While the holiday season is packed with our favourite traditions and celebratory feasts…there is always room for creativity and trying something new to impress your guests (and enjoy yourself), knowing you are embracing nutritional goodness along the way.
Join Gaia’s Head Chef Dan to create this deliciously mouth-watering dessert, Milk & Honey, which not only tastes incredible but looks absolutely stunning…becoming a decoration piece itself on the Christmas table.
From the Chef…
Raw local honey is my favourite and preferred type of sweetener to use in desserts and savoury cooking. I like that it is a 100% natural product with amazing health benefits and a myriad of uses. We are lucky at Gaia to have started our own Bee program with hives thriving on the northern edge of the grounds, so we have access to amazing honey.
In this dessert, I have used it exclusively as the only sweetener. It is combined with organic full-cream milk for a classic pairing. Buckwheat, banana, and chamomile are also used for supporting flavours to give complexity and seasoning.
MILK & HONEY ~ Serves 6
Milk Honey Ice Cream
– 350ml full cream organic milk
– 150 ml crème fraiche
– 1 vanilla bean, split seeds scraped
– 150 ml raw local honey
•Warm all ingredients together in a small saucepan.
• Stand to infuse for 30 minutes.
• Freeze in a paco beaker or chill and churn in an ice-cream machine and freeze.
Honey Tuille
– 35g butter
– 35g honey
– 35g (1ea.) egg white
– 35g buckwheat flour
– Small pinch of each xanthan gum and salt
• Warm butter and honey in a small saucepan, remove from heat.
• Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
• Lightly oil a silicon mould of choice.
•Using a step spatula, spread batter into a thin layer into mould scraping off excess.
• Bake in a preheated 155c fan-forced oven for 6 minutes.
• Let cool for 1 minute and carefully remove tuilles from mould. Store in an airtight container.
Honey Milk Poached Banana and Gel
– 350ml organic full cream milk
– 1 vanilla bean split and seeds scraped
– 100g raw local honey
– 2 bananas sliced into 1 cm rounds
• Warm all ingredients over low heat for 25 minutes.
• Stand to infuse for 25 minutes.
• In a clean small saucepan, mix 1 heaped teaspoon agar-agar with 2 teaspoon water to make a paste.
• Strain banana milk mixture into agar paste. Reserve bananas separately.
• Mix milk and agar mixture, stirring with a silicone spatula over medium/high heat to 90c for 5 minutes.
• Transfer milk to a container and Cool till in fridge uncovered till set.
• Once milk is set roughly chop and blitz in a blender on high speed till smooth. Transfer gel to a squeeze bottle.
Milk Crumb
– 125g organic full cream milk powder
– 175g buckwheat flour
– 50g raw local honey
– 50g ghee or butter
– Large pinch salt
• Melt honey and ghee over low heat.
• Combine with remaining ingredients in a baking tray and stir well.
• Bake in a preheated 160c fan-forced oven for 16 minutes, stirring 3 times during cooking.
• Cool crumb and store in an airtight container.
Honey toffee
– 100g honeycomb
– 100g caramelised milk solids leftover from making ghee
• Blend with a pinch of salt on high till smooth.
• Transfer to a container and refrigerate till using.
Puffed buckwheat
– 50g puffed buckwheat
– 10g butter
– 10g honey
• Melt butter and honey over low heat.
• Combine with puffed buckwheat and a pinch of salt and gently rub with hands till buckwheat coated with honey mixture.
• Bake in a 135c fan forced oven for 40 minutes or till crisp.
• Cool and store in an airtight container.
Milk crisp
– 250ml organic full cream milk
– 1 vanilla bean split, and seeds scraped
– 50ml raw local honey
– Small pinch xanthan gum
• Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and warm to 90c. remove vanilla bean.
• Using a stick blender froth milk mixture. Using a large spoon, skim froth off the top and place dollops on a lined flat tray.
• Bake in a preheated 100c oven for 2-3 hours or till crisp.
• Alternatively, dehydrate overnight at 60c.
Chamomile Dust and Oil, Elderflowers
(optional to season and garnish dish)
•To plate dish, place a spoonful of milk crumb on the plate.
• Spoon a few dots of toffee around the plate.
• Dot with rounds of poached banana and gel.
• Scatter with puffed buckwheat and milk crisps.
• Process ice cream and place a quenelle on crumb.
• Top with a tuille.
• Dust with chamomile and a few drops of chamomile oil.
• Scatter with elderflowers, then serve.
…and enjoy the sweetness of your creation!
To explore our culinary Focus Add-On programs and spend one-on-one time with Gaia’s Head Chefs, click here.