Jack's Grilled peaches, white chocolate and truffle custard, lemon thyme praline

Jack’s most controversial MasterChef dish! Peaches, custard… and truffle! Sounds weird doesn’t it? On the show it didn’t go down so well, so I’ve adjusted the recipe and balanced the flavours so truffle is more of a background note. I love truffles and I love this desert so if you’re partial to a bit o’ truffle action why not give this a go!

Serves 4

Ingredients 

Peaches
2 ripe peaches
30ml truffle honey

Custard
4 free range eggs
300ml whole milk
250ml single cream
2 tbsp cornflower
30g caster sugar
5ml high quality white truffle oil
120g white chocolate 

Lemon thyme praline
100g caster sugar
4 sprigs lemon thyme
50g flaked almonds

Olive oil cake
3 medium eggs
80g golden caster sugar
30ml light olive oil
80g plain flour

Lemon thyme to dress

Instructions

To make the custard heat 250ml of the milk and the cream on a medium heat until just at the boil. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and cornflower until smooth and light, add a dash of the hot cream to the eggs and whisk well. Keep adding the rest of the liquid, whisking in until combines.

Add the eggs and liquid back into a pan on a low heat and stir consistently. After 3-5 minutes (or until the mixture coats the back of a spoon or reaches 83 C degrees) remove from the heat. Add in the white chocolate and truffle oil and stir until melted, pass through a sieve and chill in the fridge until use.

Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease a small baking tin. To make the cake whisk the eggs for using an electric mixer or whisk for about 3 minutes until they are soft, pale and thick. Add the caster sugar a spoonful at a time and keep whisking so it increases in size and becomes pale and the beaters leave a trail in the mix. Slowly add the olive oil whilst continuing to mix. Sift the flour onto the mixture and fold in very gently with a spoon.

Pour into the greased tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until the cake is golden and a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out and allow to cool fully.

To make the praline heat the sugar with 2 tbsp water until it’s dissolved and beginning to brown (using a sugar thermometer it should be around 170 C). Add the flaked almonds, lemon thyme and combine. Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet and allow to cool.

Once cool break into pieces and using a high-powered blender or food processor blitz the mixture until you get a powder. Using a sieve dust a silicone baking mat with the powder (around 2mm thick) and place into a pre-heated oven at 190C for 5 minutes, until it melts together and forms a sheet. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before breaking into shards.

Cut the peaches into quarters and brush with a little truffle honey. Place onto a pre-heated griddle or frying pan on a med-high heat for 2-3 mins on each side until they begin to caramelize and soften.

To serve pour a layer of custard into the bottom of a bowl, add a circle of sponge about 5-6cm across, top with two peach quarters and a praline shard. Sprinkle over a few leaves of lemon thyme.

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