Christmas is almost upon us, so now it is time to think of New Years eve, more specifically, the dessert!
If you need a show-stopper dessert detail, dessert caviar is your best friend. It is easy to make, looks complicated, pretty, versatile and you don’t need any fancy, expensive equipment.
These dessert caviars are inspired by the brilliant Heather of Sprinkle Bakes, but I have converted the recipe to metrics. To be completely honest, you should probably just click on the link and read her post and watch her video, because it is much prettier than mine. But come back here for the metrics ;)
To make the caviar you need to make a caviar liquid (a strongly flavoured liquid stabilized with gelatine) which is dropped into very cold oil with a pipette, where the liquid will set in the cold oil, forming a sphere.
You need:
90 ml of strongly flavoured liquid* (see end of post for suggestions)
8 sheets of gelatine (husblas)
rapeseed/canola oil
a plastic pipette
Pour oil into a container, and place in the fridge or freezer until very cold. I like to use two containers, keeping the one I’m not working with in the fridge. By using deep containers, the liquid can set before reaching the bottom, forming an actual sphere, rather than flattening out.
Place the gelatin sheets in a bowl of cold water, leave for 4-5 minutes. Change the water and leave for another 4-5 minutes. Repeat this step once more.
Heat up the liquid, take of the heat and dissolve the gelatin in the warm liquid. Use the pipette to drop the liquid into the cold oil (see the video).
I usually run out of patience before running out of liquid, but keep going until you have as much caviar as you want/need.
When you have covered the bottom of the container with caviar, place the container in the fridge for a couple of minutes (I usually have a second container in the fridge, which I make caviar in while waiting). After a few minutes remove the container from the fridge and scoop the caviar into a sieve. From here you can either rinse the caviar with cold water and use it, or place it in a container and cover it with oil, and keep it for several days in the fridge. Just strain and rinse with cold water before serving.
The caviar can be used as a decoration in/on all kinds of desserts. Try serving them with small blini-size pancakes and whipped cream, for a dessert version of a classic Russian dish, or sprinkled on top of a pudding or ice cream. Or perhaps encasing them in a jelly-dessert. Your imagination sets the limit.
*I have made the caviar with strong sweetened coffee, juice and a mixture of 25 g liquorice syrup and 25 ml water. In general, any strongly flavoured liquid should do the trick.