Grilled Apricot plated dessert with chocolate and yeast mousse by Alexander Fink

Hailing from beautiful Bavaria, as he defines it, Alexander Fink perfectly represents that vocational and inevitable transition from savory to sweet cuisine that many young chefs experience. Fink builds scenes of nature on his plates, with all its freshness and liveliness, playing with an infinity of small elements that make up a beautiful gastronomic landscape. It is what we could see in his article from so good #26 from where this Apricot plated dessert came. The chef introduces himself his creation:

My colleagues in the warm kitchen have inspired me to create the apricot dessert, because they’re currently grilling and experimenting a lot with Binchotan charcoal. The combination of these smoky aromas, apricot and thyme, that I have eaten in a similar fashion in the Arabic area, is very exciting! This led to the mix with the Kalingo coating from Valrhona, that perfectly harmonizes with the apricot, the yeast mousse, the different elements of cornflakes and the herbal dill oil.

Apricot

Apricot gel

750 g apricot juice
75 g sugar
14 g agar agar
salt, vanilla bean, fresh thyme

Bring all ingredients to a boil and cool completely before blending into a smooth gel.

Dill oil

160 g dill
60 g spinach
400 ml vegetable oil

Mix all together in the Thermomix for a few minutes at 60°C. Strain it through a sieve and cool it down directly over ice water.

Cornflakes milk

CORNFLAKES MILK BASE

250 g cornflakes
1000 ml milk

Roast the cornflakes for about 20 minutes at 175ºC until the color turns into a light brown. Add the hot milk and let it sit for 2 hours. Strain it through a sieve.

CORNFLAKES MILK BASE

400 ml cornflakes milk base
400 ml cream
50 g sugar
vanilla bean, salt

Put all together in a vacuum bag and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. Thicken it with about 0.2% xanthan and strain it through a sieve.

Yeast crème

400 g milk
120 g egg yolks
180 g butter
100 g Valrhona Dulcey chocolate
14 g pectin NH nappage
80 g sugar
200 g heavy cream
20 g fresh yeast

Heat the milk, egg yolks, pectin, sugar, heavy cream and yeast in the Thermomix to 85°C. Add the chocolate and finally add the butter at about 35°C.

Apricot leaves

Check out the recipe in so good #26

Kalingo 65% chocolate mousse

Check out the recipe in so good #26

Chocolate spray mixture for the mousse

250 g Valrhona Kalingo 65% chocolate
250 g cocoa butter

Melt everything in a bowl.

Apricot sorbet

Check out the recipe in so good #26

Grilled apricots

Apricots, thyme, honey, lime juice

Grill the apricots over binchotan coal on a Konro grill. Make a nice smokey apricot compote out of them and use it also for the sorbet.

Cornflakes crumble

Check out the recipe in so good #26

Montage

Put a bit of the grilled apricots compote and yeast crème in the middle of the plate. Cover it with the cornflakes crumble. On top, place the sprayed chocolate mousse and the apricot sorbet rose. Decorate with the apricot leaves, some aerated chocolate, the apricot gel and some herbs and flowers. Put some dill oil to the cornflakes milk and serve in front of the guest.