Chocolate liégeois
SERVES 8 // PREP TIME 10 MINS // COOK 20 MINS (PLUS FREEZING, CHILLING)
“The truth is I can fall in love with a word, even a letter,” says
Wise. “There was a time I was obsessed with Pedro Ximénez
because I liked having an X on the menu. Liégeois, the key
parts of which are coffee and cream, falls into that same
category, but it also helps that it’s completely delicious.”
200 gm Amarena cherries
(see note), to serve
300 ml pouring cream, whipped,
to serve
COFFEE GRANITA
400 ml filter-strength coffee
400 ml unfiltered apple juice
CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
250 ml (1 cup) milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
55 gm (1⁄4 cup) caster sugar
25 gm plain flour, sifted
180 gm couverture dark
chocolate (65%-70% cocoa
solids), finely chopped
250 ml (1 cup) pouring cream
1 For coffee granita, combine
coffee and apple juice in
a shallow metal tray and
freeze, stirring and scraping
occasionally with a fork, until
ice crystals form and granita
is frozen and fluffy like snow
(3 hours, or overnight; in this
case the apple juice isn’t really
used for its flavour, it’s more
that its sweetness and high
solids make a mean granita).
2 For chocolate mousse, bring
milk and vanilla to just below
the boil in a saucepan then
remove from heat. Whiskegg and sugar in a heatproof
bowluntil pale and creamy,
then fold in flour. Pour a third
of the hot milk into the egg
mixture and whisk to combine,
then pour into saucepan with
remaining milk. Bring to the
boil, stirring until thick, then
remove from heat and stir
in chocolate to melt. Pour
into a bowl and cool to room
temperature (10 minutes).
Whisk cream to soft peaks and
fold into chocolate mixture,
then refrigerate for at least
1 hour to chill and set (moussecan be made up to 2 days
in advance).
3 Spoon mousse into a piping
bag fitted with a 2cm star
nozzle and pipe into 8 chilled
parfait glasses, then layer with
2-3 spoons of granita and a few
cherries including their syrup.
Repeat the layers, pipe whipped
cream over the top and top with
extra cherries and some granita
to serve.
NoteAmarena cherries
are available from select
delicatessens such as
The Essential Ingredient.●