Mum's Mandarin Jelly
My mother Marilyn Roe, always seemed to have a packet of liquorice in the cupboard and a bowl of mandarin jelly in the fridge roughly 365 days of the year! This one’s for you Mum xxx.
Liquorice powder
200g plain soft liquorice
Chocolate liquorice brownie
3oz soft black liquorice sweets
70g dark chocolate pellets
2 eggs
150g brown sugar
60g caster sugar
10oz cocoa powder
50g plain flour
70g butter
Mandarin jelly
6 mandarins, peeled. "Save 6 segments for garnish".
250ml water
50ml gin
3 tablespoons honey
20g powdered gelatine powder
Liquorice meringue
2 eggs, whites only
30g caster sugar
2 teaspoons liquorice powder
Butterscotch mousse
100g dark brown sugar
50g unsalted butter
200 ml whole milk
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1½ tablespoons Cornflour, mixed with 2 tablespoons of whole milk
250ml whipping cream
Liquorice powder
*Note - Start off preparing your liquorice powder as it takes a day to make.
Using a dehydrator, place the liquorice on a tray and dehydrate overnight on the highest setting. Once cooled it should be of a hard texture. Grind in a food processor a little at a time until it resembles a fine powder. If you do not have a dehydrator, place the liquorice onto a small baking tray into the oven at 100°c/210°f for 3 hours. Leave to cool then grind in the spice grinder.
Chocolate liquorice brownie
1. Slowly melt the butter and both sugars together in a medium sized sauce pot. When melted, take the pan off the heat and stir in the chocolate until it’s all melted.
2. Beat in the eggs then stir in the rest of the ingredients until all combined.
3. Place into a large baking tray and fill to roughly ½cm thick, as you need to get the brownie, meringue and mousse all roughly the same thickness overall. Cook in the oven at 175°c/350°f for roughly 13 minutes, set aside and leave to cool.
Mandarin jelly
1. Put the mandarins into a standing blender then blend on high speed for 20 seconds, wipe down the insides then blend again, strain this mixture through a fine sieve.
2. Using a small saucepan on medium heat, add the mandarin juice and honey, bring to a boil then take off the heat, whisk in the gelatine powder thoroughly then pour the mixture onto a tray to get roughly ½cm thick jelly.
Place the jelly into the fridge for at least 5 hours.
3. When set, cut the jelly into rectangular shapes (the same size as the liquorice meringue slab).
Butterscotch mousse
1. Using a medium sized thick bottomed pan, melt the sugar and butter together, stir periodically so it does not burn. When it is melted, stir in the milk, sea salt and vanilla. Bring to the boil then add the cornflour mixture, whisk this thoroughly until it has slightly thickened. Pour this mixture into a container and let cool in the fridge completely.
2. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. When the butterscotch mixture has thoroughly cooled, take out the fridge then fold into the whipped cream.
Liquorice meringue
1. Using an electric mixer, whip the egg whites until they are light and fluffy.
2. Add the sugar then continue to whip until stiff peaks form.
3. Finally whip in 1 tablespoon of the liquorice powder to mix in then arrange the meringue onto a baking tray inside your rectangular moulds (the same shape mould is to be used for all 3 components) I used a 6inch by 1inch mould.
4. Fill the moulds ¼ deep then bake at 110°c/230°f for 40 minutes, leave to chill.
Assembling the Dessert
1. Using a 6inch by 1inch rectangular mould, cut out a slab of brownie, then a slab of mandarin jelly.
2. Place the mandarin jelly on top of the brownie, then lay the liquorice meringue on top. Spoon out the butterscotch mousse onto the meringue followed by the liquorice powder then sprinkle some sugar onto the reserved mandarin segments and char with a torch or glaze under the grill, use for garnishing the top slab.