' CHOCOLATE and BLOOD ORANGE.'

Chocolate doughnut with Blood orange glaze & jam filling , Blood orange baked in syrup , Plain Chocolate doughnut , Orange Chocolate truffle & milk chocolate shavings , Blood orange syrup , gel & candied orange peel.

                   This the third in 'chocolate pairings' was another impulse buy that sparked the construction of this dish. Wondering through a grocers on the inner north side of the city a stumbled across these late season blood oranges from Western Australia. So I grabbed one and saw some early season figs with a price tag of $59.99 / kg., and walked straight pass them. My doughnut recipe is based on an the old portuguese doughnuts called Malasadas, introduced to Hawaii by labourers of the Madeira Islands. This is yeast risen dough with the addition of chocolate and a blood orange glaze.                                          
                     I started by making the dough by culturing some yeast in a little warm water and sugar for about 5 minutes, until frothy and bubbly. I then placed eggs in a bowl and whisked until pale and thick, to this I added the yeast mix, melted butter, milk, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and mixed to combine. I then gradually added '00' flour to form a moist but not sticky dough before being wrapped in clear film and set a side to double in size (about 2 hours). The dough was then rolled out to 10 mm. thick and portion into small rounds and deep fried, drained, cooled then injected with blood orange gel and triple dipped into blood orange glazing. The glazing was made by thinly slicing 5 mm. thick slices of orange and they were kept aside for a later preparation, with the rest of the orange I juiced keeping some for the gel and with the rest I combined with icing sugar, corn syrup, melted butter and thick cream to form a slurry for the doughnuts to be triple glazed. To make the gel I mixed the reserved juice and some gellan gum in a bowl to form a paste. The blood orange slices were blanched in simmering water before being placed in to a saucepan of simmering simple syrup for about 20 minutes until a little transparent, the slices were then placed on tray lined with baking paper in a 140 deg. c. oven to candy up and the syrup reserved for serving. The chocolate truffle was made by mixing together some melted butter and chocolate with a little blood orange juice and some thickened cream, this was then formed into a ball and chilled in the fridge. The candied peel came from my stores, leftovers of another dish.
                     To plate this I started smearing some blood orange syrup and the glaze on the plate, placing the bake blood orange at one end and the doughnut at the other, each topped with candied orange peel, with the truffle in between. The plate was then garnished with torn up plain chocolate doughnut pieces, candied peel, shaved milk chocolate and the blood orange gel.