I wanted to create an Easter dessert that was also great as a spring/summer dessert too.
I wanted to create an egg, an egg that looked like an egg but, didn’t taste like an egg,
You know what I mean?
I started with the yolk and wanted something yellow and straight away lemon curd came into my head.
Great to represent the yolk and also a great spring/summer flavour.
I had lemon curd inside a white chocolate egg but I needed more…..
I needed texture,
I needed sweetness,
And Eton mess somehow flew into my brain ha ha.
Yes meringues and lemon curd bomba as they’d say in Greek,
But what about the cream?
Where was it to go?
I couldn’t really put it inside the egg with the meringues and curd coz first it’ll have to be refrigerated constantly and second it’ll make the meringues and chocolate soggy and we’d loose all our chewy crisp texture.
So cream inside the egg….
A definite no no!
After a lot of thinking, and drawing and a lot of time spent bothering my husband I came up with the perfect place for my whipped cream,
A nest around my egg (“,)
Yes this nest would not only cover the chocolate at the base of the egg, it’ll also make it look more aesthetically pleasing going with my egg theme,
Well now egg in a nest theme,
But now I had 1 more problem,
Everything was white,
I wanted a little bit more colour,
I wanted green,
Green is a lovely spring time colour but what could I use?
My dish had sweet and sourness crisp, crunch a smooth texture, but no bitterness.
I thought again of bitter green things and after I played around with the thought of using rocket lol I came to thyme.
Thyme is bitter and works well with lemon (and lamb, just in case you wanted to know, or want a new flavour combo for your Sunday roast) but I didn’t want to just sprinkle it over my dessert.
I remember playing around with gelatin caviar a few weeks back and it just clicked.
Yes!
Thyme caviar,
Not only will it add a savoury bitterness to my dish,
It’ll also add another level of texture,
A level of texture that you’ve probably never experienced before.
It feels like mico balls of jelly on your tongue that melt but then burst with thyme flavour!
Trust me you gota try it to know.
I must say the thyme caviar on it’s own isn’t too nice, it’s a little bitter,
But combined with everything else…..
It’s phenomenal!
I added a gold lustre dust brush stroke to my eggs to take the dessert to the next level,
I wanted a visual work of art as well as an explosive taste of art in your mouth.
O I almost forgot….
This dessert will please visually,
Satisfy your taste buds,
And make everyone smile when they get to smash up your beautiful creation (“,)
Ingredients
- Egg white from 1 egg
- Caster Sugar 2:1 ratio of sugar to egg white. So weigh tour egg white and what ever it weighs double it to get the amount of sugar you will need.
- eg. My egg white weighed 41g so I needed 82g of caster sugar
- Bowl
- Scales
- Baking Tray
- Baking Paper
- Electric whisk, stand mixer with whisk attachment or a hand held whisk
- Piping bag
- 100g unsalted butter
- 200g caster sugar
- 4 unwaxed lemons, zest and juice
- 3 eggs, plus 1egg yolk
- Heat proof bowl
- Zester or grater
- Spoon
- Whisk
- Bowl
- Fork
- Pan
- Jar or container to store curd
- 250ml very cold vegetable oil
- 2 platinum grade leaf gelatine
- 160ml water
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- Green gel paste
- Large bowl filled with water, ice and salt
- Large bowl for ice bath
- Small bowl for oil
- Bowl
- Pan
- Sieve
- Squeeze bottle
- 2mm nozzle that fits onto your squeeze bottle
- 100g melted white chocolate
- Gold luster dust
- Cake pop mould the side without the holes
- Paint brush for food
- 250g melted white
- Gold luster dust
- 40g melted white chocolate
- Egg moulds
- Pastry brush
- Baking paper
- 200ml double cream whipped
- Bowl
- Whisk
- Piping Bag
- Large star tip
- Serving Plate
- Spoon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200'C
- Place sugar on a tray lined with baking paper and heat in the oven for 5 minutes
- Whisk your egg white on a low speed until bubbles form then increase the speed until stiff peaks. To check if your meringues are at stiff peak stage turn your bowl upside down and if it doesn't budge you are at the right stage.
