It’s breakfast Jim…. but not as we know at. Every item on this plate is in fact dessert. It’s the breakfast fry-up that is even suitable for vegetarians. However, I think it should be served with a sweet dessert wine rather than a builder’s tea. After the success of the Rubik’s cake, I really wanted another project and the breakfast fry came to me one day, as it’s so iconic and it’s something that everyone instantly recognises. This dish took a few weeks to figure out, a lot of trial and error with a few delicious disasters along the way.
The bacon was a particular stumbling block and I had no idea how I would make something sweet look in anyway like bacon. The hash browns were originally going to be deep fried marshmallows. We tried using my home-made marshmallows, which resulted in a large pink marshmallow explosion in the pan. The commercial ‘mallows might have worked better, but I moved on. Every week I focused on a different element and with the help of my trusty blow torch and some normal store cupboard ingredients I created a pretty convincing breakfast as dessert.
Baked Beans – or – White Chocolate Biscuit with Orange and Strawberry Coulis
I love baked beans, and I like that they are kind of sweet and sticky. I did toy with the idea of having normal haricot beans with a sweet dessert coulis, but that’s not really a re-creation. So I thought about ways to make something sweet look like a haricot bean… mini biscuits! I used my sable biscuit recipe and shaped the biscuit dough into small bean shaped pieces. I cooked the little biscuit beans for about 5 minutes in the oven and cooled on a wire tray. They looked good but they were a little too golden brown and biscuity in texture. So, I melted some white chocolate and dipped the biscuit beans in separately. Once the chocolate had set they looked perfectly white and shiny and would definitely pass off as a haricot bean. For the bean sauce I used the juice of two oranges, 2 teaspoons of castor sugar and a dash of home-made strawberry coulis to give it that orangey colour. All natural and no colourings, plus it was tasty. To get that weird sticky viscous texture I added half a teaspoon of arrowroot to a tablespoon of water and added this to the sauce. I cooked it all for a few minutes before removing from the heat. I then sieved the whole lot and put in Tupperware and let cool, before putting in the fridge. I combined the beans and the sauce just before putting on the plate. The sweet biscuit beans worked really well with the tart orange sauce. This was definitely one of my favourite elements of the breakfast for look and taste.
Black Pudding – or – Chocolate Biscuit Cake
Black pudding is something I don’t eat! So I was relying on the OH for help on the visuals. I made a simple chocolate biscuit cake using a very dark chocolate, and white chocolate buttons to give it texture. I rolled the black pudding in a clear rice paper casing that you peal off – just like a real black pudding.
– 5oz of dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
– 1 tablespoon of milk
– 2 oz of butter
– 2 oz of crushed biscuits (rich tea are best, or left over sable biscuits)
– 2 oz of crushed white chocolate buttons (leave them in the fridge before crushing)
Begin by melting the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water on the stove. Once the chocolate has melted add the butter and the milk and heat gently until all melted and combined. Take off the heat. Meanwhile place the biscuits and chocolate buttons into a plastic bag. Close the bag and crush the contents with a rolling pin. Add the crushed chocolate buttons and biscuits to the slightly cooled melted chocolate. With a spoon combine all the ingredients together.
For the wrapping I used rice paper, which is completely edible, but for some reason, I had the urge to take it off when eating as you would with normal black pudding. I brushed the rice paper with water to make it pliable. I then spooned about 2 tablespoons on the mixture onto the rice paper and wrapped up like a sausage. I then wrapped the whole thing in cling film and twisted the ends tightly before rolling it on a work surface to make the edges smooth. I put the pudding in the freezer for about an hour. I then removed the cling film and sliced the chocolate black pudding into 1 cm thick slices. This chocolate biscuit cake was the perfect combination of bitter dark chocolate and sweet white chocolate with a biscuit bite. I made a couple of these and have been stealing slices straight out of the fridge ever since.
Hash Browns – or – Panko Brioche Jam Sandwich
These were by far the easiest element of the breakfast and maybe even the most convincing. I made a home-made brioche in the bread-maker. I chose brioche over bread as it’s tastier and more of a treat. I cut a triangle from a slice of brioche. I halved the triangle lengthways, spread it with apricot jam and sandwiched it back together. I dipped the brioche sandwich in a little flour, then beaten egg and finally some Panko breadcrumbs. I heated up a large frying pan with vegetable oil. I put them in until there were just crisp and golden. These actually tasted very breakfasty, just like toast and jam.
Next week I’ll reveal how I made that pesky bacon, the golden brown sausage and that gooey egg, sunny side up. Any ideas on how I made them?