Fine Dining Inspired Apple Crumble
Recipe by Jay Miller
See more of Jay’s creations: instagram.com/jasonderrickmiller
Caramelised white chocolate mousse
110g of white chocolate
25g of cream
1 gelatine leaf, bloomed
60g of egg yolk
38g of caster sugar
200g of double cream
- Melt the white chocolate in a pan on low-medium heat and cook until golden brown in colour. Make sure to stir constantly to prevent it from burning.
- Add the 25g of cream to deglaze the pan and immediately stir in the gelatine until fully dissolved.
- Whisk the egg yolks and castor sugar until pale and fluffy and fold through the chocolate mixture a little at a time until fully incorporated.
- Lastly, whip the 200g of cream to soft peaks and again fold into the mixture making sure to be gently to maintain the light and airy texture.
- At this stage you can be creative, either pour the mousse into a silicone mould to set or leave in an air tight container.
- Allow to set in the freezer for at least 1.5 hours or overnight in the fridge.
Gingerbread Cake
½ cup butter
¾ cup milk
1 cup treacle sugar (make sure it is packed tightly)
1 ½ cups cake flour
1tsp baking soda
¼ tsp Royal Baking Powder
2tsp ground ginger
1tsp each ground cinnamon, cloves and cardamom
¼ tsp salt
1 large egg beaten
- Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 23cm square pan with parchment paper.
- In a saucepan combine butter and milk and heat until butter is melted.
- Whisk in the brown sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Whisk the beaten eggs into the mixture.
- Sift all of the dry ingredients together and add to the wet mixture. Gently fold together until you have a smooth batter. Do not overmix.
- Bake in the prepared pan for 25-30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing.
Apple Dice
1 Apple (red or white it is entirely up to you)
1 cup apple juice (freshly squeezed)
- Peel and finely dice the apple into 2mm cubes.
- Put into a bowl and cover with the apple juice.
- Allow to marinade until needed
Cinnamon Crumble
5g of cinnamon
100g of plain flour
25g of caster sugar
30g of Demerara sugar
65g of butter, diced
2.5g of salt
½ cup ground hazelnuts
- For the crumble, combine all of the ingredients into a bowl and combine with your hands until you have a breadcrumb like texture.
- Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 150C until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Butterscotch Sauce
¼ cup butter
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt flakes
- In a medium saucepan combine butter, cream and brown sugar and cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
- Simmer for 4-6 minutes on medium-high heat.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and the salt.
- Allow to cool.
Apple Compote
4 apples (granny smith is ideal) – cored, peeled and cut into chunks
1 TBLS lemon juice
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
- Combine all ingredients in a pan and cook over a low-medium heat for about 30 minutes until the apples are tender and just about starting to break down.
- Allow to cool completely.
Apple Sorbet
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 ¼ cups fresh juice from 3 green apples
2 Tbsp pasteurised egg whites
- First make your simple syrup.
- Bring sugar and water to the boil and simmer in a saucepan until all the sugar has dissolved.
- Set aside and allow to cool completely.
- Add the apple juice and lemon juice to the simple syrup and stir to combine.
- If you don’t have an ice cream maker, pour into an airtight container. Place in the freezer and give it a stir every 30 minutes until frozen.
- Alternatively, if you do have an ice cream machine, add the mixture along with the egg whites into the bowl of your ice cream machine and churn following manufacturer’s instructions. For my machine, I churn for 35 minutes before freezing.
- Once ready, scrape the sorbet into a container and freeze until firm.
Assembly:
Now that all of your elements are done it’s time to get creative. I won’t bore you with the process of how I constructed my final plating (because in all honesty, it was so stressful and I barely remember much of those final moments of the challenge), instead I want to challenge you to let your inner taste master shine. You can either go the fine dining route or plate everything on one big platter. The world is your oyster. Have fun!