Raspberry Chocolate Slices

I adopted the recipe from the French chef Philippe Bertrand. The end results are far from perfect. First of all the bottom layer was supposed to be coconut dacquoise, but my dacquoise was too dry. I ditched it and whipped up a quick sponge cake instead. Secondly the chocolate slices were too thin so the chocolate flavor was lost compared to the prominent raspberry flavor.

I have to mark down my biggest achievement here – my first tempered chocolate wasn’t a total failure. Although I didn’t get the thickness of the chocolate slices right, I managed to tempered it correctly so it was glossy and crispy. Honestly tempering chocolate was a long process, I either made it too hot or too cold so I had to start all over again for a few times. I felt a sense of relief when I finally got the temperature right.

These slices had a perfect flavor and texture profile – sweet and creamy from the white chocolate ganache, tart and soft from the raspberry jelly, bitter and crunchy from the dark chocolate. It was very enjoyable to eat them. One day will make these again and also try to perfect them!

Raspberry Jelly

• 220g raspberry puree
• 14g lemon juice
• 33g caster sugar
• 6g gelatin powder
• 30g water

1. Bloom the gelatin in the water.
2. Mix the raspberry puree, the lemon juice and the sugar in a sauce pan and heat up until it is boiled. Turn off the heat and add the bloomed gelatin, stir until it is completely dissolved.
3. Let it cool down to 30C . Pour the mixture into the 15x15cm square mousse ring (put a silicon mat or a baking sheet underneath), let i firm up.

White Chocolate Ganache

• 200g cream, divide into 2 parts, 100g each
• 2g gelatin powder
• 10g water
• 45g white chocolate

1. Bloom the gelatin in the water.
2. Heat up 100g cream in a sauce pan, add the bloomed gelatin and stir until it is completely dissolved.
3. Put the white chocolate in a bowl. Pour the mixture in the bowl, stir until the white chocolate is dissolved.
4. Add the remaining cream. Refrigerate until the mixture cools down to 4-5C.
5. Whisk the mixture until it is fluffy.