How to try MasterChef Australia‘s winning Golden Crackle dessert – and how much it costs

Eager to try the OTT ‘Golden Crackle’ featured in last night’s MasterChef finale? Better start saving those pennies.

Any sweet-toothed MasterChef fan who watched last night’s grand finale would’ve gone to bed with a serious craving for the contestants’ final dessert challenge, chef Peter Gilmore’s newly created ‘Golden Crackle’.

Gilmore told the top three the dessert took three months to develop, apologising in advance for the task they were about to undertake in recreating it.

Inside the golden crackle dessert.

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So how can fans get their hands on the decadent dish? Well, unfortunately, Sydney’s extended lockdown has stymied the launch of the brand new dessert, which will be served at the iconic Bennelong restaurant at the Sydney Opera House.

Bennelong’s menu page currently directs punters to a mailing list, where they can sign up to find out when the Golden Crackle will become available. Yes, this dessert comes with its own wait list, that’s how exclusive it is.

She’s a beauty.

Bennelong’s restaurant directs punters to a Golden Crackle mailing list.

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We can reveal that, when Bennelong reopens, the labour-intensive golden crackle will be on sale for the bargain price of $15 – but there’s a catch.

That $15 is actually paid as an additional supplement if you choose the golden crackle for dessert as part of Bennelong’s $170 three-course a la carte menu. So unless you want to try and make it yourself (good luck), you won’t be able to taste the dish for less than $185 – but you will get to try it as part of a very lush three course meal amid Sydney’s best views, when Bennelong’s up and running again.

So what exactly are you getting for your money? Gilmore revealed last night that the Golden Crackle is filled with rice crispies, which have to be “hand-coated individually in four different chocolates”.

Underneath that are an additional six layers of chocolate cake, mousse, whipped caramel cream, prune jam, salted caramel and dark chocolate ganache inside it. All need to be made in separate recipes and then layered together.

Layer upon layer of gooey goodness.

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As for the golden dome, it’s made from a potato starch sheet and gold leaf.

MasterChef’s top three contestants described the dessert as “terrifying”, but all had a pretty good stab at recreating it, with winner Justin earning a perfect score of tens across the board for his efforts.

And we can report that there’s some good news for runner-up Pete: He may have missed out on the MasterChef title, but Ten tells us he’s just scored a job with Peter Gilmore at his other iconic Sydney restaurant, Quay. He’ll be heading into the kitchen as soon as Sydney’s lockdown is over.

Originally published as How to try MasterChef Australia‘s winning Golden Crackle dessert – and how much it costs