I dreamed up this recipe after visiting the most divine restaurant tucked up in the hills above Seville in Spain. I was living in London at the time and on holiday with my family, and we stumbled across the much loved local restaurant in the cutest cobblestone village. The menu was completely in Spanish and we didn’t speak a word of Spanish, which really didn’t matter as we communicated perfectly via our shared loved of exceptional local produce and family recipes. After the most amazing lunch, the chef invited me into the kitchen (as I’d somehow managed to community how thoroughly fascinated I was by the dessert). During my behind the scenes kitchen tour, I discovered they’d used; white chocolate, cream cheese and cream to make their most dreamy dessert! I used this rather memorable lunch as the inspiration for my dessert, adding ginger and yoghurt to balance the richness of the chocolate and cream, I think this little favour combination brings a certain kind of “lightness” to the mousse and unexpected layer of flavour, I hope you like it!
INGREDIENTS:
250g white chocolate – good quality cooking chocolate
500ml full fat cream
500ml Greek firm set yoghurt – full fat
30g fresh ginger – roughly chopped
8-10 ginger nut biscuits – crushed for garnish
edible flowers for garnish or you can substitute with mint
(Photo Credit: Matt Johnson)
METHOD:
- to melt the chocolate you need to set up a “baine marie” which is basically a fancy French cooking term for a “double boiler” – simply get a saucepan and fill with about 5cm of water – place a metal bowl over the top of your saucepan – making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water
- break the chocolate into small pieces – place the chocolate in the bowl – turn the heat to medium under the saucepan – basically you want to melt the chocolate gently using the heat created by the water in the saucepan – you need to do this gently was if you over heat the chocolate it will go hard rather than melt
- stir the chocolate occasionally with a dry spatula – so it melts consistently
- place the cream and ginger in a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer – don’t let it boil
- once the chocolate is completely melted – add it to the cream – whisk well to ensure the cream and chocolate are completely incorporated– then strain the mixture through a fine sieve (this will ensure you catch any chocolate that has not melted and also remove the ginger – giving you a lovely smooth mousse) you can push through any unmelted chocolate through the sieve using a spoon
- place your yoghurt into a large mixing bowl – then pour in the hot cream / chocolate mixture in three stages – making sure each time you add the cream mixture that it is well incorporated before adding the next batch – do this with a whisk and whisk by hand ie don’t use an electric mixer
- transfer the mixture into a jug to make it easy to pour the mixture into your serving glasses
- pour the mixture into your serving glasses whilst it is warm – fill each glass approximately ¾ full – so you have enough room at the top to add your garnish
- place the glass jars in the fridge to set (will take approx. 3 hours) once the mixture is completely cold – cover the jars with cling wrap
- serve with the crushed ginger biscuits and either your edible flowers or mint to garnish
(Photo credit: Matt Johnson)
TIPS:
- using a good quality white cooking chocolate is important – as cheap white chocolate will most likely split when you heat it up
- using full fat cream and yoghurt is also important – as they will handle having heat applied and will also set more consistently giving you a silky smooth mousse
- I like using the double wall coffee glasses as it makes the mousse look like it is kind of suspended in the glass – if you don’t have similar glasses, don’t worry the mousse still looks super cute in short water glasses or old school martini glasses
- put the ginger biscuits on the mousse just before serving – so you get maximum crunch, texture and flavour
We had the opportunity do share this dessert recently with the awesome chic’s from The Beach People and a bunch of other local business women at a lunch we hosted. The love of local is strong in the region and we love it!
(Photo credit: Matt Johnson)
We’d love to see your recreations of this Taste Byron Bay classic, hashtag us using #mytastebyronbay so we can see your beautiful creations.
Until next time!
Enjoy.