Creative Desserts with Broken Gel

Here is a basic recipe for how you can make "broken gel" for your desserts:

Ingredients:

- 500 grams of fruit juice of your choice (already flavoured to your liking)

- 5-8 grams of agar-agar (the amount of agar-agar depends on the acidity of the liquid)

- 1 gram of citrate (so your finished gel holds on to the liquid)

- Fresh fruit, nuts or meringue for serving (optional)

Method:

– Prepare the gel base:

- Whisk the agar-agar into the cold or lukewarm fruit juice, then bring to a boil and simmer for at least 1 minute

- Chill the mixture in a refrigerator until completely set.

- Once the gel has set, blend it, for example with a hand blender, until the consistency is a thick liquid with a smooth surface.

- The blended gel can optionally be vacuum-sealed to remove any air bubbles

- Transfer your broken gel to a piping bag or squeeze bottle, so you can deliver precise dots of broken gel onto your plate alongside the other dessert elements.

Remember that this recipe is a basic recipe, and you can adapt it to your preferences and creative ideas. Let your imagination run free and create your own unique version of "broken gel" to impress your guests with a delicious and visually appealing dessert.

There are really no rules for the direction you take your broken gel in. Below are some traditional examples, along with a short explanation of what makes each of them stand out.

– Fruity variations:

- Raspberry: Adds a tart and intense flavour.

- Mango: Gives a sweet and exotic character.

- Citrus (orange, lemon): Contributes freshness and acidity.

– Berry combinations:

- Strawberry and blueberry: Creates a balanced and sweet flavour experience.

- Blackberry and redcurrant: Adds complex notes of sweetness and tartness.

– Exotic flavours:

- Passion fruit: Intensifies the flavour profile with a unique tartness.

- Pomegranate: Gives a lightly tart and refreshing flavour.

– Flowers and spices:

- Lavender: Adds a subtle floral scent and flavour.

- Mint: Gives a fresh and invigorating character.

– Seasonal flavours:

- Apple and cinnamon: Perfect for the autumn season.

- Watermelon and mint: Ideal for summer desserts.

The most important thing is to balance sweetness, tartness and any spiced elements to achieve a well-balanced flavour experience. In addition, combinations of fresh fruit, nuts or meringue served together with your broken gel can contribute to a complex and exciting mouthful. The chef's creative freedom makes it possible to explore and adapt the flavour profile to the seasons and personal preferences in order to create a memorable dessert.

True to tradition, we like to give examples of how an element can be used in desserts. So here we offer a good handful of tangible examples of how broken gel has been used as a component in a dessert in our own dessert universe, which you are welcome to draw inspiration from.

This is a reinterpretation of the classic Italian tiramisu, the much-loved and well-known dessert served in restaurants all over the world. The dessert gets its coffee element from, among other things, a beautiful coffee gel and, of course, our Espresso Honey cream ice cream. In this dessert we have also made a Kahlúa broken gel, which pairs very well with the coffee elements in terms of flavour and also adds a great deal visually to the dessert.

Frangipane is a French cake with crushed hazelnuts, which can be a little heavy. It is therefore a good idea to serve it with something light and fresh. This is where broken gel, among other things, comes into the picture. In this case, it is a raspberry broken gel that is used in the dessert to add a little acidity. Feel free to read more about this delicious dessert.

Yet another slightly heavy dessert, as brownie can be quite dense in texture on its own. It is therefore a good idea to serve it with light elements, as well as some fresh, tart elements, to create some contrast. This dessert is served with passion fruit sorbet and a passion fruit broken gel, both of which contribute to a play of colour as well as a lovely tart counterpoint in the dessert.

This dessert aims to show that there are many different ways to use carrots, including in desserts. It consists of a carrot cake, carrot parfait, carrot broken gel and powder made from dried carrot. Carrots give a naturally sweet flavour due to their natural fructose content, and they are therefore paired with an orange sorbet to provide a little contrast in the dessert. In this case, the broken gel is not used as a flavour counterpoint but more as decoration and perhaps as a contrast in texture.

This dessert with balloons of passion fruit mousse, raspberry sorbet and raspberry broken gel is a fun little creation, made for a festive occasion. Here the broken gel is used as decoration, but also to provide a textural counterpoint to the rest of the dessert.

Here you get a vegan dessert that is a little special, as not all restaurants think about vegan desserts, even though they may have vegan starters and main courses. It consists of a strawberry and coconut tart with strawberry sorbet and, in this case, both a strawberry and a coconut broken gel, which contribute to flavour, texture and appearance alike.

This dessert is chocolate with more chocolate, but in an attempt to keep it from becoming too heavy. It is therefore served with a piece of light marzipan cake, a light chocolate cream, vanilla corals, wood sorrel and, not least, a tart blackcurrant broken gel, as chocolate and blackcurrant go very well together and balance each other.

You have now hopefully learned a little about broken gel, how to make it, and how you can make use of this delicious dessert element when planning and preparing your desserts.