Cassis Chestnut Christmas ball
Award-winning pastry chef Ben Goh took inspiration from Singapore’s roasted chestnut (gao lak) and gave them a luxe festive makeover, transforming them into these adorable chocolate ornament balls. Serves 1 Prep time 1 hour Cook time 30 minutes
chestnut sponge
• 450g chestnut paste • 150g butter • 228g egg • 60g yolk • 81g cake flour • 9g baking powder In a pan, heat the chestnut paste until it turns soft. In a bowl, mix the softened chestnut paste and butter together until it becomes fluffy. Then slowly add in the egg and yolk. Mix the egg mixture together with cake flour and baking powder. Then pop the cake batter inside the oven at 180ºc for 10 minutes.
cassis crémeux
• 45g sugar • 7g pectin • 3g ice cream stabiliser • 300g cassis purée • 45g egg yolk • 75g butter, softened Mix sugar, pectin and ice cream stabiliser together. In a pot, heat purée and egg yolks to 45ºc. Then incorporate the dry mixture to the heated purée and cook everything to 85ºc. Then cool the mixture down to 35ºc. In a blender, blend butter and the cooled mixture together.
cassis confit
• 424g cassis purée • 70g glucose • 127g sugar • 8g pectin • 42.5g lemon juice In a pot, heat cassis purée to 45ºc. Add in glucose, sugar and pectin, then boil it for 20 seconds before adding in lemon juice.
assembly
• chocolate dome shell (available from Red Mart) Pipe the crémeux into a chocolate dome shell. Place the sponge on the crémeux. Pipe the confit onto the sponge until it is filled to the brim Using a palette knife, even the surface of the confit and chocolate shell, scraping off any excess. Slightly melt the flat surface of another chocolate dome shell and place it onto the filled shell such that it forms a sphere. Using a chocolate freeze spray, spray cold air along the seam of the two domes so that the chocolate sets.
Check out epicure on Youtube for a behindthe-scenes look at what went on during this month’s cover shoot.