Molecular: Peanut Butter powder & jelly noodles

Jun 12th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 10 Comments

 Before I go into my latest molecular gastronomy shinanigans I want to take a moment to explain some of the properties of Tapioca Maltodextrin and Agar Agar, the 2 main components I worked with for this recipe.

Tapioca Maltodextrin:

1. makes powders
2. hates water (becomes gooey with any trace)
3. only works with fatty products, low water content
4. must never be left uncovered
5. must be 40% of final prouct. Meaning if you use 200g for eg of peanut butter, you must use 40% of 200g, which is 80g maltodextrin
6. works by absorbing fat and holding it in the powder, to be released on water contact ie. your tongue

Agar Agar:

1. red algae extract
2. forms gels
3. sugar is a promoter
4. sets 35-45 degrees celcius
5. melts 80- 90 degrees celcius
6. dries out if left uncovered. can rehydrate if left in water
7. must make up at least 0.2% of final product, depending on how firm you want it to be

You can find out alot more (where i got most of this info) via this great primer of hydrocolloids on Khymos.org.

So, on to my fooling around

I wanted to have a play on the traditional peanut butter and jelly, by making it taste exactly like that but look completely different. I figured a noodle inspired dish was the way to go, so strawberry noodles with peanut butter ‘parmesan’ powder on top. It also plays with the noodles being red like they had marinara in them or something. Maybe i’m stretching.

Here we go!

Started off with 6 tablespoons strawberry spread, and 200 ml water. 

Let the strawberry jelly melt in the simmering water, then strain. 

 

 

Measure out around 1.5 g Agar and bring the mixture back up to a boil.

 

I used a squeezy bottle to inject the strawberry jelly liquid into a tube. Make sure to do all this while the liquid is warm/hot so it doesnt start setting on you. 

 

Place the tube in some icewater and let it cool for a few minutes till it all sets. 

 

Grab a food processor, add 20 g peanut butter, and 8 g tapioca maltodextrin, and let it rip, scraping off any peanut butter on the sides. 

 

 

You should be left with a powder. If its still not as powdery as you like you can add a little more maltodextrin.

 I used a syringe to push out the noodles from the tube.  

Loosely plated them with the peanut butter sprinkled on top. 

 

Decided to try out some bread with it. 

So, i just added some to the plate. Now in this first preperation, my noodles didn’t come out as chewy as i wanted so it was easy to mop them up with the bread spheres.  

This is what a mini bread with the jelly and peanut butter powder looked like. It tasted absolutely like a PBJ sandwich! 

Next, I added a bit more agar, so it was maybe like 2g total, and the strawberry jelled harder and was more noodle like. I think next time I would add a bit less so its a bit softer to maybe loop around in the middle of a bowl to make it really look like noodles. 

 

Decided against the random display and wanted a cleaner look. So, I lined them up. 

Sprinkled some peanut butter crack on top! 

Was very happy with the final product. This is a really straightforward recipe for a beginner. I think the agar amount still needs a little tweaking, but the powder was spot on! Please rate this so I get an idea if people like it

Creme brulee – molecular gastronomy style

Feb 2nd, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 7 Comments

hiya peeps-

I’m sure alot of you have heard the term molecular gastronomy,some chefs hate that term. Well, i don’t care what you call it, but I love the many possibilities it has opened. I have ordered some chemicals and havebeen toying around with tapioca maltodexrin, what that does is it turns fat based stuff to powder.So, it looks completely different, but when you put it in your mouth it melts and tastes like the stuff you put in, so it invokes the memory of that taste without the visual cues. If what you try to pair it with is not fat based it turns to goo. Yucky goo.

What the maltodextrin does is it absorbs the fat molecules and holds them till it contacts water, i.e. your saliva in your mouth.

I decided to make some creme brulee powder. It took some trial and error. I worked out the kinks.

Basically, make the creme brulee mixture according to your favorite recipe, then, instead of popping them into ramekins and in the oven, place the liquid mix into a saucepan and on very very lowwwww (i said LOW!)  heat constantly stir the mixture till alot of the water evaporates and it thickens and becomes pudding like. This could take 15-20  min. Make sure to keep stirring.

Once it’s of pudding like consistancy, put the mixture into a food processor and keep adding tapioca maltodextrin till you have the consistency powder you like.

You will end up adding alot of tapioca compared to how much creme brulee there is. This is normal.

Once it was a powder, I decided to keep what is classic of creme brulee, which is the sugar crust. I made it real thin. All I did was melt sugar on tin foil (i used the creme brulee torch) and slowly peel it off. You will get breakage so trial and error will help.

This is what my end product was. What do you think? As usual, any ideas are welcome