Recipe: Carrot Spice Tower

Carrot Spice Tower
Serves 12

Spice Cake
3 g Salt
125 g Bread flour
125 g Cake flour
8 g Ground ginger
3 g Freshly ground cinnamon
2 g Freshly ground cloves
1 g Freshly grated nutmeg
440 g Eggs
250 g Dark muscovado or dark brown sugar

Line half sheet and preheat oven to 320º/160º. Sift the flours and spices together. In mixer, whip eggs and sugar until ribbon stage. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the sugar/egg mixture. Pour into pan and bake about 15 minutes. Once cooled, freeze. *Note: For soaked cakes I prefer to use a cake that does not have a fat included as it tends to soak better and have a better texture.

Lemon Curd
500 ml Lemon juice
225 g Butter
6 Yolks
6 Eggs
150 g Sugar< 2 Sheets gelatin (silver) Combine juice and butter in saucepan and heat until simmer. In mixing bowl, combine yolks, eggs and sugar and whisk until just combined. Temper egg mixture with hot juice and return all to stove cooking until thickened. Remove from heat and add softened gelatin and strain. Pour onto lined sheet pan and freeze.

Carrot Mousse
4 Carrots
30 ml Lemon juice
30 g Sugar
4 Sheets gelatin (silver)
30 ml Rum or Brandy
350 ml Cream

Cook carrots with lemon juice in covered saucepan until soft. Add the sugar and cook uncovered for an additional 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Soften the gelatin and clarify. Add gelatin and liquor to the carrots and process til smooth. Strain and hold. Whip cream to soft. Fold carrot mixture gently into cream mixture and hold in piping bag.

Caramel Glaze
8 g Salt
40 g Water
30 g Corn starch
495 g Sugar
125 g Water
415 g Cream
4 Sheets gelatin (silver)

In mixing bowl combine salt, 40 g water and cornstarch. In saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and 125 g water. Cook to caramel (about 338º/170º). Heat cream and add carefully to the caramel, whisking. Add the salt/corn starch slurry to the pan and cook until thickened. Remove from heat and add softened gelatin. Cool to room temp.


Candied Nuts
150 g Unsalted walnut pieces, lightly toasted
100 g Sugar
45 ml Water
Pinch, salt
Pinch cinnamon

In saucepan combine nuts, sugar and water. Heat until the sugar liquefies then begin stirring. Continue stirring as the nuts crystallize and continue until the sugar re-melts, coating the nuts. Once completely melted and all nuts are evenly covered, remove from heat, stir in salt and cinnamon and turn out onto silpat to cool.

Assembly
Pipe carrot mousse into pastry form. Cut curd and cake to size. Press in frozen curd disc. Press in frozen cake disc. Soak cake with lemon simple syrup. Smooth form and freeze. Once frozen, pour caramel glaze over mousse. Garnish with candied nuts.

[Note: Thank you to Carla for recipe testing at sea level for me.]