"Best deep-fried dessert ever!"

A couple of weeks ago at Baldwin, icky made these fantastic crepes served with nutella and rum-flambéed bananas. It was a resounding success, but as he was eating, he had a vision for another unique dessert. He hyped it up over the next two weeks as the "best deep-fried dessert ever". Today, for curry night, he was charged with living up to the hype. He was a bit nervous since it was hyped up a lot and everyone had high expectations. Furthermore he discovered there was no ice cream in the freezer, which was suppose to be part of the dish, more so as a backup in case the dessert flopped. The dish...

...deep-fried nutella sandwiches with strawberry coulis.

Let's start with the sandwiching. Lillian decrusted bread and spread nutella on them.


The coulis was made in quite an inventive way given the lack of ingredients I found at Baldwin. One box of Chinatown strawberries sliced. Two slices were set aside to garnish each plate. Five were left whole and mushed up to get out the juices. I wanted to start with a fruit juice base but all they had was OJ. I decided it would have to do. OJ and water turned orange, but once I got the five mushed strawberries in, it turned pink. Excellent! Then this was strained to get rid of the mushed berries. Some lime juice to give it extra tartness plus several spoonfuls of brown sugar to sweeten it. Next it simmered with the sliced berries for a while. Some liquid was removed and chilled so that cornstarch could be added to it for thickening. Before thickening, it was flambéed with raspberry vodka. The image below actually shows the flaming though the blue didn't show up on camera.


Next, a small pot of oil. Before deep-frying, the bread was smushed. The effect was so it was less spongy and soaked up less oil. I did a test piece prior to smushing and the smushing definitely did the trick. The bread only needed about 4-5 seconds in the hot oil. It crisped up nicely.


The presentation involved a later of coulis on the bottom with two slices of strawberry. 3 wedges of sandwich were stacked and then more coulis was drizzled on top.


The reviews were fantastic, including those from the two non-baldwinites invited by Kate. Certainly a greasy dessert, but well worth the artery clogging. The crispy bread with the warm and fluid chocolate-hazzlenut filling melted in your mouth. The coulis provided the right tartness to balance the flavours. The coulis tasted like strawberry jam, and apparently a hint of onion was noticed by Lillian and Eric since we cut the strawberries on the board which had onions on them (it was washed). Kate licked every last drop of coulis off her plate, and made nutella-coulis graham crackers with the bit of left over coulis. I must say it was indeed the best deep-fried dessert ever. A crowd pleaser that left everyone excited for weeks, in wonderment at what was happening as it was being prepared, and a lingering taste of deep-fried chocolate-hazelnut-strawberry goodness in their mouths.

Now the Baldwinites are requesting another dessert in a few weeks time. Icky has promised another innovative dessert made with vegetables. Eric has laid down the challenge and we'll see the result in a few weeks.