With chia custard and rosemary infused cream
We recently served this delicious dessert after a feast for about 40 people, offering a gluten free option too. Rhubarb and ginger are a classic combination – delicious and immune boosting too!
Our menu is all plant-based so when it comes to dessert we are often experimenting with ways to make it less crumbly, not so dry, flavoursome or make it rise, today’s challenge was making a thick custard that would set, here goes!
This dessert was done in 5 stages:
- The base was made from crushed Doves organic digestive biscuits (or Nairn’s gluten free biscuits), organic ground ginger (to your taste), and melted vegan block (a palm oil free butter alternative), mixed together, and pressed firmly into a flan case (a non stick, loose bottomed case). This was left to set in the fridge overnight.
- The rhubarb, chopped into inch pieces, was simply stewed in a pot on the stove top over a medium heat, with some water, date syrup, lemon and orange juice and zest, stirring frequently, until the rhubarb appears to be melting, this was left to cool in the fridge whilst we prepared step 3.
- In a pot on the stove top, I heated Rude Health soy milk until nearly boiling(be careful not to burn), in a small separate bowl I prepared a paste of organic custard powder, a little rapadura sugar, and a splash of soy milk. Once the pot of milk was nearly boiling, I added this paste, and kept stirring until it was combined, and starting to thicken. To get this mixture to set we were scratching our heads, and trialled the following…. We ground flax seeds, and mixed them with more soy milk, and chia seeds, until you get a thick, gelatinous amorphous goop… and them stirred this into the custard soy milk pot….a bit of hand blender action helped us separate the inevitable lumps of chia seeds that stick together. We threw in a good splash of organic vanilla extract and a bit more custard paste until it was a very very thick custard, that parted when you pulled a spoon through it, give it a taste and add more vanilla and date syrup/sugar as required by your taste buds. This was set aside, cooled and went into the fridge also.
- In a small pot, we infused oatly cream, with rosemary, by warming together for 15-20 minutes, stirring once in a while.
- Assembly: the chia custard was smoothed over the biscuit base, topped with the stewed rhubarb, and again left to set in the fridge until serving time, when it was sliced, drizzled with the rosemary oat cream, and topped with a raspberry and a forget-me-not- voila!
We are looking to become more localised, and therefore more sustainable in our kitchen.
If you are an organic British producer/stockist and would like to talk to us about our kitchen using your goods, get in touch with Ruth, our Kitchen Co-Manager: ruth@embercombe.org