Honey Custard

One of the benefits of our cooking classes is the constant influx of inspirations.  On Monday, as we were working with a carrageenan stabilized egg custard, we paused in contemplation of both ingredients and the technique.  To begin with we needed to sweeten the improvisational preparation.  We looked to mesquite honey rather than agave or sugar, our usual go to sweeteners.  What is exciting about honey and its numerous varieties is that they each have distinct flavors and can add uniqueness and individuality to dishes.  The second great development for us was that we were able to disperse the carrageenan in a new way.  Instead of blending the carrageenan into the entire base we ended up  shearing it into the honey and egg yolks and then mixing in the milk and cream.  The result of this change in dispersion means that we were able to eliminate more than ninety percent of the bubbles and aeration we used to generate.  While this change in approach is small its results are monumental in the refinement of our cooking.

We then proceeded to cook our custard in a pot to eighty degrees Celsius and then strained and set the it in a pyrex pan.  After we cut a few slices of the set custard and indulged in the honey's intense flavors, we melted it back down again and set the custard in our cube molds.  When the mixture had cooled, we popped out the honey custards to work with.

The class sparked the initial ideas.  Now we are in the process of developing a new dessert around this honey flavored delicacy and readdressing a number of our past preparations from a new perspective.