Earl Grey Gelato Ensemble Dessert

Part of a dessert I made for potluck, which also included a salted coffee/chocolate soil and an eggless chocolate mousse with candied ginger kumquats.  If only I could make decent quenelles!  Plating was awkward, also too many brown earthy colors in that dish!  Since I served 25 such plates at a party, I'll say it was moderately successful as it was pretty tasty.

Was aiming for a play on breakfast drinks, with the mini-mugs and chocolate-coffee soil versus the Earl Grey gelato. 

Toasted Sesame White Chocolate Triangles
White chocolate
~ 1 tsp sesame oil
Black sesame seeds


I melted white chocolate in a double boiler, then let it cool slightly to room temperature and added ~ 1 tsp of sesame oil.  I also toasted black sesame seeds at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes, then added them to the white chocolate once they cooled to room temp.

I then poured the melted white chocolate into a pan lined with wax paper and refrigerated the chocolate until hard.  Then cut into triangles.

Chocolate-Coffee Soil

I used Chef Leong's recipe here, but reduced everything by a factor of 5.

http://starchefs.com/chefs/rising_stars/2007/sf/html/fudge_cream_b_leong.shtml

Earl Grey Gelato

1 x quart of half & half

1 cup sugar

8 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

2 vanilla bean pods

2 heaping Tbsp loose leaf Earl Grey Tea (ratio is slightly more generous than 1 tsp per 8 oz liquid)

-        I initially made a bouquet garni of the Earl Grey tea leaves using cheesecloth, but I felt this didn’t maximize the wonderful fragrance of the tea leaves.  So I ended up adding the tea wholesale into the half & half mixture and later straining it through a sieve.