Sous Vide Apple and Elderflower Fool | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide Apple and Elderflower Fool, Sorrel Granita and Crumble Biscuit

COOK TIME: 2
PREP TIME: 2 Hours
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
SERVES: 10

Ingredients

Sorrel granita

100g of sorrel
100g of stock syrup
lime juice
salt

Poached apples

2 apples
100ml of apple juice
1 pinch of citric acid
10g of sugar

Apple purée

500g of apple, core removed, skin left on
150g of sugar
1 lemon, juiced

Elderflower mousse

5 egg yolks
100g of sugar
250g of elderflower cordial
3½ gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water
750g of double cream

Apple foam

425ml of milk
140ml of double cream
6 egg yolks
115g of sugar
1 vanilla pod, scraped
300g of whipping cream
10g of citric acid
1½ gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water

Crumble biscuit

100g of honeycomb
320g of plain flour
200g of butter
200g of caster sugar

Apple syrup

500ml of apple juice
125ml of elderflower cordial

To serve

Micro cress – to serve – see recipe
½ apple, julienned – to serve

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Method

Recipe courtesy of Nigel Haworth from www.greatbritishchefs.com

METHOD

To make the sorrel granita, place the stock syrup and the sorrel in a blender and pulse until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve, then pour into a shallow container and season to taste with salt and fresh lime juice. Transfer to the freezer and leave to set. When the mixture has frozen, mash it with a fork until crumbly, then store in the freezer until needed.
Preheat the water bath to a temperature of 70⁰C.
Next, prepare the poached apples. Taking the apples one at a time, remove the skin, then scoop the flesh with a melon baller to create small apple balls. Seal the balls in a vacuum bag with the apple juice, sugar and citric acid, then place in the water bath and sous vide for 15 minutes. Once cooked, transfer the bag to the fridge and leave to chill.
Preheat the water bath to a temperature of 85⁰C.
To make the apple purée, cut the apples into thin slices and seal inside a large vacuum bag with the lemon juice and sugar. Place the bag in the water bath and leave to cook for 35-40 minutes. When the apples are completely soft, take the bag out of the water, empty it into a blender and purée, then transfer to a bowl, place over ice and leave to cool. Store the cold purée in the fridge until needed.
To prepare the elderflower mousse, whisk the double cream until it forms soft peaks, then place in the fridge until needed.
Using a whisk, mix together the sugar, the egg yolks and 50g of the elderflower cordial in a bowl over a bain marie. When the mixture thickens, add the remaining cordial and the soaked gelatine. Keep whisking until the gelatine dissolves, then set aside until cooled to room temperature.
Stir the whipped cream into the mixture using a gentle folding action, then spoon the mousse into a siphon container. Screw on the siphon lid, add 2 charges of gas and chill until needed.
Next, prepare the anglaise for the apple foam. Begin by heating the milk, cream and vanilla together in large saucepan. At the same time, combine the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl and beat with a whisk until smooth.
When the milk mixture reaches the boil, whisk half into the eggs. Once combined, tip the egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk and cream and stir to combine. Heat the anglaise gently until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, then strain through a fine sieve.
While the anglaise is still warm, measure out 600g into a bowl and stir in the gelatine. When the gelatine has dissolved, set aside to cool.
Gently mix the whipping cream and 450g of the apple purée into the cool anglaise, then stir through the citric acid. Pour into a siphon and charge with 2 gas canisters.
Preheat the oven to a temperature of 180⁰C.
For the crumble biscuit, place the butter and flour in a large bowl and work between your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar. Spread the crumble out on a baking tray and place in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes until golden brown, then set aside. Once cool, smash the crumble into small pieces.
Line a metal tray with a silpat mat. Whizz the honeycomb in a food processor to create a fine powder, then transfer to a sieve. Shake the sieve over the tray until the base is covered in a thin layer of honeycomb powder, then bake the tray in the oven for 2 minutes to melt the sugar. Scatter the crumble evenly over the molten sugar and bake for another 4 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then snap into jagged pieces.
For the syrup, combine the apple juice and the elderflower cordial in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer until reduced to a light syrup consistency.
To serve, place a few spoonfuls of apple purée and 2 apple balls in the bottom of each glass. Add a squirt of elderflower mousse from the siphon, then spoon some more purée and a few more apple balls on top. Pour over the apple foam, sprinkle with sorrel granita and top with a few pieces of honeycomb biscuit. Finish the dessert with a garnish of juilienned apple and micro cress and serve.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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