Thai Tea Parfait with Thai Tea Crunch and Lemon Mascarpone

Oh, managed to squeeze in for Aspiring Baker’s #23, Desserts on a Plate.

Something different this time. Actually, none of these items on the plate, are baked. They’re cooked, brewed, chilled and frozen. I usually tend to have something baked on a plate, but Christina Tosi from Momofuku Milk Bar is undoubtedly a genius in her world; pairing parfait, mascarpone and a crunch! textures, textures, textures!

And because we share the same love for Thai tea, I decided that, I had to make this dish. I have this immense love for Thai black tea, the aroma to be exact. It’s very perfumy,in a good way oh please and there’s just something very yummy about it, I cannot explain why. I’ve used matcha (green tea), earl grey and the normal black tea in desserts, but I wasn’t too crazy over them. LOL Maybe downright I wasn’t a tea person.

So, anyway, as I was looking for Thai tea here in Malaysia, it’s almost impossible to find it! I had to ask Pook of dailydelicious if she could send me a packet, in exchange with something from Malaysia? But she was very kind and nice to send me a packet. That was a couple of months ago (in May actually) I had another awesome cake planned for using Thai tea, but I just never got around doing it. Ha Ha ha. Well, I better now!

Plated desserts are like having recipes within a recipe. Some even a recipe within a recipe for another recipe. 😛 Just like the crunch, it’s somewhat similar to a crumble, but non baked. Something simple, with the addition of not so homey ingredient, feuilletine. Talking abt feuilletine, I actually got mine from Stella of BraveTart.. Remember the real condensed milk ?  So, how international can this dish get? LOL Surely, I have to thank both Pook and Stella for them sending yummy goodies from their country.

See the difference between both? the one on the left, is a store bought feuilletine, which I think most of them are.. The one on the right is made by Stella. More caramelized and more crunch. I had to mix both as I made double portion of the thai tea crunch, and I didn’t have enough of Stella’s feuilletine. 🙁

Taking the usual suspects out, this dish is actually very simple to make. Parfait, curd and another mix-in-everything-together crunch. Parfait is somewhat like ice cream, but doesn’t require churning. Usually with a custard mix and whipped cream for the ‘airy’ texture that you get from a churned ice cream; but lesser. This one does have a little icy texture there’s water to brew the Thai Tea. But still yummy non the less. Could have used more for a MORE INTENSE colour 🙂

In Milk Bar cookbook, the parfait was as dark as the picture above, the one before I mixed in together with the cream and (suppose to be sour cream, but I used) greek yogurt. In this parfait, there was gelatin sheet used. Even in the curd, Tosi uses 1 gelatin sheet as well.  For ice cream made in Milk Bar, Tosi mentioned that because it doesn’t contain eggs(for the custard), gelatin is used as a thickening agent and keeps it from melting too quickly when scooping on a sundae, or from freezing too hard once stored in the freezer overnight. In her recipe of Thai tea parfait, sweetened condensed milk and store bought dulce de leche also acts as a binder and to provide dept of flavour. She uses tamarind paste as well, but I don’t use tamarind at home, at all, so I wasn’t all excited to go out and get just 6g of it 😡

I loved the parfait, it could perhaps use a tiny bit more of tea. The thai tea crunch was quite intense as well so the lemon mascarpone worked pretty well to balance them both, otherwise one might be overdosed with Thai black tea 😛 Great refreshing dessert.

Thai Tea Parfait with Thai Tea Crunch and Lemon Mascarpone

 

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There is quite alot of recipes here. Do read all before proceeding.

Author: Adapted from Christina Tosi of Milk Bar

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Thai Tea Parfait

• 100g water
• 10g Thai tea leaves (I had those blended already)
• 1 gelatin sheet (or 3g powdered gelatin bloom in 1 tbsp cold water)
• 75g sweetened condensed milk
• 16g store bought dulce de leche (I used store bought caramel)
• 6g tamarind paste (of which I excluded)
• 1g salt
• 75g whipping cream
• 35g greek yogurt (original recipe uses sour cream)

Lemon Mascarpone

• 1 lemon
• 50g sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ gelatin sheet (or 1.5g powdered gelatin bloomed in ½ tbsp water)
• 58g cold butter, diced
• 1g salt
• 50g mascarpone cheese

Thai Tea Crunch

• 15g silvered almonds
• 55g almond butter (I mixed half almond paste and butter)
• 30g icing sugar
• 2g salt
• 8g Thai black tea leaves
• 0.25g citric acid (I substitute with a squeeze of lime)

Instructions

Thai Tea Parfait

1. Combine water and tea leaves in a blender and blend on high for 10 seconds. Let mixture steep for 30 minutes. Straight liquid through a fine sieve into a small bowl.
2. Bloom gelatin. If using sheet, soak in cold water for a couple of minutes till soft, if using powder, bloom in cold water, then reheat and melt it.
3. Heat tea in a small saucepan until warm. Add bloomed gelatin and stir till gelatin has fully dissolved.
4. Pour into a medium bowl, whisk in condensed milk, dulce de leche, tamarind paste (if using) and salt till fully incorporated.
5. Put bowl in the fridge for about 20 minutes, whisking it every 5 minutes or so. The consistency should be thick, but not set. At the last 2 minute, whip cream till medium peak, add in yogurt (or sour cream if you're using that)
6. Fold the tea mixture and cream together and pour into prepared moulds. Set in the freezer for 3 hours or overnight.

Lemon Mascarpone

1. Make lemon curd. Zest lemon into a bowl. Add in 40g lemon juice, sugar. Whisk till blended. Add in egg and whisk till foamy. You can put in the blender and whizz it.
2. Bloom gelatin (refer tips above)
3. Heat lemon mixture oven bain marie, whisking regularly. It will begin to thicken.
4. Add in bloomed gelatin, butter and salt and blend until mixture is thick, shiny and smooth.
5. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve and put in the fridge until set, about 30 mins.
6. Once set and cold, lightly beat it in a mixing bowl (or a spatula by hand). Add in mascarpone and mix till combined.
7. Becareful on this one as they both can split easily. don't overmix here.

Thai Tea Crunch

1. Heat oven to 170 C. Put silvered almonds on a sheet pan and toaste in the oven for 15 minutes. Cool.
2. Lightly bash the almonds to smaller pieces, but not grounded.
3. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix with a beater on low speed for 1 minute until homogenous.
4. Crunch can be stored in an airtight container at room temp for 5 days or 2 weeks in the fridge.

Assembly

1. Remove parfait from mould and cut to desired size. Put back in the freezer to set.
2. Scoop lemon mascarpon onto the plate, and use the back of a spoon to schmear across the center. Place some Thai tea crunch over the top. Place the parfait and sprinkle a little more crunch at the side and some on top.
3. Decorate with edible flowers (or mint leaves)

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