Student - December 3, 2009

Mixing for Turin sweetness

PhD student Koen van Dijke has found an improved method of mixing oil and water into an emulsion. What is more, the new mixing method uses less energy and makes it possible to create a double emulsion in which droplets of oil filled with water are mixed with water. This brings the production of a truly 'lite' mayonnaise a lot closer.

I think it must be marvellous to book a result like this in your research. If only I was a food technologist! Messing around with fat and sugar experiments, mixing and stirring to your heart's content, and standing proudly in your labcoat, watching your reactor. But alas, after 3 lectures of Bioprocess Engineering my dream was over. After staring uncomprehendingly at the maths and physics on the board I gave up. Fortunately, you can mix and stir at home as well. I introduced the following recipe at vegetarian restaurant Zeezicht some time ago. I wonder if they ever put it on the menu these days. As far as I am concerned it's got everything a dessert should have: fat, chocolate and alcohol. It is certainly not 'lite', so don't make the portions too big. A delicious way to finish off an otherwise light and healthy Christmas dinner - without mayonnaise.
Variation on Dolce di Torino
Approx. 8 portions
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Waiting time: at least 3 hours
Ingredients
75g pine nuts or other chopped nuts
375g Mascarpone di Lodi (avoid the blue variety!)
150g plain chocolate broken into small pieces
2 tablespoons coffee liqueur
10 sponge fingers
Preparation
Place the broken chocolate in a small saucepan and melt in a bain marie.
Crumble the sponge fingers into a mixing bowl.
Sprinkle the liqueur over the top. Mix with the pine nuts and the mascarpone. Stir the mixture well. Then add the melted chocolate to the mascarpone mixture. Stir in thoroughly. Line a small rectangular cake tin with foil or greaseproof paper. Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth with a spoon. Cover with the foil and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours to set.
To serve, remove the foil and cut the Dolce into thin slices. You could use a biscuit cutter to make prettier shapes. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

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