Black sesame, passion fruit and Maya Mountain chocolate by Lisa Vega

“When creating the Cacao Bar menu”, explains Lisa Vega, Executive Pastry Chef at Dandelion Chocolate, “I wanted to create a dessert using our 70% Maya Mountain chocolate from Belize and passion fruit because selfishly, chocolate and passion fruit are one of my favorite pairings! I visited the Maya Mountain cacao farm in Belize a few years ago on a sourcing trip and it was my first experience seeing where our beans come from and how they are harvested and the dedication it takes to get them from the cacao pod to the chocolate I use everyday in my kitchen. It gave me such a clear understanding of why this chocolate is so special. The tasting notes on this particular harvest of beans are ‘ripe pineapple with chocolate undertones’. With the addition of black sesame, this dessert has a balance of tart, toasted nutty sesame and of course chocolate that I love. Cutting into the mousse has a soft texture and there is also crunch, cake, and sherbet to round out all the textures”.

To make it, she starts by painting the plate with the passion caramel sauce. She beautifully strokes the brush on the plate, creating a beautiful design, then she follows by placing the chocolate dome on the plate. Carefully cutting the black sesame sponge cake pieces, she place them around the plate. With a sauce bottle she places dots of the passion gel around the dessert. Then she makes a quenelle with the sherbet and places it on the side and decorates with pieces of the black sesame praline crunch.

Lisa Vega is the Executive Pastry Chef at Dandelion Chocolate

Black sesame, passion fruit, and Maya Mountain

Black sesame sponge cake

185 g AP flour
250 g sugar
14 g BP
3 g salt
175 g milk
120 g whites
Zest of one lemon
225 g black sesame paste
60 g 100% chocolate, melted

Mix AP flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add milk, whites, and zest. Add sesame paste and melted chocolate. Fill ¼ sheet tray and bake @ 300F for 20 minutes. Yield: 1 quarter sheet tray of cake.

Chocolate mousse

133 g 70% chocolate, melted
32 g eggs
48 g yolks
54 g sugar
210 g cream

Cook sugar with water to 118C. Whip eggs and yolks until volume builds. Pour hot syrup into eggs, and whip until tripled in volume. Fold in melted chocolate. Finally, fold in whipped cream. Immediately pipe into molds.

Black sesame mousse

80 g milk
40 g black sesame paste
88 g sugar
55 g yolks
7 g gelatin
250 g cream

Boil milk, black sesame paste, and half the sugar. Whisk yolks and the rest of the sugar in a separate bowl. Temper in the yolks and cook to nappe (85C), and add bloomed gelatin. Strain and cool. When at room temp, fold in cold whipped cream and immediately fill molds.

Passion gelee

375 g passion puree
20 g yuzu juice
113 g sugar
13 g gelatin

Boil puree, yuzu, sugar. Add bloomed gelatin (20g per dome)

Black sesame praline crunch

130 g praline paste
40 g black sesame paste
30 g cocoa butter
95 g 70% chocolate
65 g puffed quinoa
40 g black sesame seeds

Melt both pastes, cocoa butter, and chocolate over double boiler. Stir in quinoa and seeds, and roll between two pieces of parchment paper.

Passion gel

380 g passion fruit puree
50 g sugar
50 g water
20 g yuzu juice
5 g agar powder

Boil all ingredients and dissolve agar powder. Chill until set. Cut into cubes, blend and strain.

Passion caramel

233 g sugar
170 g butter
115 g passion puree
114 g eggs
35 g 70% chocolate

Boil puree, butter, and half the sugar. Whisk eggs and rest of sugar in bowl. Temper in eggs, heat to nappe (85C). Whisk in chocolate.

Chocolate glacage

35 g powdered gelatin
400 g water
600 g sugar
400 g sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp. vanilla
700 g 70% chocolate

Bloom gelatin in a small amount of water and set aside. Heat water, sugar and sweetened condensed milk, until boiling. Remove from heat, add vanilla and gelatin. Pour liquid over chocolate and whisk then buzz to combine. POUR GLAZE AT 32-34C.

Montage

For mousse molds: Fill each dome with 22 grams sesame mousse. Press in frozen gelee (20 grams). Freeze. Pipe chocolate mousse to fill the rest of the molds. Press in circles of sesame crunch. Freeze overnight. The next day, glaze each piece with glacage.

Passionfruit sherbet

300 g sugar
250 g glucose
125 g mineral water
20 g powdered gelatin, 200 bloom
300 g Extra Bitter milk couverture, 39% cocoa
170 g condensed milk

Whisk puree and buttermilk. Set aside. Boil milk, cream, sugar, and glucose. Simmer 2 minutes. Immediately cool in ice bath. When base is cooled to 50F, remove from ice bath and whisk in puree mixture. Strain, cure in fridge overnight, freeze, and paco party.