'Rondnoir' Dream - Dark Chocolate Dessert Inspired by Ferrero Rondnoir

Have you ever been inspired by a memorable event, a great place or an unforgettable experience to the extent that you wanted to recreate the moment in your own kitchen?

I have. It was the night of nights - The Ferrero Rondnoir Dinner of Discovery hosted by chef extraordinaire Tobie Puttock, a special event to launch the new dark chocolate from Ferrero, Ferrero Rondnoir.

Tobie Puttock is an Australian celebrity chef, best known for his association with British chef Jamie Oliver.

Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Puttock trained at Box Hill Institute of TAFE, and first worked at Caffe e Cucina in South Yarra. Working around Australia, and eventually Europe, Puttock first met Jamie Oliver in 1999 at River Café in London, where both of them worked for a time. Puttock returned to Melbourne, where he set up his own Italian restaurant, Termini, and appeared as a regular guest chef on the Australian version of Ready Steady Cook, a cooking game show based on a British format.

In 2001, he was contacted by Oliver, now a well-known celebrity chef, who asked for his help in setting up a training restaurant for underprivileged young people. Puttock returned to London, and helped Oliver set up the first Fifteen restaurant in Hoxton, London. The creation of the restaurant and training scheme formed the basis of a 2002 TV series on Channel 4, Jamie's Kitchen. Puttock remained at Fifteen as executive head chef for several years, until homesickness prompted him to suggest to Oliver that they set up an Australian version of Fifteen in his hometown of Melbourne.

Oliver agreed, and in 2006, a follow-up series Jamie’s Kitchen Australia was shown on Australia's Network Ten, which chronicled the establishment of Fifteen Melbourne and the training of its staff. Puttock is now executive head chef of the Melbourne restaurant, and still makes appearances on Ready Steady Cook.

The evening started with pre-dinner cocktails of Belvedere Orange Negroni, stirred lightly with Campari and a light charge of homemade pink grapefruit soda, served short over freshly chipped triple frozen ice.

We were then treated to a five course degustation dinner. Tobie was invited by Ferrero to deconstruct the new dark chocolate and create the menu with each course inspired by the layers, textures, and flavours of Ferrero Rondnoir.

Amuse Bouche: The First Impression
Scallops fried in squid ink batter (served in their shells) with caviar and micro herbs salad

First Course: The First Mouthful of Rondnoir
Baby squid filled with black pudding and bread served with pangratatto and a baby herb salad

Second Course: Discover The Dark Pearl
Ravioli filled with braised lamb with a celeriac pearl in the middle, served with thyme and jus sauce and finished with freshly grated pecorino cheese.

Third course: The Taste Experience
Beef fillet rolled in herbs and prosciutto, horseradish and thyme mashed potato, braised cavalo nero and seasoned creme fraiche

Dessert: Discover Ferrero Rondnoir
Dessert platter consisting of a bitter sweet chocolate tart, white chocolate mousse with praline and of course the Ferrero Rondnoir

After dinner cocktail: Belvedere ‘Rondnoir’ Café
Belvedere pure briskly shaken with a crisp shot of espresso and a suggestion of creamy dark chocolate with a sweet dark chocolate foam topped with dark chocolate flakes and crunchy wafer biscuit.

We were then being entertained by the talented Jade McRae with a soulful jazz performance to end the night.

How can you not be inspired by such a culinary experience? I set myself a challenge. A challenge to create a delicious dessert inspired by the layers, textures, and flavours of Ferrero Rondnoir.

"Ferrero Rondnoir dark chocolates, are a unique combination of a dark chocolate cream surrounding a 'black pearl' of fine dark chocolate, within a delicate, crisp wafer, topped with crunchy dark chocolate morsels"

Hence, the dessert that I aptly named 'Rondnoir Dream' was born. It consists of 4 main components:

1. Dark Chocolate Mousseline Cream to resemble the Dark Chocolate Cream
2. Dark Chocolate Truffle to resemble the 'Black Pearl'
3. Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse sandwiched in between two layers of Wafer Biscuits to resemble the Delicate Crisp Wafer
4. Dark Chocolate Vermicelli Disc to resemble the Crunchy Dark Chocolate Morsels

It's then put together and finished off with some gold leaf.

Let's hear from my dear friend Miss T who has accompanied me to the dinner and witnessed the taste sensation of this dessert:

"This 'Rondnoir Dream' dessert is sophisticated in its design and luscious in its layers and textures. It's a luxurious indulgence. Imagine the tulle like crunching of the glossy dark chocolate vermicelli disc, the smooth silky dark chocolate mousseline cream caressing my taste buds and my heart simply skipping a beat as I bite into the dark chocolate truffle. The richness if lifted by the aerated wafer biscuits and the dark chocolate mascarpone mousse lying in a beautiful symphony, my soul is uplifted. I am not sharing."

