Mandarin Sorbet & Vanilla/Coconut Semifreddo Orbs, Coconut Snow, Mandarin Powder, Candied Mandarin, Coconut Chips, Mandarin Puree, Crystallized Mandarin Leaves
This is my take on a dessert staple that everyone should know pretty well, the orange creamsicle. I basically used three ingredients here; vanilla, mandarin orange and coconut, the coconut being the biggest diversion from the classic. So I retained most of the same flavors and textures with a few added ones presenting the orange and coconut in a variety of different forms.
I'll start with the mandarin orange which came from California and included some of the leaves and stems. I removed the rind from the oranges and juiced the fruit. The juice was made into a sorbet and frozen into half-sphere molds. Some of the rind was boiled in simple syrup for a couple of hours and then pureed, resulting in a substance with a jelly-like quality. Some of the boiled rind was thinly sliced and dehydrated into the little strips you see on the plate. I also dehydrated some uncooked orange rind and ground it in a spice mill with a little salt and sugar to make the powder. I sliced one of the oranges and dehydrated them breaking them into little triangles on the plate.
The variations of coconut began with a mousse made with coconut cream, vanilla, heavy cream, sugar and egg whites. The mousse was frozen in the spherical molds resulting in a semi-freddo. The mousse and sorbet halves were combined to make little creamsicle balls topped with crystallized mandarin leaves. I combined some of the coconut cream with tapioca maltodextrin, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulsed it to make a coconut powder which I then froze into "snow". I also scattered some coconut chips on the plate as another textural and flavor element.
I'll start with the mandarin orange which came from California and included some of the leaves and stems. I removed the rind from the oranges and juiced the fruit. The juice was made into a sorbet and frozen into half-sphere molds. Some of the rind was boiled in simple syrup for a couple of hours and then pureed, resulting in a substance with a jelly-like quality. Some of the boiled rind was thinly sliced and dehydrated into the little strips you see on the plate. I also dehydrated some uncooked orange rind and ground it in a spice mill with a little salt and sugar to make the powder. I sliced one of the oranges and dehydrated them breaking them into little triangles on the plate.
The variations of coconut began with a mousse made with coconut cream, vanilla, heavy cream, sugar and egg whites. The mousse was frozen in the spherical molds resulting in a semi-freddo. The mousse and sorbet halves were combined to make little creamsicle balls topped with crystallized mandarin leaves. I combined some of the coconut cream with tapioca maltodextrin, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulsed it to make a coconut powder which I then froze into "snow". I also scattered some coconut chips on the plate as another textural and flavor element.