August 2, 2010

Results - Guava and Custard Apple Snow Egg

snow egg

And now for some very very sweet results.....literally!! After reading possibly the longest recipe I've ever seen, and been challenged by my un-believing brother, I gave the almighty Snow egg from Masterchef a try. I'm happy to say that I succeeded and my brother ate his words! HA! I finally got you back for making me eat dirt when I was a kid......revenge is sweet.......just like dessert.

snow egg from above

I'm glad that I wasnt on Masterchef with only a limited time to complete this recipe. It took me nearly 4 hours to finish it. Most of it was waiting around, trying to get custards to set, ice creams to cream and water to freeze. When I first read the recipe I thought it was going to be a breeze, and to be honest there wasnt any particular part which was difficult. The only problem was that it was 8 separate desserts crammed into one almighty uber dessert. So by the end of it I was well and truly over the snow egg. So much so that I didnt really like it. I thought it was way to sweet and a little un-impressive. Daz, my borther, sister-in law and my 1 and a half year old niece disagreed, saying that the dessert was VERY delicious. I guess I'll just have to agree to disagree.

snow egg cracked open

What I absolutely loved about the recipe was the custard apple ice cream and the custard cream. These were so fantastic. I'm glad I had plenty of left overs, I've been making left over bonus desserts with the custard cream, I truly recommend trying it with some fresh strawberries. A thousand times better than ordinary strawberries and cream. Yes, simple strawberries and cream are now ordinary to me.

I did come across a couple of tricky issues when attempting this dessert. Firstly, I couldnt find strawberry guavas. Guava season in Australia ended in June, so I was hoping for a miracle to find strawberry guavas. On my hunt I actually come across ordinary guavas but decided not to buy them because I thought I'd hold out. Big mistake. I searched high and low, I even went to Coles where apparently Masterchef's shop....but still no luck. In the end I opted for rhubarb as a replacement. It was a great substitute, rhubarb and strawberry as a combination is a favourite of mine. I later found out that at Quay they often have the dessert as white peach instead of guava, so my artist licence has not been revoked.

strawberry and rhubarb granita

Next was finding liquid maltose. After a chance discovery, I was in an asian grocery looking for beef jerky - as one does, I found the maltose staring at me begging me to buy it. So that was alot easier than I thought.

liquid maltose29

My next issue was finding a silicone dome tray for the meringues. I remember seeing one during my quest to find the perfect tart pan for my French party, but considering that an 101 year old Alzheimer suffer has a better memory than me, I couldnt remember where I saw it. So instead I used the tiny little glass bowls I use to put sauces in. Worked a treat. I even put baking paper inside them, just in case the meringues got stuck, but there was no need.....they slid out like a weekend at wet-n-wild.

glass dishes

poached meringues

Even though this recipe was pretty straight forward I did make one fatal error. My maltose tuiles were a little under done. They produced the perfect crack (see the below video), but unfortunately I didnt quite caramelize the sugar enough, giving the snow eggs a very pale appearance. I also had difficulty with the tuile melting onto the eggs. I'm not quite sure if that was due to a thickness issue, the sugar being too pale hence under done or the fact that I was trying to melt them with possibly the most pathetic torch imaginable. I've never had a size issue before, but yesterday I just wished for something bigger and hotter. *giggles*



egg covered in maltose teuil

The most important question, would I make these again? Probably not. The effort clearly outweighs the rewards. I'm all for complicated dishes, in fact I love a challenge....but even this was too much for me. I will certainly be making parts of this dish again, but will be paring them with less diabetic inducing elements. Still, I have admire Peter Gilmore for even contemplating a dessert o this caliber.

snow egg 2

21 comments:

CC11 said...

I CANNOT believe you made that let alone made one that looks so awesome! I took one look at the length of the recipe and said PASS.
What an accomplishment though.

Amy @ cookbookmaniac said...

Yay! Good on you for giving it a good go. Your snow looks lovely!

Cindy said...

Your dedication is amazing and the end result looks really impressive!

I'm very glad your nearest and dearest appreciated it, even if you ultimately didn't think the taste justified the time.

cloudcontrol said...

So you're gonna apply for the next season now, right? RIGHT? *one of us, one of us*

Sue said...

Hey! We made it too - except substituted the icecream with dark choc and raspberry for the granita. We had similar problems with the tuile - ended up using normal caster sugar instead of maltose coz it was far too sticky.

Fun, but not sure if it was worth it.

penny aka jeroxie said...

Awesome!! Good on you babe... HOOT! You should join Masterchef

Stephcookie said...

Ahh you did so well! I'm scared to attempt it after looking at the recipe, but I remember how amazing it was it eat it. You're right, that custard apple ice cream is fantastic!

Forager @ The Gourmet Forager said...

They look just as good as the real deal! Love the clever improvisation too. Good job for going to that level of effort!

Agnes said...

Nice Maria! Go you! But I'm disappointed that there's no commentary on the video. You mean I have to read the *words*?? ;)

. said...

WELL DONE! Very impressed with your result!

Hannah said...

Wait, what's that word for you again? It's on the tip of my tongue... Oh yes! AMAZING! MIND-BOGGLING! (Okay, so that's two, maybe three, words.)

There are clearly two types of people in this world. Those who watch Masterchef and think "Oh, that looks nice, I'll keep eating my chocolate now" (me), and those who think "Oh, that looks nice, I must make it and show the world that I am the greatest!" (You.)

Bravo! (And now I'll eat more chocolate.)

Ange said...

Good on you for accepting the challenge, I really wanted a piece of the V8 cake from Masterchef but after a black forest marathon (very similar to the Masterchef version) decided I have better things to do on my weekends!

Simon Leong said...

looks simply amazing. i wish i could try it :-)

My Restaurants Melbourne said...

Wow great job, they turned out fantastic. i want to attemp that recipe one day, it looks difficult. Great job, I bet they tasted good too

Conor @ Hold the Beef said...

Well done! Yippee, brother has to eat gross old words.

That video is awful. How can you show us a spoonful of that deliciousness going to somewhere other than our mouths??? HOW CAN YOU?!

Iron Chef Shellie said...

WOW!! you did it! I'm so impressed!!
I wish I could taste it..mmmm

OohLookBel said...

Ah, the wonders of televsion editing (and a blast freezer). You deserve a massive pat on the back from Gary and George for creating such an impressive dessert. It's gorgeous!

Anita said...

I'm so glad you made it to! My family was super impressed with the dessert. Saying it was one of their favourites. I must say I really enjoyed the flavour combo I used, and will be making it again. Great work using the small bowls, I'm asking for a silicone tray for my bday.

Adrian @ Food Rehab said...

"less diabetic inducing elements" LMAO!!!!

Great effrt, I think it looks great! I'd devour it in a second.

Anonymous said...

Wow, fantastic effort. Thanks for sharing. We have some friends who have challenged me to make this and I'm currently doing my research on it...it looks like a LOT of work but your final result really does make it look worthwhile.

Unknown said...

Hello there! This post could not be written any better! Looking through this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He continually kept preaching about this. I'll send this information to him. Pretty sure he will have a great read. Thanks
for sharing! Feel free to visit my blog post:
gourmet bbq cateringmelbourne