New Zealand Natural Dessert Workshop: Baking Up An Icy Storm

I had this invite from New Zealand Natural Ice Cream, something that is very hard to say no to since we're already a big fan. Can't help it especially you have a 9 year old kid who loves ice cream and guess who influence him!



The previous invite was by courtesy of The Cooking House which has recently acquired the next door lot and turned that into proper hands-on cooking stations. A major reno underwent which sees a bigger reception area. The industrial kitchen was demolished and turned into an office. The previous demo area became a dining room cum demo area. The new section has rows of spanking cooking stations with the demo island up front. The Bosch ovens, sexy red mixers and equipments made my mouth waters!



After a brief intro, we crowd around the demo island to watch Chef Merkaine demonstrating the first dessert - Chocolate Delirious Cupcake with Stuffed Ice Cream. A very easy peasy cupcake indeed when cup cakes were already pre-baked for us. We just need to remove a hole from the cupcake and roll the ice cream, White Chocolate Raspberry is used here, into melted chocolate to fill up the cut-out hole. Then decorate with non-dairy whipping cream and chocolate ganache. To ensure the ice cream remained firm, you'll have to shape the slightly soften ice cream into small rounds using a melon baller and then freeze them up for up to a day so that it's easier to work with this way.

Chocolate Delirious Cupcake with Stuffed Ice Cream

Ingredients:

Cupcake:
Sponge cake mix
300g chocolate coating (melted)

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup whipping cream
250g chocolate coverture
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Prepare ganache by heating cream over pan and then pour over chocolate coverture.
2. Whisk till all chocolate have melted and smooth
3. Cool and use once texture is pliable.
4. Scoop ice cream into balls and freeze.
5. Use a knife and remove the middle part of the cupcake.
6. Dip ice cream balls into chocolate coating then freeze.
7. Once hard enough, place coated ice cream into cupcake and pipe ganache over.
8. Decorate as pleased.

Next, we were shown how to turn sponge fingers, espresso coffee, diary whipped cream and Cookies & Cream ice cream into an ice cream stack ala tiramisu. Another simple dessert that even a kid can assemble! This is the non-alcoholic version but feel free to add coffee liqueur into the espresso. Cut the sponge fingers to fit into the size of your glass container. Dip them into espresso coffee briefly as you do not want a soggy sponge, just nicely soaked. Place into a glass. Next, spoon in the ice cream. Repeat with the sponge and ice cream layer. Lastly, spread in a layer of whipped cream and dust with cocoa powder. Voila, a Tiramisu Ice Cream Stack!

Tiramisu Ice Cream Stack 

Ingredients:

1 pkt of sponge fingers
2 cups of Espresso coffee
2 cups of whipped cream
Cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

1. Pipe whipped cream on the base of the cup.
2. Then place a piece of sponge finger soaked in espresso on top.
3. Then top with Cookies & Cream ice-cream.
4. Repeat and lastly top with whipped cream.
5. Dust with cocoa powder and serve!

Chef Merkaine demonstrated how to literally whip up a Chilled White Chocolate Mousse. She uses pasteurised egg white for this recipe since the mousse is served raw. The texture of the egg white is very thick and stringy. She explained that it takes longer to whisk up the pasteurised egg as compared to normal eggs. So long that she had gotten a celebrity baker to do the task. I really loved the Chocolate Ecstasy ice cream used here, as if chocolate ice cream is not enough to blow your mind but the thick chocolate fudge ribbons did the trick here, no wonder it's named Chocolate Ecstasy!

Chilled White Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

White Chocolate Mousse:
180g white chocolate, broken into small pieces
250ml cream
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract

Almond Brittle:
250g whole almond with skin (roasted)
450g white sugar

White Chocolate Mousse method:

1. Double boil the white chocolate till melted and smooth.
2. Set aside to coo before using.
3. In a mixing bowl, beat cream till stiff and then whish egg white till resemble a meringue.
4. Fold in the cream and egg white together with vanilla extract and white chocolate cream.
5. Pipe white chocolate mousse onto a cup, then scoop chocolate ice cream and finally top with almond brittle.

Almond Brittle Method:
1. Melt sugar in a small pot till the color resembles a caramel tint.
2. Pour onto the almond placed on a parchment paper.
3. Let it cool and break to use.

I had a great time at The Cooking House making such yummy icy treats. Just remember that every 30th of the month, New Zealand Natural offers 30% discount on their Take Home Packs on their "30% on the 30th" promotion at all their outlets at IPC Shopping Centre, Suria KLCC, KL Convention Centre, Centro Klang, Sunway Pyramid, The Waterfront Desa Park City, Queensbay Mall (Penang) and Sunway Carnival (Penang).

Thank you to New Zealand Natural by way of Salina & Associates for the invite and The Cooking House for hosting the class.