Coconut and osmanthus flower jelly is a popular Asian dessert and this is my take of it. Instead of having the osmanthus as a jelly, I turned the syrup into a liquid sphere that would burst and release the sweet nectar on the break of the thin skin. It was mesmerising watching the flowers moving about inside the spheres like a snow globe. I had lots of fun doing this, hopefully you would too.
Difficulty: High
Time: 1 hour
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Coconut Jelly
- 3/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp agar agar powder
Osmanthus Flower Spheres
- 1/6 cup osmanthus syrup
- 1/6 cup water
- 2.4g calcium lactate
Sodium Alginate Bath
- 2 cups of water
- 2g sodium alginate
Garnish
- dry osmanthus flower
Method
1. Mix the osmanthus flower syrup with the water. Mix the calcium lactate with a bit of hot water until fully dissolved, add it to the osmanthus flower syrup mixture and mix well. Pour it into small silicon sphere mould and put it in the freezer to freeze.
2. Mix the coconut milk with sugar to taste and gelatine power in a small pot, bring to boil over stove top and take it off the heat as soon as it boils. Pour it inside rectangular silicon moulds and let it cool over room temperature, then keep it in the fridge once fully cooled.
3. Make the sodium alginate bath by adding the sodium alginate to 2 cups of water. Use a stick blender to blend it well together, leave it rest for at least 15 minutes until all the bubbles are gone.
4. Once the osmanthus spheres are frozen, take it out of the mould and carefully drop it into the sodium alginate bath, let it sit for at least 3 minutes for the membrane to form. Careful not to let the spheres touch each other. Use a slotted spoon to scoop it out once the membrane is formed and drop it in a bowl of cold water.
5. Take the coconut jelly out of the mould, place it on a plate, and assemble by putting the formed osmanthus spheres on top of the coconut jelly. Decorate the plate by sprinkling additional dried osmanthus flower on the plate. Enjoy!