Maine · Dessert
Needhams
- Intermediate
- 60 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a floral thread lifting the aroma.
Ingredients
- 150g mashed potato, plain, cooled
- 450g icing sugar
- 200g shredded coconut
- 55g butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- 400g dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp coconut oil or paraffin-free shortening
Equipment
Parchment
The skills inside
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder
Allergen screen
Found: dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Beat the mashed potato with the melted butter, vanilla, and salt until smooth.
- Work in the icing sugar a little at a time, then the coconut, until you have a stiff paste.
- Press into a lined 20x20cm pan, smooth the top, and chill until firm, about 2 hours. 120 min
- Cut into small bars and freeze 20 min. 20 min
- Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil, dip each bar, and set on parchment until firm.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder 48 recipes
- It went cold before it was handled any further, and it went in spread flat and covered rather than as a warm mass that insulates its own centre.
- It is cold through rather than cold at the edge: tested at the middle it is as firm as it is at the rim.
- It holds its shape unsupported; it can be cut, portioned, rolled or lifted without slumping, tearing, or sticking to the hands.
- The fat in it has gone solid: it feels firm and waxy to the fingers rather than greasy and yielding.
- It survives the step it was chilled for, going into heat or a coating or a mould still holding its form rather than collapsing the moment it is touched.
Where it goes wrong It was given twenty minutes instead of the hours it needed, so it is firm at the rim and soft at the core: it slumps out of shape as it is portioned, and everything made from it spreads or breaks apart in the pan.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Banyuls or Ruby Port
- Also Right
- PX Sherry
- From the Taps
- Imperial stout
- Zero-Proof
- Espresso
Chocolate wants fortified sweetness or roast-bitter contrast: the wine must out-sweet the plate, or oppose it entirely.
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