Sometimes things seem to work better on paper. The idea was simple. Take a favourite chocolate bar and recreate it jelly style. I decided on Cherry Ripe, a big favourite from Australia.
Getting the cherries set in jelly was easy. I decided to keep the coconut component in a praline form on the side to keep its crunch. The hard part was setting it in chocolate. I had experimented it with the other jellies and it worked fine but when it came to the final one, it was not meant to be I love working with Valrhona (that is all the fridge ever has) hence it was a bit too bitter for the sweet cherry jelly. Not only that my glaze was a little lumpy. In conclusion, we decided the cherry jelly was best just eaten with the coconut praline since the chocolate glaze was just too bitter to match it.
Oh well, back to the drawing board. Incidentally, I just tested tomorrow's post and darn it all it works!!
Cherry Ripe (Cherry Jelly, Coconut Praline and Chocolate)
440g can of dark cherries, drained and water reserved
300ml water
2 1/2 tablespoons gelatine powder
coconut praline
5 tablespoons dessicated coconut, toasted till golden brown
50g caster sugar
chocolate glaze
100g Valrhona dark chocolate
2 1/2 tablespoons water
1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
3 tablespoons butter
To prepare cherry jelly: Mix the reserved cherry juices and water together. Place the gelatine powder with a little water to bloom. Bring to boil cherry juices and add gelatine powder; stirring to mix it together. Pour in mould. Add reserved cherries. Refrigerate until it sets.
To prepare praline: Melt sugar till it forms a caramel. Pour over a piece of foil slightly buttered. Sprinkle toasted coconut. Leave to set. Break praline into pieces and whizz in blender to make into crumbs. Set aside.
To prepare glaze: Melt all ingredients in a bain marie. Keep warm or else the glaze would set.
To assemble: Unmould jelly onto plate. Sprinkle coconut praline crumbs all over it. Pour over the chocolate glaze. Leave to set. Serve immediately.
Reminder: Support the cause by buying a Royal Selangor Nick Munro pewter mould as all proceeds go to breast cancer welfare association. Also, do remember to submit your suggestions to booliciouskl@gmail.com or leave a comment for the mould to win the Olympus camera VG-110. For more pictures, see the Flickr set for all the whole Royal Selangor Jellyriffic challenge. To view, all the jellies, see this link to the Royal Selangor website.
