Wattleseed Yoghurt Parfait

After reading all the wonderful coffee creations from Sugar High Friday #11, the delicious Hazelnut Mocha Pot with Kahlua by J the Pseudo Chef seems easiest to reproduce using wattleseed infusion as a coffee substitute. The chocolate, coffee and hazelnut flavour of wattleseed makes it a perfect substitute.

However there is a slight difficult: there is no cream in the fridge! It is decided to experiment with yoghurt as a cream substitute and to use leftover egg white from the wattleseed and macadamia layered cake. The use of gelatine for extra stiffening enables storage in the freezer. The ingredients list:

1 teaspoon ground and roasted wattleseed
0.5 cup water
3 teaspoon gelatine
1 tablespoon honey, or to taste
1 cup thick yoghurt, created by draining over a sieve
1 egg white, whisked to very stiff

Create the wattleseed infusion by simmering wattleseed in water for 15 minutes and reducing the liquid to about 2 tablespoons. Strain the liquid and save the grounds for decorations. Dissolve the gelatine in the hot infusion, add honey to taste and perhaps a tablespoon of a sweet wine like noble riseling or muscat. Add the yoghurt and whisk to a thick creamy texture. Gently fold in the egg white.



Pour the mixture into serving dessert glasses or moulds. Set in the fridge or freeze overnight. Serve with fruit and/or a sweet sauce such as Australian wild hibiscus syrup leftover from Paper Chef #9 Dessert. The wattleseed sauce for the brown pears also tastes great with the parfait. For a finishing touch, make a chocolate tuile using the spent wattleseed grounds as a sprinkle.



What about the taste? The combined flavours taste unique, dominated by honey with hints of nuts, perhaps of chocolate, but nothing like coffee. The parfait looks pale and needs a much stronger wattleseed infusion. The slight sourness of the yoghurt begs for lemon zest to complete the taste.

For a fruit sauce suggestion try the following:
Puree a ripe peach and 8 raspberries. Strain. Add 2 tablespoons of pear juice and 2 tablespoon of wattleseed infusion. This sauce tastes a bit like chocolate liqueur cherries.