream cheese and fold till smooth.
- Fold in egg whites
- Place into piping bag and pipe into dome moulds 2cm in diameter.
- Allow to freeze fully.
Pear & Passionfruit Gel
Ingredients
125ml Apple Juice
125ml Litchi Juice
2ml Pear or Passionfruit Aroma
Red (for pear) or Yellow (for passionfruit) Food Colouring
10ml Agar Agar
Method
- In small sauce pan heat juice up to a simmer.
- Slowly tap in agar through a tea sieve bit by bit while whisking
- Allow agar to cook for one minute
- Remove from heat and add divide the mixture in half into another sauce pan.
- Colour one half red and flavour with pear aroma.
- Colour one half yellow and flavour with passionfruit aroma.
Assemblage
- Keep gel in a small sauce pan between 40˚C and 50˚C
- Lift the frozen mousse from the mould on a skewer and dip into the warm gel.
- Turn over quickly allowing for a smooth dome surface, remove from the skewer with your fingers cradling the base and carefully place it on a plate in the fridge.
Chocolate leaves
Ingredients
250g Dark Chocolate
Fresh Leaves (the waxy kind works best.)
Method
- Melt chocolate to 60˚c
- Dip the reverse of the leaves into the chocolate being careful to only dip the one side
- Allow to cool and set then slowly tear back leaves allowing just the chocolate to remain
White Chocolate Soil
Ingredients
100g white chocolate nibs
Method
- Spread the chocolate nibs out evenly in a cool baking pan
- Roast in oven at 180˚C for 5min
- Check constantly to ensure even roasting bake longer if necessary
- Once light caramel brown remove from the oven and scrape with a fork to form a crumb
- spread immediately onto a cool surface and allow to cool fully before storing
Green citrus Soil
Ingredients
100g Bread Crumbs
2 drops green food colouring
Zest of 1 Lime
Method
- Place ingredients in dry blender and blitz till fine
Roast Pear Truffles
Poached pears
Ingredients
500g Fresh Pears
500g White Sugar
500ml Water
½ lemon juiced
½ lemon zested
2 Star Anise
2 sticks cinnamon
2 Cloves
5g Ginger Chopped
Method
- Place all ingredients except pears into a large pot
- Bring to a boil ensuring all sugar is dissolved.
- Turn down to a simmer.
- Add pears and cover with wax paper cut to the size of the pot. (cartouche)
- Poach until pears are soft (roughly 45min)
- Drain and reserve syrup
- The syrup can be re-used for poaching or as a base of a sweet autumn cocktail.
Roast Pear puree
Ingredients
500g Poached Pears
50g Butter
Lemon juice to taste
Method
- Drain poached pears, reserve one pear for later use.
- In large sauce pan fry the pears in a little oil allowing the top and bottom to caramelize properly to a well roasted dark brown.
- Once sufficiently caramelized add in Butter.
- Fry further allowing the butter to go brown and nutty.
- Place directly into blender and Blend till smooth adding in butter if necessary to make the blades run.
- Adjust flavour with lemon juice
- Pass through tamis sieve.
- Place in piping bag and allow to cool before use.
Truffles Assemblage
Roast pear puree
Melted Chocolate
Maple sugar
Method
- Pipe drops of roast pear puree and freeze
- Place on skewer
- Dip into melted chocolate
- Roll in maple sugar before chocolate sets.
Passionfruit Pate de Fruit
Ingredients
100g passion fruit puree
10ml cup plus 2ml powdered apple or yellow pectin
28ml plus 110ml granulated white sugar, divided
20ml cup liquid glucose
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Method
- Line a small flat dish with parchment paper
- Combine the pectin and 28ml of sugar in a bowl and whisk together thoroughly.
- Attach a candy thermometer to a pot and place over medium-high heat. Add the passion fruit puree to the pot, and bring to a simmer for 3 minutes.
- Whisk in the pectin and sugar mixture, followed by the rest of the sugar and glucose. Whisk continuously until mix reaches 130˚C
- Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice.
- Pour into your prepared mould and let set for 6 to 8 hours.
- Once set, unmould and cut with small round cutter, and toss in granulated sugar before storing or serving.
Chocolate Bark
Ingredients
50g Egg Whites
50g Castor Sugar
50g Melted Butter
50g Flour
10g cocoa
Method
- Wisk eggs to stiff peak while slowly adding sugar
- In a slow steady stream whisk in melted butter
- Fold in the flower and cocoa
- Spread thinly onto parchment paper and bake at 150˚C for 10min
- Fold and shape tuiles while still warm from the oven over the stick of a wooden spoon to imitate tree bark.
Chocolate Soil
Ingredients
Offcuts of chocolate bark (recipe above)
10g Dark chocolate nibs
Method
- In a food processor, roughly pulse the bark with chocolate.
- Store in airtight container.
Passionfruit gel
Ingredients
250ml Apple Juice
2ml Passionfruit Aroma
5ml Agar Agar
Method
- In small sauce pan heat juice up to a simmer.
- Slowly tap in agar through a tea sieve bit by bit while whisking
- Allow agar to cook for one minute
- Place in small bowl and allow to set fully in the fridge.
- Blend the gel in a blender until smooth, regularly scraping in sides.
- Store in a squeeze bottle
Poached pear leaves
Ingredients
1 poached pear, reserved from before.
Method
- Slice the pear into 2mm slices
- Use small leaf shaped cutter to press out leaves from the fruit.
To serve:
- Dust green soil onto your plate with a tea sieve.
- Pipe a line of passionfruit gel from 9 to 12 on your plate.
- Place the log over the line.
- Use a small lifter to place the red and yellow passionfruit domes onto the plate, top left and bottom right of the log.
- Crumble white and dark chocolate soil in little clusters around the log next to the domes.
- Place small round cut outs of passionfruit pate de fruit at the top and bottom of the log to create a half moon effect.
- Pipe drops of gel in the same pattern.
- Place leaves of poached pear onto the plate around the log in a natural scatter.
- Place chocolate truffle at the base of the log.
- Position chocolate leaves over the log and domes.
- Add the bark to the plate.
- Garnish with fresh yellow red and orange flowers.
