Ready for Dessert (22 page)
Authors: David Lebovitz
Using an offset icing spatula, spread the meringue into a very thin circle about 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the meringue is deep golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely.
Slide the icing spatula under the meringue to release it from the parchment paper or silicone mat. Break the meringue into large shards.
In a large bowl, toss the fruit with a sprinkling of sugar.
To assemble, divide the fruit evenly among four chilled wide soup bowls, then ladle the cold soup base over. Finely chop some mint leaves and scatter them over the soup. Place a scoop of the coconut sherbet in the center and stick a shard of the coconut meringue, pointing upward, into the sherbet.
STORAGE:
The soup base can be made up to 1 day in advance of serving and the coconut meringues shards can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
VARIATIONS:
Sliced kumquats, sliced strawberries, and orange segments are nice additions to the mixture of tropical fruits. You can use any other tropical-flavored sorbet in place of the Toasted Coconut Sherbet, such
Passion Fruit-Tangerine Sorbet
or
Strawberry-Mango Sorbet
.
TIP:
I like to use flat soup bowls for serving so guests can see all the tropical fruit floating in the spiced syrup. Put the bowls in the refrigerator or freezer before assembling the dessert to make sure they’re very cold.
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
Not all gelatin desserts are squidgy, old-fashioned jelled rings studded with oversweetened canned fruits. Take this thoroughly modern dessert, for example. You’ll see why it won top honors from a national food magazine that called it one of the “Top Ten Desserts of All Time.”
GELÉE
½ cup (125 ml) plus ½ cup (125 ml) cold water
2 envelopes (7 g each) unflavored gelatin
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 bottle (750 ml) Champagne or other sparkling wine
Juice of ½ lime, plus more to taste
FRUITS
12 kumquats
2 tablespoons (30 g) sugar
½ cup (125 ml) water
3 pink grapefruits
4 blood or navel oranges
To make the gelée, into a large bowl, pour ½ cup (125 ml) of the water. Sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the water and allow it to soften and swell for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, warm the remaining ½ cup (125 ml) water with the 1 cup (200 g) sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Pour the warm sugar syrup over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin completely dissolves. Add the Champagne or other sparkling wine (it will foam up; hence the large bowl) and the lime juice. Taste and add additional lime juice, if desired. Cover and refrigerate until jelled, at least 6 hours.
To prepare the fruits, slice and seed the kumquats. In a small saucepan, warm the 2 tablespoons (30 g) sugar and ½ cup (125 ml) water, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and add the kumquats. Let them soak in the sugar syrup for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, peel, section, and seed the grapefruits and oranges.
To assemble, spoon some of the chilled gelée into 6 wine glasses or goblets. Add a few sections of fruit and a few strips of citrus peel. Spoon in more gelée. Continue to layer in the fruit, citrus peel, and gelée until each glass is full. Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve.
STORAGE:
The gelée mixture will keep for up to 5 days in the refrigerator. Assemble the dessert the day of serving.
VARIATION:
Feel free to vary the fruit according to what’s in season. In the summer, slightly sweetened peaches or nectarines are perfect, along with a few types of berries tossed in for good measure and color.
TIP:
If you’re in a bit of a rush, you can speed up the jelling. Divide the still-liquid gelée mixture among 6 goblets or wine glasses and chill for a couple of hours until firm. When ready to serve, top each with a mixture of the fruits and citrus peel.
Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse with Pear and Fig Chutney
Chocolate Ganache Custard Tart
Black Currant Tea Crème Brûlée
Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Blueberry Compote
Eggs show up in a lot of dessert recipes,
but nowhere are they held in higher esteem or have a greater purpose than in custards and soufflés. I remember digging into bright-yellow baked egg custards when I was young, and the thrill of my spoon busting through the layer of chewy, almost-burnt skin—a large part of the overall appeal—to get to the smooth custard scented faintly of nutmeg just below.
Now that I’m grown up, and presumably more sophisticated, I still like custard skin, but my taste has broadened to include other egg-rich desserts like mousse, crème caramel, and soufflé. In fact, my baking career began with a chocolate soufflé made in a Pyrex measuring cup. It was the first night my parents left me home alone without a babysitter and I made dinner and dessert for myself. (Even back then, I chose a dark chocolate dessert.) The soufflé came out of the oven high and crusty—and surprisingly delicious, proving that soufflés are so simple that even a kid can make one and that you don’t need an arsenal of fancy equipment to create impressive dessert. From that soufflé on, I was hooked.
A majority of the desserts in this chapter are made in individual portions. Not only are they easier to bake and serve, but you’re certain to get your fair share of crust when you’ve got your very own soufflé. With flan and crème brûlée, the burnt sugar is yours and yours alone. Bread pudding, on the other hand, is meant to be shared.
WATER BATHS
In order to obtain their signature smooth, silky texture, custards are gently baked in a water bath that allows them to cook slowly and evenly. The filled ramekins or custard cups are placed in a roasting pan or deep baking dish (the sides should be higher than the rims of the ramekins) and enough warm water is added to the pan or dish so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the custard cups. Then the pan is covered tightly with foil.
When transferring the pan to the oven, you want to avoid splashing water into the ramekins. If you’re not the steady type, you can set the roasting pan on the oven rack, place the custards in the pan, add the water, and then cover with foil. If you do this, the oven door will be open for a good amount of time, which will cause the oven temperature to drop quite a bit, so you’ll likely need to increase the baking time by several minutes.
Porcelain ramekins—French-style custard cups—are what I use for baking custards and soufflés because I like their clean look, but regular ovenproof glass custard cups work equally well. And for those who spend their weekends scouring flea markets (or nowadays, the Internet), you can find lovely vintage custard cups in sets, or individual ones that can be mixed and matched.
Custards need a wide window of baking times, much more so than any other dessert. A slew of factors can affect how quickly they cook, from the temperature of the unbaked custard mixture, to the temperature of the water bath, to the weight and thickness of the ramekins or custard cups, so it’s best to be vigilant during baking. Use the times only as guidelines and begin checking for doneness about 10 minutes before the indicated cooking time. It’s easy to bake something a little longer, but as far as I’m aware, once something is baked, it’s impossible to bake it less.
I remove individual custards from the oven when they’re set around the perimeter, yet a small area in the center, about the size of a bottle cap, still quivers when you gently jiggle the ramekins. One strategy that I sometimes employ is to take the custards out of the oven when they’re quite shy of being done, and let them sit in the water bath in the pan, tightly covered with the aluminum foil; the residual heat from the water bath gently guides them to a perfectly cooked conclusion.
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
Even before the recent coffee-caramel craze, I was proudly baking up these custards because they bring together two of my favorite flavors. Although I’d love to take responsibility for starting the trend, the only thing I can say with certainty is that I’m unabashedly crazy for the combination.
For best results, use very strong espresso because you want to make sure that the coffee flavor is bold enough to stand up to the deep, dark caramel. I think the custards are best served chilled, like some of those barista drinks.
1¼ cups (250 g) sugar
2½ cups (625 ml) heavy cream
½ vanilla bean, split lengthwise
7 large egg yolks
¼ cup (60 ml) freshly brewed espresso (see Tip)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Before preparing this recipe, see
Caramelization Guidelines
.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Set six 4- to 6-ounce (125- to 180-ml) ramekins or custard cups in a roasting pan or deep baking dish.