Nonetheless, it was a task that I was determined to take on..
Surprisingly enough, it wasn't nearly half as difficult as I thought it would be, despite taking me two days to prepare, it was more time-consuming because it involved waiting for different elements to set before I could continue with the next step.
In advance I will tell you that this blog, has a very detailed step-by-step picture album... just to make sure you guys realise how many different elements really went into this dish!
Guava puree:
The easiest component, this puree invovled chucking all the ingredients in a saucepan, cooking then blending it together and passing through a sieve to give a smooth consistency.
Vanilla custard base;
Having made custard several times before, this was a simple basic custard recipe, and cooking them in separate ramekins, made them cook more evenly and much more quickly!Vanilla cream:
Once the custard is made, it is whisked with the cream to produce this delicious silky vanilla cream! Sugar maltose tuille:
This sugar maltose was quite fun and interesting to make, but relatively simple. It starts as a toffee praline mixture, cooking the maltose and water together until it caramelizes, and pouring it over the almonds allowing it to cool and harden. Once cool, this is then processed into a fine powder and sifted into rounds onto baking paper and baked in the oven for several minutes to make the tuille.
Poached merinuges:
I have never made meringues using a process like this before.. poached meringues? Does anyone actually know they exist?
The meringues are piped into the moulds, and baked in a dish with boiling water poured half way up the mould (the normal poaching technique), until cooked! The poaching technique gives a delicious gooey and dense merinuge, not like the dry ones you might be used to!
The inside is scooped out to make a little crest to fill with the ice-cream. Once filled, two meringues are then stuck together with a little water and are ready to be covered in the tuille.
As you can see, this is how the tuille looks (once processed into fine powder and then baked! Carefully using a rotating hand motion, it is slowly blowtorched to melt over the poached meringue ball, and as it cools it hardens into a very hard toffee like coating!
Then lightly dusted with icing sugar to finish it off:
I've sneaked in a little preview of what it looks like as you crack through the hard toffee coating, slicing the spoon through the gooey meringue as the ice-cream melts out (mmm orgasmic!)
Incase I haven't been descriptive enough, here is a photo of all the components before it was assembled.
From bottom left: mango ice-cream, bottom centre; strawberry & guava granita, top left; poached merinuges; top centre; maltose tuille; right; guava fool
Now for those who don't know, I very rarely actually taste the desserts that I make, but this one looked way to appealing to deny myself the satisfaction! My g-d did it taste good, not trying to float my own boat here, but all the elements added together just made the perfect desserts. The granita was super sweet, the meringue was gooey & light, the puree was soft and slightly sour, and the ice-cream was flavourful and creamy. The best part was cracking through the toffee coating on the top, and feeling the spoon slice through the meringue which was as light as air.
Overall, I would say this was my favourite Masterchef dessert, and definently well worth waiting. I do not plan on making this dish anytime soon, or maybe ever again, but if you are willing to cash out a cool $70, you can go try it at the actual restaurant! ;)
