This was a fantastically delicious dessert, with floral quince and the bitter burnt caramel providing the main flavors. I wanted to play with yeast and fermentation here, and several of the components on the plate have been partially fermented. The yeast doesn't hit you immediately when eating it, but it's there in the background. It's that extra unidentifiable something that keeps you coming back to the plate.

There's burnt caramel ice cream and gel, balls of poached quince, membrillo, a fluid gel made by fermenting the quince poaching liquid then setting with gellan and pureeing, vanilla-flavored yeast-whipped cream, puff pastry, and puff pastry crumbs. To partially ferment the quince-poaching liquid, I simply let it come to room temperature, put it into a large container with a tight-fitting lid, then added a bit of yeast to it and left it out for around six hours. Then I put it in the fridge overnight, and the next day I gelled it with .8% gellan gum and pureed it to form a fluid gel, passing it through a chinois to finish.

If I'd had more time, I would have made the puff pastry out of a yeast dough.

The burnt caramel ice cream had probably the best texture of any ice cream I've made yet, achieved by the wonder of mathematics. It was fanastic, staying soft and perfect for quenelles even at normal freezer temperatures of around 10-15F. It also had a deliciously nutty and bitter burnt caramel flavor. Here's the recipe.

Burnt Caramel Ice Cream
1000g whole milk
60g nonfat dry milk
200g sugar
60g glucose
40g trimoline
50g sugar
4g stabilizer
200g yolks
150g cream

Whisk dry milk powder into the milk and keep it handy. Add first measurement of sugar to large sauce pot. Cook the sugar over high heat until sugar begins to liquefy, then begin stirring occasionally in order to get sugar to caramelize evenly. Cook sugar to a dark caramel. As soon as the first few burnt spots appear, pour in the milk all at once, being careful to avoid the splattering. Bring the milk to a simmer while adding the glucose and trimoline. Meanwhile, combine the second measurement of sugar with the stabilizer and whisk into the yolks. Temper the milk into the yolks, then cook the whole thing to 84C (183F). Remove from the heat and whisk in heavy cream. Chill in an ice water bath then refrigerate. Allow to mature for 12 hours before freezing.

Posted by Barzelay on 2010/02/23 @ 2:28 | Comments (0) | Baking, Desserts, Lazy Bear, Veggies, Fruit, Grain, Cheese