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Hazelnut Chocolate Crack with Dark Chocolate Tia Maria Mousse
Recipe by Jess Liemantara
This chocolatey goodness is what every sweet tooth needs! With layers of mousse topped off with a chocolate hazelnut coating and a surprise in the centre, expect an explosion of flavour!
- Steps
- Ingredients
Ingredients
Passionfruit Centre
Dark Chocolate Mousse
Burnt Caramel Mousse
Chocolate Hazelnut Coating
Bitter Chocolate Soil
To serve
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Steps
- For the Passionfruit Centre, combine passionfruit puree and sugar in a bowl and stir until sugar has dissolved.
- Pour the mixture into eight 2cm diameter silicon dome moulds and freeze overnight. Unmould the domes and join together to make spheres.
- Pierce spheres with toothpicks and dip into melted cocoa butter. Swirl spheres to remove excess and allow cocoa butter to set. Place onto a lined baking tray and place into the freezer until required.
- For the Dark Chocolate Mousse, place 145g cream and water into a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat
- Add the drained gelatine and stir until dissolved. Add salt and pour over combined chocolate. Mix until melted then use a stick blender to process until well emulsified. Set aside to cool over an ice bath to 35-40C.
- Whip the remaining 300g cream to soft peaks. Fold into the cooled chocolate mixture along with the coffee liqueur in 3 batches. Mix until well combined.
- Spoon the mixture into eight 5cm diameter silicon dome moulds. Spread around the mould to form a 5mm thick layer of mousse, leaving a cavity in the centre for the Burnt Caramel Mousse. Place into the freezer until frozen, about 2 hours.
- For the Burnt Caramel Mousse, heat a medium frypan over low-medium heat.
- Place 65g cream and milk into a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat.
- Add 1/3 of the sugar to the heated frypan and allow to melt before adding remaining sugar in 2 stages. Allow sugar to melt and caramelise to an amber colour. Remove from the heat.
- Add the warm cream mixture in 2 stages, whisking vigorously until well combined.
- Add salt and drained gelatine and stir until dissolved. Pass the mixture through a sieve and cool over an ice bath until cooled to 35-40C.
- Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 220g cream to soft peaks and fold into the cooled caramel mixture cream in 2 stages.
- Remove the dome moulds of mousse from the freezer and fill the cavities with the Burnt Caramel Mousse. Level the surface with an offset spatula and return to the freezer until firm.
- Remove from the freezer and using a 2cm diameter melon baller, remove a 1cm deep cavity from the centre of the mousse domes.
- Remove the Passionfruit Centres from the freezer and discard the toothpicks. Place the passionfruit centres into the cavities of half of the mousse domes. Return to the freezer until frozen.
- Unmould the mousse domes. Join unfilled domes to the filled domes to encase the Passionfruit Centres. Return to the freezer.
- For the Chocolate Hazelnut Coating, place the dark chocolate and cocoa butter into a microwave safe canister. Heat in the microwave in 30 second bursts, until melted. Using a stick blender, process until smooth and combined.
- Add hazelnuts and mix until well combined.
- Push a bamboo skewer into the frozen mousse spheres and dip into the hazelnut coating.
- Swirl the spheres to allow the excess coating to drip off and set. Place onto a lined baking tray and set aside in the freezer.
- Carefully lift a sheet of tissue with gold leaf from the packet. Holding the bamboo skewer in one hand, place the tissue sheet, gold leaf side down onto the coated sphere and wrap around the sphere so the gold leaf covers the sphere. Carefully peel the tissue away and transfer to a lined tray. Repeat with remaining spheres. Return to the fridge and allow to defrost for 1 hour before serving.
- Heat oven to 180C.
- For the Bitter Chocolate Soil, place the cocoa powder, sugar, egg whites and salt into a food processor and process until well combined. Add melted butter and pulse until crumbly. Spread over a lined baking tray.
- Bake until crisp, about 15-20 minutes, using a fork to break up a few times to ensure even cooking. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
- To serve, place a tablespoon of the Bitter Chocolate Soil onto each plate. Carefully remove skewers and place spheres onto soil. Very lightly dust spheres with a little freeze dried raspberry and passionfruit powder. Using the melted chocolate, write “Crack me open!” onto the plates. Serve immediately.
