Liquorice, Chocolate, Orange
A trio of sure-fire flavour pals. Ah, yes… that liquorice element is going to be questioned by a few of you, I’m guessing. The contentious ice cream has a light touch and is closer to cool liquorice caramel so I’m leaving it there and asking you to try the full combination at least once. Oh, there are a few nuts included which only EpiPen® carriers can leave out.
This dessert came about when we invited two pairs of good friends on separate evenings this week. The various elements had been floating around in my head since last October when I was given the sumptuous 'Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons' book as a gift. In it are details of Gary Jones' Magnum liquorice ice cream recipe. The book has perhaps the slightly more accessible version... along with countless other delights.
The orange jelly is taken from this recipe. You just know it will deliver when you see that it's from the kitchen of David Everitt-Matthias.
Tuiles were a variation of Scott Barnard's in this MasterChef offering which I made and discussed in a previous post. Sprinkle roasted and chopped hazelnuts over the sieved tuile mixture before putting in the oven.
Chocolate in my first effort was the same as that which is used to coat Gary Jones' 'Magnum' petits fours. As you see, the finish is not as great as might be hoped for. Start with flavour combinations and refine presentation later. That's my cop out advice here! In my defence, I did forget to include the loosening addition of a spoonful of cocoa butter or grapeseed oil. The second version relied on the chocolate crumble from Scott Barnard's dessert.
Both offerings were completed with segmented orange pieces. I dipped them in a butter caramel for the final one. I reduced orange juice to dab over the plate and other orange elements came from jars of this February's marmalades. The peel was dried in a low oven until lightly candied and my Seville Orange marmalade was heated enough to provide a tangy gel. This worked really well to offset sweetness elsewhere.
All photos were taken before guests arrived. I am finally getting sufficiently organised to avoid the cardinal sin of neglecting invited friends.
You can play around with the proportions and presentation here. But hang on to the three flavours of the title. They work so well together. After serving this I was a little concerned to see one of our friends with his head bowed and eyes closed. On asking after his well-being he simply said, "I'm sorry... but this is so, so good."
That was good enough for me.