Quince time!

Once a year, when it's quince time, people inevitably come into work with bags to give away, so I can't help but whoop for joy and get on board the quince train!
Firstly, it's all about poaching them long and slow. A few days ago I'd poached some in a sugar and water syrup (with a cinnamon stick and vanilla pod) - cooking them low and slow on the stovetop. So I just re-used the same poaching liquid adding a good splash of white wine this time and cooking them in the oven. I think the change from pale pear colour to the jewel-like ruby red is half the appeal in cooking with quinces.

 

After they were cooked, I used some of the poaching liquid to make a little jelly (adding a soaked gelatine leaf into a cup of the hot liquid) and when cool, poured it over a broken savoiardi biscuit in each of the dessert glasses. Then a few slices of the poached quince.

 

 Last step was to make a white chocolate cream (150ml white chocolate melted in 100ml cream and folded into a further 200ml of whipped cream). And with a dollop of that and some toasted flaked almonds on top, I had a dessert ready to knock my guests socks off!

Another caramelised white chocolate dessert

Caramelised white chocolate mousse, served with a coffee crumble, banana ice cream and fresh passionfruit. I wondered how good each of those elements would be, but

Caramelised white chocolate

I've been hearing about caramelised chocolate for a while so of course I wanted to see what the fuss was about. And I've always been a big fan of caramel...

An Eton Mess...

Rhubarb Eton Mess no less!
An Eton Mess is an English dessert essentially made up of crushed meringue, fruit and whipped cream.
This variation consisted of poached rhubarb, meringue with ground pepperberries, fresh strawberries, and white chocolate ganache - the idea was in Delicious magazine.

The rhubarb, I should add, came to me from my sister whose neighbour grew the beautiful crop. You just have to do something special with such lovely home grown produce.

Rasperry, Lychee, White Chocolate & Honey...

Cake? Torte? Layered extravaganza? Damn nice, that's what it was!

A very berry dessert...

I had a bit of time up my sleeve and a family dinner. And some raspberries, white chocolate and cream...
I also have two amazing dessert books...The New Patissiers (Olivier Dupon) and Sweet Studio (Darren Purchese) which have incredible desserts that all have many components. And due to having the morning free, I just kept making more layers! I based my layers on ingredients I wanted to use and adapted recipe components from within the two books.

White chocolate crackles

These are the best white chocolate crackles....they actually crackle and pop and explode with flavour!