Create dessert magic
The source of your creativity and inspiration as a chef is, of course, very personal. But how do you use this inspiration to create an exciting dessert? Using the Royal Casino dessert (below) as a reference, learn how you can engineer your own dessert to create a magical result.
What you need to think about
Create expectation
Name a dish so that it catches the attention, but also indicates what guests can expect in an inspiring way. The dessert above is called Royal Casino - Spicy chocolate mousse with sea buckthorn, figs and caramelised pecans.
Make it visual and tell a story
In the Royal Casino, the roulette chip mold and the Bond girl visually hint at the source of inspiration for this dish. Think about how you arrange all elements onto your plate; it makes a visual contribution towards arousing stimuli in the brain that make the mouth water.
Contrast in texture
Alternate creamy structures and crunchy elements with a bite, to keep a dessert exciting and pleasant in the mouth. The Royal Casino includes seven different structures: airy (the mousse and sorbet), velvety (the chip), crunchy (the biscuit and the pecan nuts), soft (the golden dice) and smooth (sea buckthorn gel).
Contrast in taste
Alternate a creamy, sweet taste with a fresh, sour preparation. This rinses a guest's taste buds to make their brain signal a constant hunger for more. In the Royal Casino, a rich, slightly spicy mousse is combined with a more sour-tasting sea buckthorn as well as sweet figs and nuts.
Decorations with a magic touch
The finishing touch is virtually never what it’s all about in a dessert as regards taste, but it does largely determine the first impression. What’s more, decoration can be a smart way of adding certain tastes or textures to a dish. Here are two dessert decoration examples to inspire you.
Crunchy ‘Bond girl’ stencil
Ingredients
- 100 g egg whites (at room temperature)
- 100 g flour
- 100 g butter
- 100 g icing sugar
Method
- Beat the butter with the sugar in the planet mixer until soft. Add the egg whites gradually. Add the sifted flour and mix well.
- Leave to rest in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
- Spread the batter on a silicone mat using the stencil. Place in the freezer and leave to freeze fully.
- Bake in the oven at 180 °C. Store in a sealed tin with silica beads.
Or use Debic Chocolatemousse whipped until light and airy, spread thinly using the stencil and dry in the dehydrator at 50 °C.
Golden fig candies
Ingredients
- 700 g fig coulis
- 20 g pectin
- 750 g sugar (1)
- 75 g sugar (2)
- 150 g glucose
- 10 g citric acid
- 50 g sugar (3)
- 1 g gold powder
Method
- Bring the fig coulis to the boil. Add the sugar (1) and the glucose.
- Bring to the boil again. Mix the sugar (2) with the pectin and add to the fig coulis.
- Heat to 106°C and remove from the heat. Add the citric acid and pour through a fine sieve.
- Pour into a suitable tray or mould and leave to set in the refrigerator.
- Mix the sugar (3) with the gold powder.
- Cut the candies into dice shapes and coat in golden sugar.
Dessert menu inspiration
You can create inspiring desserts regardless of your kitchen priorities. Want to impress your guests or save time and money? With the right flavor and texture combinations as a basis, you can go both ways. Keep it simple by reducing the number of recipe components and therefore steps. Take your dessert creation to the next level by introducing more components and decorations.
