Darren Purchese, from Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio, shares two delicious recipes with us – the first, the best chocolate mousse you’ll ever make, and the second, his milk chocolate, popcorn and honeycomb rubble, which is so good, you may weep in your kitchen. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Recipe One: Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients:
330g Thick Cream 35% Fat
60g Whole Milk
30g Caster Sugar
1 Vanilla Pod
60g Egg Yolks (3-4 yolks)
150g Dark Chocolate, pistols or chopped
Gelatin Gold Leaf
Method:
- Place 30g of the cream into a saucepan with the milk, caster sugar and vanilla pod and start to heat gently.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks, place the chocolate into a mixing bowl.
- Reheat the saucepan and cook for custard 85°C, add the soaked gelatin leaf and mix well. Strain the custard through a sieve onto the chocolate.
- Mix well with a rubber spatula for a smooth and shiny cream.
- Whisk the remaining 300g of cream to semi stiff peaks and fold into the chocolate cream base.
- Pour the mixture into serving glasses and chill
- Garnish as required and serve – a perfectly chocolate-y end to Easter’s day of chocolate-y celebrations.
Recipe Two: Milk Chocolate, Popcorn & Honeycomb Rubble
Ingredients:
800g Tempered Milk Chocolate (see method below)
100g Honeycomb Pieces (see method below)
50g Cooked Popcorn
For the Tempered chocolate (microwave method)
Ingredients:
800g Milk Chocolate
Method:
- Place 800g of chocolate into a plastic microwave bowl, do not use a glass bowl as it retains its heat too much and can overheat the chocolate.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring in between until half of the chocolate has melted and the other half has not.
- Stir with a rubber spatula without adding any more heat, until as much as possible of the solid chocolate has melted, this may take a couple of minutes of vigorous stirring.
- If there are any stubborn pieces of solid chocolate remaining, apply a very short burst of heat to get rid of any solid chocolate (but take great care not to overheat) 10 seconds here or there will do it.
- The chocolate is now ready to use.
For the Honeycomb
Ingredients:
20g Water
25g Honey
45g Liquid Glucose
120g Caster Sugar
6g Bicarb Soda
Method:
- In a large heavy bottomed saucepan place the ingredients in the order they appear above except the bicarb.
- Prepare a large tray that is clean and dry and is lined with baking paper greased with canola spray.
- Gently bring the contents of the saucepan to the boil, whisk the syrup regularly.
- Increase the heat and cook the syrup to 154°C using a sugar thermometer to check or by eye.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the bicarb soda. Be careful, as the mixture will expand furiously.
- Pour the mix immediately into the lined tray and leave to cool and break into pieces of the desired size.
To assemble the rubble:
- Pour the chocolate into shallow baking tray(s) and tap the edges of the tray gently to flatten.
- Add the popcorn & honeycomb pieces, flick a little more chocolate over the top and again tap the edge of the tray to flatten.
- Leave to crystalise in a cool room or briefly in the fridge.
- Enjoy with a cup of tea or a glass of wine.
