Chia Pudding - or as I like to think of it - hipster porridge! Those tiny sharp seeds which blossom and swell silkily when immersed in liquid.
When Kaboodle Kitchens partnered with MasterChef All-Stars winner and confection queen Emelia Jackson to create a collection of unique dessert dishes, I knew I had to attempt them. Specifically the ORANGE INFUSED CHOCOLATE MOUSSE AND BROWNIE CAKE WITH CHIA CRUMBLE. Anyone who loves Allen's Jaffa Lollies would melt for this dessert! Orange + Choc - a deal breaking combo.
Here is the original dessert picture - stunning in it's muted monochromatic elegance. Looks daunting but with the right tools - technical, delicately plated and appealing desserts need not be difficult!
Herewith is the original recipe - jump on over and download
Kaboodle_Trends_Recipes.pdf (mcusercontent.com)
With 6 elements in all - I'll break down the tools I used and any helpful hints I can offer as follows.
CHOCOLATE BROWNIE
in the original recipe Emelia gives instructions for making your own brownie from scratch. However as we are rather elitist over here, of course we just happened to have a packet of Emelia's Chocolate Hazelnut Brown Butter Financier Mix! These packet mixes are currently on sale on her website and they couldn't be easier. Simply brown some butter and mix it into the dry ingredients with some water. Also the aforementioned recipe suggested baking a slab of brownie and cutting into disc shapes. However our CYLINDER/TUBE MOULD was begging for attention so we baked up the financier in shallow rich discs. These were utterly delicious and had to be wrenched into a container and into freezer by sheer force to prevent immediate consumption.
ORANGE INFUSED DARK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
The only suggestion we would make here is mix the orange zest in with the milk from the very start so that it infuses and permeates the entire base. We love our orange infusion to be fierce rather than undertoned. Be sure to strain the custard before you mix with the chocolate and whipped cream. The final result was gorgeously smooth and decadent with the fragrant, juicy orange hint creating a contrast to the deep chocolate.
We piped the mixture into our Stone Mould, smoothed them off with our Mini Offset Spatula and set in freezer before unmoulding into a container.
CHOCOLATE MERINGUE SHARDS
There's nothing quite as satisfying as making meringue is there? Egg whites start out so sullen and unpromising then as you gently add the sugar the transformation occurs, behold, billowing, snowy peaks of meringue!
We folded in the cocoa powder and used our Spatula to spread to around 2.5mm thick on our Silicone Sheet Pan before baking. The only thing we would add is to turn the oven off and leave them to dry in oven to become crisp.
CRYSTALLISED CHIA CRUMBLE
We went out on another limb here as we had hazelnuts in the Butter and Bright larder and added some roasted skinned hazelnuts to the chia toffee mix in last stage. This echoed the nuttiness of the financier cake used in place of brownie.
We spread the crumble on our Perforated Baking Mat to cool and harden before crushing it. The only other change we could have implemented to the recipe to enhance flavour would have been a touch of salt here!
VANILLA CHANTILLY QUENELLE
These are simply whipped cream with vanilla bean added but as I don't have chef's wrists to create Quenelles with a spoon I used our best selling Mould !
To stabilise the cream a little I just whisked some condensed milk in while whipping. The mix was then piped into the mould and frozen. We demoulded ahead of time and stored in a container in freezer for ease of plating up later.
CHOCOLATE MIRROR GLAZE
We followed the recipe to a tee here but our food colouring didnt cooperate - a few drops of black ended up looking far too grey - so on the advice of a baker friend I whizzed in a tablespoon of cacao powder. This added an element of delicious bitterness to an otherwise sweet dessert and provided the deep charcoal tones we required.
6 elements done and dusted, all our moulds fresh and clean from a spin in the dishwasher, finally we could attempt the fun part of plating up!
Using our Spatula and Chef's Tweezers everything was gently placed according to Emelia's original picture and a wisp of gold leaf crowned the plate.
What do you think? Time to dig in....
It truly was a luxurious dessert, rich, decadent, fragrant, textured and a far cry from 'hipster porridge'! Yes a lot of elements but made SO simple with the use of some clever tools.
All the tools used above are now available in one place - THE CHIA PUDDING COLLECTION with a special discount for this range use CHIAPUDDING for 20% off your order.
Please do attempt this recipe -or even just a couple of the elements! Let us know how you go in the comments!
x A
Butter and Bright aren't affiliated with Kaboodle Kitchens or Emelia Jackson (apart from her very kindly directing her customers to us for moulds) but we love their work.