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Adventures in Sabayon
I find myself needing useful distractions to get my mind off recent events. One of these distractions is doing homework for a cooking course. Last week's class included four desserts, with a heavy emphasis on eggs. I settled for doing about 1/3 of one dessert for my homework. I took on the task of whipping up a chocolate sabayon which had been used as a filling in a multilayer sponge cake.
I'm using the French spelling for sabayon, 'cause the Italian seems to have entirely too many vowels, especially for a southerner. We often get two or three syllables out of a single vowel, so a word like zabaglione can't help but be bruised.
My first attempt was really quite good until I added the Marsala wine. I had a nice pale yellow custard-like sabayon going, but forgot to add the wine along the way. So I kinda sorta dumped it all in at once, after the egg/sugar mixture was pretty much done -- with nice yellow ribbons, the real deal. With the abrupt addition of wine, the smooth ribbony texture was lost, leaving me with the fluff of air bubbles but without the sensual viscosity of a nice custard. And most of the wine never incorporated. Sugary egg foam floating on fortified wine -- interesting, but not exactly the desired effect.
On my second attempt I drizzled in the Marsala as I whipped up the yolks and sugar over mild heat. I think I now know why I've never been a z-bag fan. I don't really like Marsala. But there's a zillion other alternatives. Sauvignon blanc, grand marnier, cognac or citrus juice come to mind.
I folded in melted bittersweet chocolate, which deflated the eggs a bit, and folded in whipped cream, which added some fluff back. The result is a chocolate mousse-like substance that would be great as an ingredient in most any chocolate concoction as a topping or filling. It's light and fluffy in texture, but intense and heavy in impact. I popped the leftovers in the freezer to see if it sets up as a frozen treat.
Each time I learn some new technique or ingredient, I try to think up a variation of some sort. A warm, light and tart lemon sabayon layered with fresh berries is a prime candidate for experimentation this week.