I hope you like this dessert and are being inspired.

Rondnoir Dream
Makes 6

Ingredients

Wafer Biscuits (Recipe follow)
Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (Recipe follow)
Dark Chocolate Truffle (Recipe follow)
Dark Chocolate Mousseline Cream (Recipe Follow)
Dark Chocolate Vermicelli Disc (Recipe Follow)
Gold leaf

Method

1. Use a 6 cm round shaped cutter to cut out 12 rounds of wafer biscuits.
2. Place a 6 cm food ring in the serving plate. Place a slice of wafer biscuit in the food ring and spoon 2 tbsp of the dark chocolate mascarpone mousse on top the wafer biscuits. Compress the mousse slightly to level the surface. Place another slice of wafer biscuit on top of the mousse. Remove the food ring. This will become the base of the dessert.
3. Place a dark chocolate truffle in the centre on top of the dessert base. Place the dark chocolate mousseline cream in a piping bag fitted with a round pastry tip, pipe the cream around the truffle.
   

   

4. Place the Dark Chocolate Vermicelli Disc on top of the truffle and sprinkle with some gold leaf.

Wafer Biscuits
(Loosely adapted from Curtis Stone's Lemon Wafer Biscuits)

Ingredients
2 oz / 60 g butter
4 oz / 120 g plain flour
4 oz / 120 g icing sugar
4 egg whites

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 390F / 200C.
2. Using a spoon, mix butter and flour together thoroughly.
3. Add icing sugar and egg white and mix with a whisk until light and frothy.
4. Spread mixture over a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper.
5. Place in oven for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse
(Loosely adapted from Gordon Ramsey's Mocha Mousse Cups)

Ingredients

100 g good-quality dark chocolate (about 60-65% cocoa solids)
125 g mascarpone
2 tbsp icing sugar
150 ml double cream

Method

1. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until smooth, then remove the bowl from the heat and leave to cool.
2. With a hand whisk, beat the mascarpone and icing sugar together until smooth, then whisk in the melted chocolate. (Tip: To melt chocolate in a microwave, break into small pieces and tip into a bowl. Microwave on high for a minute, give the pieces a stir, then microwave again for another minute. Stir the chocolate until smooth. This method is only suitable for plain or dark chocolate. White chocolate, in particular, is likely seize as it overheats in the microwave)
3. In another bowl, whip the double cream until soft peak form. Fold the cream into the mocha mixture until well combined. Chill in fridge for an hour.

Dark Chocolate Truffles
(Adapted from Sense and Serendipity)

Ingredients

250 (about 8 oz) grams good-quality dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa solids)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup cocoa powder, for coating

Method

1. Chop the dark chocolate by using a bread knife. Cut the butter into smaller pieces. Combine the chopped chocolate and the butter into a large bowl. Then, in a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream just to a boil. Remove from the heat immediately. Pour the cream into the chocolate and stir until the mixture is completely smooth.
2. Transfer the mixture into a glass baking dish. Chill for 30 minutes or until the ganache is firm enough to form a ball.
3. To shape the ganache, prepare the cocoa powder for dusting and a plate with parchment paper. Bring out the chilled ganache, and with a spoon, scrape the ganache to about the size of a teaspoon. Then shape the ganache with the palm of your hands into balls and coat them with cocoa powder

Dark Chocolate Mousseline Cream
(Loosely adapted from Cannelle et Vanille)

Ingredients

250 grams whole milk
50 g dark chocolate, finely grated
50 grams egg yolk
75 grams sugar
25 grams cornstarch
125 grams butter, cut into medium pieces

Method

1. Place the milk, half of the sugar in a small saucepan. Separately, whisk together in a bowl the egg yolks, cornstarch and the other half of the sugar. Bring the milk to a boil and temper into the egg yolks. Return the custard to the saucepan and cook until it thickens.
2. Immediately, transfer the cream to a clean bowl and add the pieces of butter and finely grated dark chocolate. Whisk until they melt into the custard. Place plastic wrap over the bowl without touching the cream and chill in fridge for an hour.

Dark Chocolate Vermicelli Disc

Ingredients

Oil for deep-frying
50 g dark chocolate, melted
10 g rice vermicelli noodle

Method

1. Deep fry rice vermicelli noodle until it is puffed and crispy.
   

   

2. Crumble the deep-fried rice vermicelli noodle into crunchy morsels.

   

3. Stir-in the melted chocolate and mix well.
4. Line a parchment paper on a baking sheet and spoon the chocolate mixture to form 6 x 3.5 cm disc.

My sincere thanks to Sarah Burke from One Green Bean for the invitation and Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella for making it happen.

Chocolate Fondants

Take a look at this picture. It's a perfect soft centred chocolate fondant sitting pretty in the ramekin.

I was too tempted by how pretty it looks through the glass of the oven.

