The most popular pairing with açai for smoothies in Brazil is orange juice. It brings that refreshing sweet citrus flavour to the rich almost chocolate like berry smoothie for a marriage made in heaven. This recipe is a fun, adult version of that flavour combination using cointreau in the panna cotta. The panna cotta tart was delicious on it's own but elevated with the smooth icy Sicilian style açai gelato.
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 2 hrs prep and cooking with additional time for resting*
Serves: 2
* 1-2 hrs resting for the pastry, 2+ hrs for the panna cotta to set and about 45min for the gelato.
Ingredients
Pâte Sucrée
- 125g flour
- 50g butter slightly softened
- 50g icing sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- pinch of salt
Cointreau Panna Cotta
- 2 tsp gelatine powder
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup cream
- 2 tbsp cointreau
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
Açai Gelato
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cup cream
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 70g açai puree
- 40g açai powder
- 3 tbsp corn flour
Açai Meringue Shards
- 2 egg whites
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g icing sugar
- 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartare
- 1 tsp açai powder
** You can buy these here from Matcha Leaf Superfoods.
Method
1. Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a large glass bowl. Add the butter and use your fingers to mix and combine it well. Add the egg yolk and a pinch of salt and mix well until it forms a nice dough. Knead it a few times, shape it into a ball, cover with cling film and leave it in the fridge to rest for 1-2 hours.
2. After the dough is rested, heat oven to 180 degrees. Divide the dough into 4 even balls, roll it out to a 2mm thick pastry to line four 10cm mini tart pans and prick it lightly with a fork evenly on the base. Line it up with baking paper before filling the tart shells with ceramic baking beads or rice and blind bake it for 15 minutes. Take out the beads and paper and bake it for a further 5 minutes until golden. Take it out of the oven and tin shell and let it cool down completely.
3. Add 1 cup of milk to a heavy sauce pan and sprinkle the gelatine powder on top and leave it for 10 minutes. Cook the mixture over low heat on stove top until the gelatine powder is fully dissolved but not boiling. Add the sugar and ensure it's fully dissolved.
4. In a separate bowl, add the cointreau to the cold cream, mix well until it's fully combined. Add the milk mixture to the cream, mix well and let it cool to room temperature.
5. Pour enough of the panna cotta mixture into the tart shells ensure the shell is fully lined by the liquid. Put the tart shells into a freezer and freeze for 10 minutes. Take it out of the freezer and top the tart shells with the remaining panna cotta mixture. Leave it in the fridge to set for at last 2+ hrs but preferably overnight.
6. Whisk 1 cup of the cold milk with the corn starch, making sure that there are no remaining lumps. Set aside.
7. Add the remaining remaining milk, cream, sugar, açai powder and açai puree in a sauce pan and mix well. Warm until steaming hot but not boiling on medium heat. Add the corn starch mixture to the sauce pan. While barely reaching a boil, cook and stir for about 4-5 minutes, or until the mixture has begun to thicken and any possible floury taste has disappeared. Let the mixture cool down before adding it to your ice cream machine and churn it until it's ready. Keep it in the freezer.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 90 degrees. Add the caster sugar, icing sugar, egg white, lemon zest, cream of tartare to a stand mixer, whisk everything together until the meringue holds in stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted out of the mixture.
9. Spread the meringue out in a thin layer on a silicone baking mat or a baking tray lined with baking paper. Sprinkle with açai powder for decoration. Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until the meringue is crisp on top but not colouring. Allow to cool completely on the tray then peel off the shapes or snap the sheet into shards. Keep it in an air tight container for plating later.
10. To serve, place the açai gelato on top of the panna cotta tart and decorate with meringue shards.
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