The sweetest truffle deserts in Sydney
Truffles may be associated with savoury meals, but the prized ingredient is just at home in decadent desserts.
Sydney Taste
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Pair truffles with scrambled eggs or mashed potato and you have a marriage made in food heaven but the precious fungus is now enjoying a fling at the end of the meal.
Truffles release their heady aroma in starch and fat, hence their compatibility with the carbohydrates and dairy found in their traditional pairings. But chefs are getting creative and applying the same principles to desserts
Jacqui Ektoros, chef at Three Williams cafe in Redfern, compares her new dessert of macadamia cookie with truffled mandarin creme patisserie, fresh mandarin, gold dust feulletine, dark chocolate crisp pearls and shaved truffle to hot chips and ice cream.
“The sweet and the savoury work so well because they bounce off each other,” she says.
It took Ektoros a few attempts to nail her creation.
“I had no intention of using mandarin, but it needed something to cut through that richness of the cream and woodiness of the truffle. It was doing my head in. I had a mandarin on my bench as a snack, looked at it and went ‘ca-ching!’,” she says.
Truffles are versatile but they don’t work well with everything.
“I wouldn’t serve it with a caramel sauce, it’s going to overtake the truffle flavour because there’s too much sugar and it can be bitter,” Ekteros says.
Whether the dish is sweet or savoury, the right amount of truffle is also important.
“I use five grams of truffle per portion, which is a generous amount,” Ektoros says. “What’s the point of having a truffle dish and not having enough of it? I really believe if you
are going to indulge in truffles, you want to taste it.”
Creating a stand-alone dish is one thing, concocting a truffle dessert that can hold its own as the final course of a truffle degustation is a bigger challenge.
Elliott Roussel, pastry sons chef at the InterContinental’s 117 Dining, says its dessert of black truffle ice cream, quince, dark chocolate, vanilla foam and caramel cremeux has to complement the preceding four courses.
“When you’ve had truffle for the whole meal, you want to end on something very fine,” he says.
“You want to taste the truffle but not too much, the balance has
to be perfect.”
The key is relegating the truffle to supporting act.
“When you have something very powerful like truffle, you don’t want
to put it in first place or it’s going to be very intense,” says Roussel, who likes teaming it with chocolate, cardamom, vanilla and quince.
TRUFFLE DESERTS YOU HAVE TO TRY
Botanic Gardens Restaurant, Botanic Gardens
Warm apple galette, black truffle ice cream, bitter orange and walnut as part of a truffle dinner on July 26.
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