It looks so good and it's calling out to me, "Come, take me. I promise you, it will be good. Come, eat me, I promise you, it will be fun. Come, taste me, I promise you, it will be alright."

I was too eager.

I couldn't wait.

I wanted to eat it too soon.

I wanted to eat it so soon that I removed it from the oven when it wasn't firm enough to stand on its own.

Looks how it's turned out. Look how it fell apart when it was removed from the ramekin. It was simply hold up by the wall of the ramekin. I didn't allow enough time for it to establish the foundation. I was fooled by its looks, by the promise of many good things to come.

I should know better but most of the time we are weak when faced with such rich, dark and handsome looking chocolaty thing.

Chocolate Fondants

(Adapted from Delicious Magazine April 2008 issue)

Ingredients

200 g good-quality chocolate

240 g unsalted butter, diced

4 eggs

90 g caster sugar

30 g plain flour, sifted

Icing sugar, to dust

Method

1. Grease and line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Grease and line the sides of six 4cm-deep, 8cm metal rings with baking paper and place them on the trays. You can also use sex 3/4 cup (185 ml) souffle dishes that have been greased and lightly dusted with flour (shake off any excess flour).
2. Chop the chocolate. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water) and allow to melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until thick and pale. Fold in chocolate mixture, then fold in flour. Pour into metal rings or souffle dishes and chill for at least 2 hours (this helps fondants maintain their soft centre during cooking).
4. Preheat the oven to 200C. Bake the fondants for 10-12 minutes until set - they should be cooked on the outside but running in the centre.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for a moment before turning out. If using metal rings, use a palette knife or spatula to carefully transfer fondants to serving plates, then remove metal ring and baking paper. Fondants cooked in souffle dishes can be served straight from the dish.
6. Dust with icing sugar and serve immediately with a scoop of ice cream.

WEIS Mango and Cream Ice Cream

WEIS Mango and cream bar has to be little Miss C favourite choice of ice cream. After many trials with the aid from my little critical taste tester last summer, I have perfected a recipe found on Not Quite Nigella and I can confidently say it now tastes almost 99.9% similar to the original.

Mango and Cream Ice Cream
(Loosely adapted from Not Quite Nigella)

Ingredients

1 2/3 cup of mango puree (about 4 medium sized mangoes)
2/3 cup of caster sugar
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup mango juice
2/3 cup thickened cream

Method

1. Place 1 1 /3 cup of mangoes, milk, caster sugar and mango juice in a blender and whizz until smooth. Stir in cream.
2. Place in an ice cream maker and churn in an ice-cream machine following manufacturer's directions.

   

3. Swirl in the remaining 1/3 cup of mango puree.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Do you have a kitchen disaster story? I have a lot. I had a total cooking disaster with this pandan chiffon cake. There were a few of my lucky twitter followers who had witnessed the disaster live on twitter as I was tweeting it away as it happened.

Pandan chiffon cake is something very nostalgic to a lot of Malaysians and Singaporeans. We basically grew up with it. We ate so much that sometimes we got sick of it. Now, many years later, I begin to miss it. I miss the smell of the pandan leaves flavour when the cake was baking in the oven. I miss the silky soft texture of the chiffon cake. I miss the shade of green that reminds me of home.

It was a last minute decision. It was a cold rainy evening. I was craving for pandan chiffon cake. I didn't have a chiffon cake pan. I didn't have a proper pandan chiffon cake recipe. I had never baked one before but I had all the ingredients in my pantry to make one.

I flipped to the page of vanilla chiffon cake recipe from an old trusty cookbook and started to look for a suitable cake pan. I thought bundt cake pan should do the trick but this was one of the two mistakes I made that day. It turned out that the bundt cake pan I have was smaller than I thought. Not that much smaller though. The biggest blunder I found out later was that I mistakenly used baking soda instead of cream of tartar. The two boxes were standing side by side in the pantry and I didn't know how and why, I picked the wrong box without realising it.

What happened to the cake as a result of my mistakes?

It kept rising and rising. How I wish I was making a souffle. It would be a mega success :) Nevertheless, the cake turned out to be as good as it should be. The smell of the pandan flavour was as good as my childhood. The texture was good except for some small air pockets caused by the use of baking soda.

** The worst part of the disaster is cleaning up the aftermath. The cake dough overflew from the bundt cake pan. Burnt bits sticked to the wire rack and bottom of the oven. It took me a good couple of hours of scrubbing to get rid of them.

There was nothing one can't do with some clever knife work to give the cake a good trimming. Looking at these pictures, you won't have a clue about the disaster.


