smores

With the help of The Smoking Gun, you can now bring the joys of campfires home, in an elegant dessert worthy of a luxury dinner party. Mmm, give me S’more!

INGREDIENTS (4 Servings):

SOIL BASE

  • 1 cup/250 ml finely crushed digestive biscuits
  • 1/4 cup icing sugar
  • 6 tbsp butter, melted

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

  • 170g good quality chocolate
  • 170g butter
  • 1/8 cup instant coffee
  • 1/4 vanilla bean
  • 4 yolks
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/8 cup cognac
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • Pinch of maldon salt
  • 1/3 cup cream

MERINGUE TOPPING

  • 1/4 cup egg whites (about 2 large eggs) at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • Pinch fine salt

EQUIPMENT

  • Cherry Wood Chips and The Smoking Gun

METHOD:

SOIL BASE

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
  2. Place digestive biscuits into a large resealable plastic bag. Finely crush into crumbs using a rolling pin.
  3. Combine biscuit crumbs, icing sugar and butter in small bowl. Lay all the ingredients flat on a baking sheet and bake 4-5 minutes or until edges are bubbling.
  4. After crust has cooled, place it into a mixing bowl and crush with your hands until you have a uniform crumble that has no big chunks in it. Your crumble should resemble the consistency of soil.
  5. In your jar of choice, use half of the ‘soil’ as your base, reserving the other half for later.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

  1. Place a large pot of water on the stove to simmer, put all ingredients in a stainless steel mixing bowl, and place the mixing bowl on the simmering pot of water. Make sure the bowl is not touching the water. The steam from the water will melt all the ingredients.
  2. Emulsify the mixture with a hand blender when fully melted.
  3. Set aside for now.
  4. Place sugar and yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on medium speed with the whisk attachment till the eggs become pale, around 2 minutes.
  5. With the mixer on, slowly drizzle in the cognac and water till the mixture is fully incorporated.
  6. Add to the chocolate mixture and using the above boiler method cook, everything until it thickens—about 8 minutes. Leave to cool.
  7. Ensure egg whites are room temperature. Place them in the bottom of a bowl of a stand mixer.
  8. With the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium speed to form soft peaks. This should take around 3-5 minutes depending on the size of the eggs.
  9. With the mixer on, slowly drizzle vanilla, salt and sugar into the whipped egg whites. Add the sugar ¼ at a time. If you add the sugar too fast it will deflate the egg whites and you will have to start over.
  10. Fold this mixture into the cooled chocolate mixture. Ensure the chocolate mixture is below body temperature
  11. Using a metal bowl and a whisk, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Then fold your whipped cream into the above mixture.
  12. Pour the mousse mixture into your jar over the biscuit soil base, then add the remaining soil on top the mousse layer and refrigerate.

MERINGUE TOPPING

  1. Prepare a bain-marie: (bring a few centimetres of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a mixing bowl above the water)
  2. Whisk together the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl by hand.
  3. Set the bowl above the boiling water and continue whisking until the mixture is hot to the touch (aprox. 57 degrees C) and the sugar dissolves, about 1 to 2 minutes. Make sure the bowl is not touching the water, the steam should be the source of heat.
  4. Transfer the bowl’s contents to a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or use an electric beater and free-standing bowl.
  5. Beat at medium-high speed until they hold soft peaks, around 2 minutes. Increase speed to high and continue to beat the egg whites till stiff peaks form, around 3 minutes.
  6. Cool meringue, about 10 minutes.
  7. Then transfer this mixture to a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe it on to the 2nd biscuit layer of your S’mores mousse which is setting in the fridge.
  8. Using a sugar torch, torch the meringue to add a little bit of colour.
  9. Add some cherry smoking chips to your smoking gun, insert the pipe into the mason jar and smoke adding a woodsy accent to the S’mores.

 

CHEF’S TIPS:

The biscuit soil can be made up to two days in advance. The chocolate mousse and meringue can be made the night before serving.

Recipe by: Room Forty