Deconstructed Strawberries & Cream

To deconstruct a dessert is to take something we know well and rip the components apart to make something that is visually creative and different, but sill contains the same key flavoring components. Dessert deconstruction is a common trend among pastry chefs everywhere.

Go to any fine dining establishment and you'll find all sorts of desserts with names like "coffee and doughnuts" or "S'mores". Order these desserts and what you'll receive will not be what you'd expect, but rather creative interpretations of the individual flavor components.  In Chicago, Mindy Segal, owner of Mindy's Hot Chocolate, is known for her deconstructed desserts. I was quite impressed with a 'carrot cake' deconstruction she did for the Food Network. It consisted of the following:

• carrot cake and cheesecake
• walnut bar with coconut sorbet
• sorghum syrup butterscotch
• toasted quinoa
• micro-cilantro

Our first day of class we were tasked with deconstructing the familiar dessert, Strawberries and Cream.  The plated dessert consisted of the following:

• Almond cake: Three pieces sliced in 1/4 inch triangles
• Marsala reduction: Streaked across the plate 
• Fresh strawberries: Thinly sliced to sit behind the cake and diced to hold the ice milk
• Ice milk: Small quenelle that sits on top the diced strawberries
• Strawberry foam: Large dollop or  small dots to act as a garnish on the plate
• Chopped pistachios: peeled and loosely chopped to be plated opposite the foam 

Production:
Toasted Almond Cake
Ingredients:  4 3/8 oz sliced almonds; 11oz almond paste; 1 3/8 oz of granulated sugar; 1/8 oz salt; 10 1/8 oz of eggs; 7/8 oz pastry flour; 7/8 oz potato starch; 3 1/8 oz melted butter.

Process: Toast the almonds. Sift the potato starch and pastry flour and set aside. In a mixer, mix the almond paste, sugar, salt and one-fourth of the eggs (low speed with a paddle) until all ingredients have combined.  Increase the mixing speed and add the rest of the eggs slowly. Decrease the speed and add the flours, butter and almonds. Be careful not to over mix! Pour the batter into a parchment lined half sheet pan and smooth the top. Bake at 325 for about 30 min or until the top starts browning.


Marsala Reduction
Ingredients: 7oz Marsala wine
Process: Reduce the wine on medium- high heat until it reaches syrup consistency. Remember that reductions reduce, meaning with 7 oz of wine, you might end up with 1-2oz of syrup.



Ice Milk
Ingredients: 1lb 1 3/4 oz of whole milk; 7 1/4 oz; 1 5/8 oz dry nonfat milk; 3 1/8 oz sugar; 3/4 oz dextrose; 1 3/8 oz of trimoline; 1/8 oz of ice cream stabilizer.

Process: Mix the stabilizer with a quarter of the sugar and set aside. Heat the milk, cream, dry milk, dextrose, trimoline and remaining sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally to ensure the bottom doesn't scorch.  When the mixture reaches 110 F, whisk in the sugar/stabilizer mixture and heat until 185 F is reached.  Remove from pan and pour in a plastic container and blend with an immersion blender. Cover and cool for 24 hours before pouring in the ice cream maker.

Strawberry Foam
Ingredients: 7 1/4 oz of water; 1 1/2 oz sugar; 1/8 oz lecithin powder; 7 1/4 oz of strawberry puree.

Process: Boil the water, sugar and lecithin powder. Remove from heat, let cool then whisk in the puree. Keep cool until use!

Plating
When plating desserts, the shape, size and color of the plate is very important. The plate I chose was yellow, it had great contrast with the red strawberries. The size of the plate was a bit too large and made the dessert seem smaller than it was, however the shape worked well.

First, brush a stripe of the reduction across the plate. Place three cake triangles at the end of the reduction stripe. Put the sliced strawberries behind the cake and the diced strawberries on the opposite end of the cake.   Dot the foam on one side of the plate and make a row of chopped pistachios on the other. Make a quenelle of ice milk and place it on top of the diced strawberries. It is absolutely critical to scoop the ice-milk last as it melts very, very quickly. If this dessert was being done for service, ideally, we'd make "our friends the servers" wait with the completed plate while the quenelle was being plated on top the strawberries.

Overall the dessert was very good, but it did seem to be on the small side. If ordered this in a restaurant, I might be slightly disappointed with the amount on the plate. However, this would be great for a tasting menu.