A Perfect Prepare Ahead Dessert

Milk Chocolate, Mango, Lime and Coconut

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Hello! Happy Friday!

When you are the designated baker, there is a look you get used to, a look that conveys deep disappointment when you show up empty-handed, no cake, no cookies. Friends and family have become conditioned to expect a regular supply of dessert even if they show up at your house unannounced. 90% of the time, there is something in the house ready to be served up for dessert. I love this, of course. Ask most bakers, and they’ll surely tell you that part of their love for the craft comes from its communal aspect; it’s rare you’d bake purely for yourself, baking is almost always done for a moment of sharing and connection. Maybe that is part of the reason I am always working on new desserts, so I always have a new dish up my sleeve and the fridge is always stocked with something, just waiting for guests to drop by.

Another reason I prefer baking over cooking is that so much of it is prepared ahead. When we have friends over, I want to spend as much time as possible with them and as little time as possible in the kitchen, away from the people I care about. Dessert is often the one course prepped completely in advance, ready to be served. Today's recipe is one of those desserts that will happily sit in the fridge waiting for its moment to shine, a perfect dinner party dessert. It is also a dessert inspired by my local mango shop. Yes, I have a local mango shop.

Every year, around this time, an abandoned shop front on the local high street suddenly opens up again and becomes the local centre of the mango trade. People flock to the area to buy the freshly imported Pakistani mangoes. I have seen people dangerously stop their cars in the middle of the road to quickly buy a box of the good stuff, treating it like a drive-through. Personally, I am fascinated by the sheer scale of the operation, and I watch as the delivery van opens its doors and see it filled from floor to ceiling with what must be thousands of imported mangoes. After living in Walthamstow for a few years now, I have also become rather partial to honey and kesar mangoes, the two main varieties they frequently have on offer. The appearance of the mango in May is also a welcome reminder that summer is just around the corner, warmer days and summer picnics are coming soon!

Today’s dish is a fun layered affair, flavoured with milk chocolate, coconut, lime and mango. It is also a lesson in two different types of set desserts. One is a custard, made with egg yolks and chocolate, which sets into a beautifully rich custard, otherwise known as a pot de creme. The second layer is quite possibly the simplest dessert there is, a coconut panna cotta. In this second layer, cream and milk are lightly sweetened and infused with toasted coconut before being set with as little gelatine as you can get away with to keep it is a light and as jiggly as humanly possible. The result is a wonderful contrast in the layers. The base is rich and luscious, packed with a nostalgic milk-chocolate flavour. The second layer is the polar opposite: light and creamy, with a warm, toasted coconut flavour. To finish the dessert, the two set mixtures are topped with fresh mango and a lime streusel, giving both fresh, fruity flavours and plenty of added texture.

Gelatine

This dessert is made with leaf-style gelatine as it’s generally the easiest form to get hold of here in the UK. I use platinum-grade gelatine, but so long as you measure in number of sheets (and not by weight), any strength/bloom of gelatine will work, so long as you stick to 2 sheets. This is because all sheet gelatine styles are designed to set the same amount of liquid. If converting to powdered gelatine, this is the conversion I use.

1 sheet of gelatine = 2g powdered gelatine dissolved in 1 tablespoon of water