Floating on Cloud 9

Mango passion cloud

This is a really easy dessert.

It tastes spectacular! Looks like you have laboured over it for hours….but you can literally throw it together at the last moment.

But Shh! That’s our secret.

I make it with different fruit….. but Indian mangoes are currently in season. So go for it! Use a mix of Alphonsos and Banganpallis.*

Ingredients:

2-4 mangoes, cubed into tiny pieces

Juice of 2-3 passion fruits

1 packet Ritz crackers

300-400 ml whipping cream (look for a minimum of 34% fat)*

100 g white chocolate, chopped

2 tbsps icing sugar (feel free to use more or delete altogether)

Directions:

Melt the white chocolate with a slosh of cream. *

Stir until lump free, then set aside to cool.

Prepare your fruit– chop the mangoes and sieve the seeds from the passion fruit reserving some of the seeds. I use all the seeds –the crunch from the seeds* is addictive! Plus I love the flecks of black in the dessert….but use your judgement.

Place a large metal bowl over an ice bath*. Pour in the cream and start whipping with an electric hand blender.

When the cream reaches soft peaks, add the cooled white chocolate and fold in until fully incorporated and no streaks remain.

Check the sweetness and add icing sugar if required.

Now it’s showtime! Use your prettiest stemmed glass bowl.

Start with a dollop of cream added to the bottom of the glass bowl.

Layer the Ritz crackers — around 4-5 — depending on the diameter of your bowl.

Add a layer of the cubed mangoes and a generous amount of passion pulp.

Top with the cream and repeat all over.

End with the cream and decorate the centre of the dish with a beautiful mango rose if you have the time and want to impress your guests.

If you are pressed for time add the mango cubes and a dollop of passion juice and seeds.

Tada! Be ready for the compliments that’ll surely come your way.

Share your pictures on my Instagram page or my Facebook page with hashtag #sinsationsbyradhika.

Notes:

Alphonsos and Banganpallis : The most sought after Indian mangoes — depending on whom you ask. Alphonsos add a beautiful colour and taste to desserts, but Banganpallis are hands down the best in taste. They are paler in colour and firmer and fibre free, so make divine desserts. The season for Indian mangoes is short… so make the most of it!

Cream: Always look for Whipping cream or heavy cream or double cream. They have different labels in different countries deliberately to confuse you. Look for a minimum of 34% fat. That’s when it’ll whip up easily.

A slosh: A highly technical term, also called a glug, a dash! Eyeball the dammed thing.

Passion fruit: Had Eve seen a passion fruit in the garden of Eden, the whole story would have made sense to me. An apple…..hmmmm….doesn’t cut it.

Passion fruits have an ethereal, delicate fragrance that I would love to bottle up and wear as a perfume, but the tang and the crunch from the seeds add a boost of flavour to desserts. So unless you absolutely dislike the crunch, use the juice in full.

Ice bath : I promise you don’t need to bathe in ice water to make this dessert ?

An ice bath just refers to a big dish with ice cubes and water to chill the cream and keep it from getting over beaten.