This is my way of recreating one of my favourite breakfast dishes and turning it into a dessert.
I love figs and they are really showcased in this dessert. Make sure your figs are ripe, plump and fresh. Fig Season is late Summer to early Autumn and this is the best time to buy them. If you have to use frozen figs, make sure they are good quality of thawed overnight in the fridge.
Leatherwood honey is found in Tasmania – I get mine from a store at the South Melbourne Market.
Seedless imperial mandarins are great to use for this recipe and are in every supermarket at the moment. Serving the dish up with mandarin segments is a good idea as well, they really compliment the figs.
Ingredients and Methods
- 6 fresh figs or one per person
- 1x handful of fresh mint leaves
Mandarin and leatherwood honey granita
- 500ml mandarin juice
- 125g leatherwood honey
Bring to the boil and freeze in a shallow tray overnight
Pistachio granola
- 300g sugar
- 100ml water
- 150g pistachios
- 150g granola
Melt sugar and water, bring to the boil and take it to hard crack stage (150-165 degrees celsius).
TIP: Use a thermometer, if you don’t get the temperature right, you may have to start again.
Pour over pistachios, let cool to a brittle. Blend in a food processor for 10-15 secs, and mix with granola.
Yoghurt sorbet
- 700ml milk
- 300g castor sugar
- 150ml liquid glucose
- 1 litre full fat yoghurt
- Juice of 2 lemons
Bring the milk to the boil with the sugar, glucose, and cool completely. Whisk into the yoghurt, add the lemon juice and refrigerate until 2-3 hours before needed. Churn in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions and freeze.
To plate
Cut 1 fig in half, lay on a bed of granola, 1 scoop of yoghurt sorbet, some fresh mint leaves and some generous scrapings of mandarin & leatherwood honey granita. Serve immediately.
Chef Neale White