Pandan Chiffon Cake
(Loosely adapted from The Good Housekeeping Step-By-Step Cookbook)
Makes 16 servings

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-raising)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
5 large egg yolks
1 tbsp pandan essence
1 tsp pandan paste
7 large egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325F. In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup granulated sugar. Make a well in center and add oil, egg yolks, pandan essence, pandan paste, and 3/4 cup cold water; whisk into flour mixture until smooth.
2. In another large bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Beating at high speed, gradually sprinkle in remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 2 tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition, until whites stand in stiff peaks when beaters are lifted. With rubber spatula, gently fold one-third of whites into yolk mixture; fold in remaining whites. Pour batter into ungreased 9- to 10-inch tube pan.
3. Bake 1 1/4 hours, or until top springs back when lightly touched. Invert cake in pan on funnel or bottle; cool completely in pan. Carefully run metal spatula around side of pan to loosen cake; remove from pan and place on cake plate.

Baklava

When I was 10, I wanted to grow up and be free.

When I was 20, I wanted to earn enough money and see the world.

When I was 30, I was busy making money and had a jet-setting lifestyle.

When I was 40, I have seen most parts of the world. I am ready to settle down. Be a good wife, be a good mum and pursue my love for cooking.

I am in a very good place of my life now.

"True happiness, is being able to be content rather you have a little or a lot. It’s being able to appreciate what you have and where you’re at in life, even when your goal is to reach, or obtain something greater." - Kimberly Lily

Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry featured in many cuisines in the area once controlled by the former Ottoman Empire, in Central Asia and in the lands in between. It and its variants are thus popular in Turkey, the Balkans, Cyprus, much of the Arab world, Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan and the lands of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia. It is a pastry made of layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey.

Rick Stein: "I have already mentioned the impressive furore of activity at Imam Cagdas, the kebab restaurant in Gaziantep, and this was especially so on the first floor where they were making baklava. There must have been 50 or 60 people preparing the paper-thin pastry and the bright green pistachios, building up the trays of baklava and baking them in the huge, wood-fired ovens. But only two people, Burhan Cagdas's ageing father and one other, were allowed to apply the boiling hot syrup after baking, which had to be at just the right temperature and consistency. There was so much flour in the air where the pastries were being assembled that everyone seemed to be working in a dream-like haze. The most distinctive elements, apart from the perfect pastry, were the vibrantly green pistachios, harvested when young, and the butter made from ewe's milk. This is their recipe and is still very good even when made with ordinary butter and pistachios, and is just perfect with a cup of strong black coffee - Turkish, of course."

Baklava

(Adapted from Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes)

Makes about 20 pieces

Ingredients

500 g filo pastry sheets

150 g clarified butter, warmed (* see note below on how to make clarified butter)

250 g shelled pistachio nuts

For the Pastry Cream:

300 ml milk

40 g Semolina

For the Syrup:

600 g granulated sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

* To make Clarified Butter: Place butter in a small pan and leave it over a very low heat until it has melted. Skim off any scum from the surface and pour off the clear (clarified) butter into a bowl, leaving behind the milky white solids that will have settled on the bottom of the pan. The butter is ready to use.

Method

1. First make the pastry cream. Put the milk and semolina into a small, non-stick pan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring. Simmer for 1 minute, then transfer the mixture to a bowl, press a sheet of clingfilm onto the surface to prevent it from forming a skin and leave to go cold.
2. Preheat the oven to 160C. Cut down the filo pastry sheets if necessary so they will line a 20 x 30-cm shallow, rectangular, non-stick baking tin. Brush the base and sides of the tin with some of the clarified butter, then line the base with 15 single layers of pastry, brushing each one lightly with butter before adding the next. Don't butter the last sheet of pastry.
3. Mix the pastry cream until smooth, loosening it slightly with a little milk if it seems stiff, then spread it evenly over the top of the pastry. Sprinkle over the chopped pistachios in an even layers. Cover the top of the baklava with another 15 layers of filo pastry, lightly brushing with butter between each layer.
4. Using a larger, very sharp knife, cut the baklava into portion-sized pieces - make 3 evenly spaced cuts lengthways down the tin and then cut across at an angle to make small diamond-shaped pieces (Note: I prefer to cut them into square pieces, less wastage). Drizzle over any remaining butter. Bake the baklava for 1 hour until crisp and richly golden.
5. Meanwhile, for the sugar syrup, put the sugar and 350 ml water into a pan and leave over a low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture is clear. Then bring to the boil and simmer vigorously until it reaches 107-108C, the 'thread' stage - you will need a sugar thermometer to check. Add the lemon juice to the syrup and set aside.
6. A minute or two before the baklava is ready to come out of the oven, bring the sugar syrup back up to the boil. Remove the baklava from the oven, quickly and carefully run a knife along the cuts to check the pieces are all separated, then immediately pour over the hot syrup. This will look like a large amount, but it will gradually be absorbed by the pastry as it cools. Leave the baklava to go cold, then carefully remove from the tin to serve.