ANKIT BHARDWAJ

JUMEIRAH AT SAADIYAT ISLAND RESORT ABU DHABI

Ankit Bhardwaj is an International awardwinning pastry chef currently working at Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort. He has worked in the high volume kitchens of five star hotels in India and the UAE, He has also trained under distinguished chefs such as World Champion Frank Hasnoot, Champion coupe de monde Wei Loon Tam, MOF Michel Perruchon, Antonio Bachour and Fabrice David from Valrhona Tokyo to name few, which has helped me to perfect my pastry techniques and develop my own unique pastry style. He will be representing Middle east and Africa in the upcoming C3 competition organized by Valrhona in the late 2021.

PECAN AND MAJDOOL DATE CAKE

INGREDIENTS Majdool date cake

210g majdool dates / 6g baking soda / 300ml water / 60g butter / 90g brown sugar 5g vanilla bean extract / 190g flour T 45 / 37g chocolate chips 50g eggs / 7g baking powder

Method

Deseed the dates and chop them into small pieces. Soak chopped dates, baking soda in hot water for 30 minutes. Make it a paste using hand blender. Cream the butter and add the brown sugar in the electronic mixer. Add the eggs one by one till the sugar is dissolved and fold in the flour and baking powder. Add the date Liquid and the chocolate chips at last. Rest the Mix in the chiller for 4 hours. Bake it at 170C for 20 minutes.

Pomegranate molasses caramel

200g sugar / 120g pecan nut / 50ml pomegranate molasses / 48g coconut powder / 1 ½ vanilla bean pod / 32g cocoa nib

Method

Caramelize the sugar and glucose and heat the cream in a separate pan. Add the vanilla bean to the cream. Once the sugar caramelized add the liquid cream and salt. Add the pomegranate molasses. Add the butter in last and let it melt. Use a hand blender to emulsify the sauce.

Caramelized pecan

200g toasted pecan nut / 20g sugar / 5g mycryo cocoa butter / 30ml water / 2g vanilla extract

Method

Toast the pecan nut and let it cool down. Chop the pecans into small pieces. Cook the sugar and water to 118C and remove it from the heat and add the pecans. Continue stirring away from the fire till the

by ANKIT BHARDWAJ

sugar crystalizes. Sieve the nuts and remove extra sugar. Put the nuts in the new pan and caramelize. Add vanilla extract and cocoa butter at last and let it cool down on the silicon mat. Store them in airtight container.

Fig leaf ice cream

6 fig leaves / 985g milk / 305g cream / 248g egg yolks / 16g stabilizer / 100g sugar / 2ml fig aroma 150g atomized glucose / 40g milk powder

Method

Heat the milk and cream, infuse the fig leaves for 2 hours. Strain the mix and discard the leaves. Take the liquid back on fire. Mix sugar, egg yolk, milk powder, stabilizer, atomized glucose, and fig aroma into a smooth paste. Temper the dry paste with 50% of the hot milk. Add the paste back into the milk the pan and cook till 82C. Cool down the mixture on ice bath and churn in the ice cream machine.