- When your oven beeps take your sugar out of the oven and turn your oven down to 100'C
- Add 1 spoon of sugar at a time to your meringue and beat well. Keep adding a spoon of sugar at a time until you have used up all of your sugar then beat for another minute until stiff peaks.
- Add your meringue to a piping bag and pipe small meringues on your tray lined with baking paper.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes go and check on them and if they come off clean from your baking paper they are done. If they are still sticking leave them in the oven for 1 minute intervals and keep going to check on them until they come off clean.
- Put your butter, sugar lemon zest and juice into a heatproof bowl.
- Put your bowl over a pan of simmering water, and make sure the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl. Leave everything to melt. But if you are inpatient give everything a quick stir to get things moving.
- Lightly whisk your eggs and when everything in your bowl has melted add your eggs.
- Stir everything together and if you see clear bits of egg whites running through get your whisk out and beat everything together until the egg white disappears.
- Leave everything to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every now and again.
- To check if everything has cooked dip a spoon in to your curd and if it coats the back of the spoon and when yo run your finger down the middle and it leaves a clear line then you know it is ready. (check the video below to see what I mean)
- Take your lemon curd off of the heat and pour into your jar to cool.
- When it has cooled put in the fridge until you need it.
- Put your oil in the fridge over night
- Soak your gelatine leaves in some water for 5 minutes
- Heat your water and thyme in a pan and leave to boil for 4 minutes
- Squeeze you gelatine to get rid of any excess water then put it back in its bowl
- Pour your thyme tea through a strainer to catch your thyme leaves and pour your hot thyme tea over your gelatine to melt it
- Add a little drop of green gel colouring to your thyme gelatine and keep stirring until all the colour has been distributed evenly
- Pour your thyme gelatine into a squeeze bottle with a 2 mm hole and leave it to cool for a few minutes
- Prepare your ice bath, fill a bowl that is larger than the boil your oil is in with water and ice
- Place your cold bowl of oil in your ice bath and start shaking your thyme gelatine over the oil
- The cold oil will set the gelatine into tiny spheres which will slowly drop down to the bottom of the bowl. Keep shaking your thyme gelatine into your oil until it has finished
- Put your bowls back into the fridge for at least 10 minutes to make sure your spheres have set then take your bowl out of the fridge and pour your thyme spheres into a sieve then into a bowl and cover them with cold water and cling film and put them back into the fridge for plating up later.
- Using a cake pop mould the side without the holes brush the inside spheres with your luster dust
- Pour your melted chocolate over your painted gold spheres coating the inside fully about 2mm thick
- Put in the fridge to set
- Take tour spheres out of the mould and fill one side with lemon curd
- Heat up a pan and for no more then 2 seconds place your other sphere on your hot pan to melt then working quickly place it over your sphere filled with curd to seal it
- Brush any white bits with more gold luster dust and put them in the fridge until you need them
- Using a pastry brush, brush a gold stripe in each egg cavity
- Add your melted chocolate to each cavity and make sure it goes up all the sides and is about 2mm thick
- Put in the fridge to set
- When they have set gently take them out the moulds and try not to touch the outsides
- Fill one of your egg half with your lemon curd yolk and a big handful of baby meringues
- Heat a pan, and place your other egg half on your holt pan to melt the edges for no more than 2 seconds then place it over your filled egg half to make a 3d egg
- Add a dollop of melted white chocolate on a piece of baking paper and place the bottom of your egg onto it and hold it in place to set
- Get your serving plate and place your egg into the middle
- Pipe your cream around your egg making a nest and covering up any of your white chocolate base
- Drain your thyme caviar through a sieve and gently place it around your cream nest
- Get a spoon have fun and smash it up (",)
Watch the video below (“,)
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