Tellicherry pepper & hazelnut praline

Ingredients: Tellicherry pepper & hazelnut praline

  • Q.S.
    Tellicherry pepper corns
  • Q.S.
    sugar
  • Q.S.
    Chopped caramelised hazelnuts

Preparation: Tellicherry pepper & hazelnut praline

  1. Toast the peppers briefly in a hot pan to release the aromas – then keep aside.
  2. Caramelise the sugar.
  3. Pour the caramel over the pepper corns and leave to set.
  4. Break the pepper caramel into pieces and add into a blender.
  5. Add caramelised hazelnuts.
  6. Grind into a praline paste.

Pepper cake

Ingredients: Pepper cake

  • 69 g
    butter
  • 92,5 g
    flour
  • 23 g
    almond flour
  • 3,5 g
    baking soda
  • 30 g
    cocoa powder
  • 2,25 g
    salt
  • 50 g
    eggs
  • 69 g
    brown sugar
  • 55 g
    caster sugar
  • 69 g
    mascarpone
  • 55 g
    milk
  • 55 g
    espresso coffee
  • 46 g
    Tallicherry pepper & hazelnut praline
  • 23 g
    811‐E4

Preparation: Pepper cake

  1. Add the eggs and the sugars in a bowl and mix using a whisk until pale.
  2. Combine mascarpone and dark chocolate into a smooth paste-like consistency and mix into the eggs and sugar mixture.
  3. Add in the Tellicherry pepper & hazelnut praline and mix until combined.
  4. Add the dry ingredients (flour, almond flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt) into the egg mixture, alternating with the milk.
  5. Add in the warm espresso followed by melted butter.
  6. Pipe 275 g of batter into a cake mould (CAKE-MK by Silikomart).
  7. Bake the sponge batter at 165°C for around 20 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.
  8. Leave to cool.

Pepper Crémeux

Ingredients: Pepper Crémeux

Preparation: Pepper Crémeux

  1. Hydrate gelatine in cold water.
  2. Infuse heavy cream with toasted, crushed black pepper, and strain and rescale to get 115 g of heavy cream.
  3. Combine heavy cream, milk and caster sugar #1 in a heavy bottom pan and bring to a simmer.
  4. Combine egg yolks and caster sugar #2 and temper this using the milk mix.
  5. Put it back on the heat and cook until the mix reaches 82℃.
  6. Take it off the heat and add in the bloomed gelatine and mix until it dissolves.
  7. Pour it over semi melted chocolate and emulsify.
  8. Pipe the crémeux into the cavity of the cake and freeze.
  9. Pour the remaining crémeux into a squeeze bottle with 1 - 2 mm opening and carefully pipe drops into a bowl with liquid nitrogen.
  10. Collect using a strainer or a perforated ladle and reserve the tiny crémeux pearls in the freezer.

Dark namelaka

Ingredients: Dark namelaka

Preparation: Dark namelaka

  1. Hydrate gelatin in ice cold water, set aside for 10 minutes.
  2. Heat milk, turn off the heat and add bloomed gelatin.
  3. Pour this over melted dark chocolate and add in cold heavy cream and emulsify.
  4. Surface wrap this mix and store in the chiller for at least 6 - 8 hours before use.

Dark chocolate glaze

Ingredients: Dark chocolate glaze

Preparation: Dark chocolate glaze

  1. Melt dark chocolate and mix in with melted cocoa butter.
  2. Add in the hazelnut paste and mix.
  3. Use at 33-35℃.

Assembly

  1. De-mould the cake once frozen.
  2. Whip up the dark namelaka using the whisk attachment and transfer into a piping bag with a big round nozzle.
  3. Pipe some namelaka onto the pepper crémeux layer on the cake and smoothen and level the namelaka using a palette knife.
  4. Throw on the crémeux pearls and cover the entire top with the pearls and let freeze.
  5. Melt the dark chocolate coating to 33℃-35℃ and set aside.
  6. Dip the cake in the coating using a paring knife or skewers just until the sides are covered.
  7. Clean the bottom by scraping off excess glaze and place the cake on a platter.
  8. Grind some pepper onto your cake and place a chocolate garnish in the centre to finish.