Carrot Ice Cream, Dehydrated Carrot Foam, Baked Cream Cheese, Date Cake, Spiced Pudding, Vanilla/Ginger Cream Cheese, Date Sphere, Maple Bourbon Bubbles
This dish is one of my final vestiges of the winter utilizing some warm winter spice flavors. I figured that with temperatures rising into the 80's this week that I had better post this now. My idea here was to use the same flavors you would find while eating a classic carrot cake that you might find at a really good diner. I played with a bunch of different textures and baking techniques to come up with something tasting familiar but not appearing so.
The cake was made by creaming butter and sugar together then adding egg, vanilla and pureed dates followed by flour, baking powder and salt. After baking and cooling the cake I broke it into small pieces to plate. The baked cream cheese was made by whipping the cheese with vanilla, eggs, sugar and a small amount of flour and baking til set. This was also cooled and crumbled.
I made the carrot ice cream using the same recipe I always use but replacing the milk with carrot juice. I cooked the custard til it thickly coated the back of a spoon, chilled it thoroughly and spun it in my ice cream machine. I ripped of Grant Achatz's dehydrated carrot foam from the Alinea cookbook. This recipe involves whipping carrot juice and sugar with Methocel F50 (a stabilzer) and then dehydrating it until it is very light and crisp almost like the marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal.
I made the vanilla ginger cream cheese simply by combining the ingredients and whipping them until they were soft. The spiced pudding (also borrowing from Alinea) started off by steeping clove, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, fennel and black tea in boiling water. Was enough color and flavor were extracted I strained the liquid and reheated it with sugar and agar agar (a gelling agent). I poured the liquid into a shallow and chilled it for two hours to set it. I then broke the gel into small pieces and pureed it with a stick blender. I passed it through a fine mesh tamis and then blended it again with some creme fraiche.
The date sphere is just a peeled and pitted date that was formed into a ball with my hands. The bubbles were made by combining maple syrup and Bourbon with some soy lecithin and frothing with a hand blender. The lecithin ensures that the bubbles remain stable and not pop.
The cake was made by creaming butter and sugar together then adding egg, vanilla and pureed dates followed by flour, baking powder and salt. After baking and cooling the cake I broke it into small pieces to plate. The baked cream cheese was made by whipping the cheese with vanilla, eggs, sugar and a small amount of flour and baking til set. This was also cooled and crumbled.
I made the carrot ice cream using the same recipe I always use but replacing the milk with carrot juice. I cooked the custard til it thickly coated the back of a spoon, chilled it thoroughly and spun it in my ice cream machine. I ripped of Grant Achatz's dehydrated carrot foam from the Alinea cookbook. This recipe involves whipping carrot juice and sugar with Methocel F50 (a stabilzer) and then dehydrating it until it is very light and crisp almost like the marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal.
I made the vanilla ginger cream cheese simply by combining the ingredients and whipping them until they were soft. The spiced pudding (also borrowing from Alinea) started off by steeping clove, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, fennel and black tea in boiling water. Was enough color and flavor were extracted I strained the liquid and reheated it with sugar and agar agar (a gelling agent). I poured the liquid into a shallow and chilled it for two hours to set it. I then broke the gel into small pieces and pureed it with a stick blender. I passed it through a fine mesh tamis and then blended it again with some creme fraiche.
The date sphere is just a peeled and pitted date that was formed into a ball with my hands. The bubbles were made by combining maple syrup and Bourbon with some soy lecithin and frothing with a hand blender. The lecithin ensures that the bubbles remain stable and not pop.