Yuzu Curd & Vanilla Shortbread
Matt created this dish for America's Culinary Cup Season 1. His 'good' dessert — a yuzu curd dome over a vanilla bean shortbread base with a raspberry jelly heart — drew praise for its bright yuzu, its jewel-like raspberry centre and its well-textured sablé, with Padma Lakshmi calling both his desserts visually stunning. This Fix-It reconstruction preserves every praised element while correcting the two flagged faults: the heavy white-chocolate coating becomes a whisper-thin velvet spray so the yuzu leads again, and the fragile twig décor is rebuilt with a reinforced spine. The result is the same garden-inspired dome, now balanced in sweetness and sturdy enough to plate cleanly.
- Time: 300 min
Source: Relaxed Recipes
Ingredients
- FOR THE VANILLA BEAN SHORTBREAD BASE
- Unsalted butter, cold, cubed — 140 g
- Plain flour — 190 g
- Icing sugar — 60 g
- Fine salt — 1.5 g
- Vanilla bean paste — 5 g
- Egg yolk — 1
- FOR THE YUZU CURD
- Gelatine, leaf — 3 sheets
- Yuzu juice — 120 ml ; bottled is standard
- Yuzu zest — 6 g
- Granulated sugar — 150 g
- Whole eggs — 3 large
- Egg yolks — 2
- Unsalted butter, cubed — 140 g
- Fine salt — pinch
- FOR THE RASPBERRY JELLY CENTRE
- Gelatine, leaf — 1 sheet
- Raspberries, fresh or frozen — 200 g
- Granulated sugar — 50 g
- Lemon juice — 10 ml
- FOR THE MERINGUE ACCENTS
- Egg white — 1 large
- FOR THE REINFORCED CHOCOLATE TWIGS
- Dark chocolate , tempered — 200 g
- FOR THE THIN WHITE VELVET
- White chocolate , chopped — 100 g
- Cocoa butter — 100 g
- EQUIPMENT
- Silicone half-sphere mould, 6 cavities
- Chocolate spray gun
- Digital thermometer
- Fine-mesh sieve
- Stick or stand blender
- Acetate sheets
- Small plain piping tips
- Stand or hand mixer
- Blowtorch
- Offset spatula
- Bench scraper