MEL-ting pot

To end his mini-menu, chef Davide Caranchini from Como created a dessert that plays with words (as in the case of his main course), with textures and influences. We present it just like we’re doing with all the recipes that got to the finals of the fourth edition of Premio Birra Moretti Grand Cru. And we leave the task of introducing this recipe to the chef himself.

For my dessert, I started from some western pairings such as apple and cinnamon but gave a pungent note thanks to the ginger. All this was sided by a sorbet made with Birra Moretti Baffo d’Oro and lemon zest. The name of the dish is thus a play on words between the main ingredient in this dessert and the English word, which indicates the mixture of ethnic groups and cultures that characterises NY – the “Big Apple”. This fruit is part of the recipe in three different ways. As a pairing, I chose Birra Moretti Radler because of the freshness given by Sicilian lemons, which highlight the taste and the aromas of the dish.

MEL-ting pot – Green apple genoise, ginger mousse, pearls of apple and cinnamon, Birra Moretti Baffo d’Oro and lime zest sorbet

Recipe for 6 people

INGREDIENTS
For the Genoise
250 g Granny Smith apples
300 g sugar
2 g citric acid
125 g eggs
115 g “00” flour

For the mousse
325 g fresh cream
250 g whole milk
50 g peeled ginger
2,5 g powdered ginger
5 egg yolks
62,5 g sugar
2 g gelatine sheets
Salt

For the sorbet
250 ml water
250 g sugar
3 Golden Delicious apples
2 cinnamon sticks

For the dried apples
250 g sugar
500 ml water
1 Golden Delicious apple

Edible flowers
Atsina cress sprouts

METHOD
For the genoise
Peel the apples, remove the core and cut them into 8 slices; season with 20g of sugar and citric acid, put them into a vacuum pack, remove all the air and cook in the vacuum oven at 85°C for 40 minutes. Once they are ready and still hot, blend them, strain them and leave them to cool. Put the eggs into a food processor together with the remaining sugar and whisk for around 10 minutes. Add the flour and finally the apple purée. Spread the mixture into a cake tin covered in butter and flour and bake at 163°C for about 20 minutes. Once it is ready, leave it to cool at room temperature. Later, always keeping it in the cake tin, place it in the chiller. Once it is firm, remove it and cut it into regular discs, cover them with cling film and leave them to rest at room temperature.

For the mousse
Warm up 500g of cream and milk without reaching the boil, add the crushed ginger and the powdered ginger. Remove from the fire, cover with some cling film and leave to infuse for at least 20 minutes. Strain in a colander and remove the ginger. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and a pinch of salt until they are foamy, then gradually add the cream and milk to this mixture, move to a bowl and cook in a bain-marie until it reaches 82°C, leave to rest for 5 minutes at room temperature, squeeze the gelatine sheets previously soaked in cold water and add them to the cream. Put into a colander inside a bowl for a cold bain-marie. Once it has reached 25°C, put the cream into a syphon, charged twice, and put into the fridge until it is time to use it.

For the sorbet
Put the beer, sugar, glucose and water into a saucepan, bring to the boil, melting the sugar. Add the lime zest and leave to cool. Cream it using an ice cream machine and leave it in the freezer until it is time to use it.

For the apple pearls
Put the wine, water and sugar into a pot and bring to the boil. Add the cinnamon cut into pieces and leave to cool. Strain the syrup and put it into a vacuum pack, together with the apple spheres previously created with a corer. Remove all the air and cook at 65°C for about 20 minutes. They must be cooked in the middle too.

For the dried apples
Mix the water and sugar, bring to the boil and leave to cool. Once it is cold, move into a bowl and add the apples cut into very thin slices with a slicer. Move the open container inside a bell shaped vacuum machine and complete 3 cycles at 10°%. Carefully drain the slices, tap them with kitchen paper and spread them on a silicon mat. Leave to dry at around 70°C.

For the finishing
Using a pastry cutter, place the apple pearls in a circle on the plate, cover them with ginger mousse, place the disc of apple genoise on top and a quenelle of sorbet on top of that. Finish the dish by placing a slice of dried apple on the sorbet quenelle and decorating with edible flowers and sprouts.