★ Michelin Star Series ★
Liquorice & Carrot
Pastry Cream Espuma · Carrot Cake · Liquorice Ice Cream · Carrot Sauce
An unexpected pairing of earthy liquorice and sweet carrot — a plated dessert of extraordinary depth and elegance that challenges everything you think you know about both ingredients.
⏱ Prep: 2 hours · ⏲ Freeze: overnight · 🍲 Serves: 6 · ⭐ Difficulty: Advanced
The Story of This Plate
Liquorice and carrot is one of the great underexplored pairings in modern patisserie. Both carry an anise-adjacent earthiness, both have a natural sweetness that intensifies with heat, and together they create a dialogue on the plate that is simultaneously grounded and surprising.
The base is a tender, spiced carrot cake — moist, deep, and fragrant. Alongside it sits a quenelle of intensely flavoured liquorice ice cream, its cold creaminess cutting through the warmth of the plate. A swoosh of vibrant carrot sauce brings acidity and colour. The liquorice pastry cream espuma — aerated to a cloud-like lightness — is spooned tableside. And a single baton of glazed carrot provides the garnish: elegant, simple, precise.
This is fine dining at its most considered. Every element earns its place.
Ingredients
01 — Carrot Cake
200g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Pinch of fine sea salt
180g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
180ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g finely grated carrot
60g toasted walnuts, chopped
Zest of 1 orange
02 — Liquorice Ice Cream
500ml whole milk
200ml double cream
6 egg yolks
140g caster sugar
30g pure liquorice paste
1 tsp black treacle
Pinch of sea salt
1 tsp anise extract (optional)
03 — Liquorice Pastry Cream Espuma
400ml whole milk
4 egg yolks
80g caster sugar
30g cornflour
25g liquorice paste
1 tsp vanilla extract
200ml double cream (lightly whipped)
2 gelatine leaves
Requires a cream whipper / iSi siphon with 2 N₂O charges
04 — Carrot Sauce
400ml fresh carrot juice
50g unsalted butter
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
Juice of ½ lemon
Pinch of salt
05 — Glazed Carrot Garnish
3 medium Chantenay carrots, peeled & halved lengthways
30g unsalted butter
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp orange juice
Flaky sea salt & micro cress to finish
The Method
Step 01 — Liquorice Ice Cream (night before)
Warm milk and cream. Whisk in liquorice paste and treacle. Whisk yolks and sugar until pale, temper in hot cream. Cook to 82°C. Strain, cool over ice, churn and freeze overnight. Temper 5 minutes before serving.
Step 02 — Carrot Cake
Preheat oven to 170°C. Sift dry ingredients. Whisk sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla. Fold in dry mix, then carrot, walnuts and orange zest. Bake in a 20cm tin 30–35 mins. Cool, then cut into 6 neat 5cm cylinders with a ring cutter.
Step 03 — Liquorice Pastry Cream Espuma
Make a pastry cream with the milk, yolks, sugar and cornflour. Off heat, stir in liquorice paste, vanilla and soaked gelatine. Cool to 40°C, fold in whipped cream. Sieve into a cold iSi siphon, charge with 2 N₂O cartridges, refrigerate 2 hours minimum.
Step 04 — Carrot Sauce
Reduce carrot juice by half. Whisk in butter to emulsify. Add honey, ginger and lemon juice. Season and pass through a fine sieve. Keep warm.
Step 05 — Glazed Carrot Garnish
Melt butter with honey and orange juice. Add carrots cut-side down and cook 8–10 minutes until tender and lacquered. Season with flaky salt. Keep warm.
Step 06 — Plating (Michelin Standard)
Warm the plates. Place a carrot cake cylinder slightly left of centre. Sweep a bold arc of carrot sauce across the plate. Rest a quenelle of liquorice ice cream against the cake. Place one glazed carrot baton diagonally on top. Dispense espuma tableside in a generous cloud. Finish with micro cress and a flaky sea salt crystal on the ice cream.
Chef’s Secrets
Liquorice Quality
Use pure liquorice paste — not candy or syrup. Pontefract cake dissolved in warm cream, or Amarelli extract, gives the cleanest flavour.
Espuma Temperature
The siphon must be ice cold before charging. A warm siphon collapses the foam. Charge at least 2 hours ahead and dispense straight from the fridge.
Carrot Sauce Colour
Fresh-pressed carrot juice gives a luminous orange sauce. Reduce quickly over high heat to preserve its vivid colour and sweetness.
Plate Temperature
Warm plates to 40°C before service — warm to the touch but gentle enough not to melt the ice cream instantly.
Sommelier’s Note
Pairing Suggestion
A Pedro Ximénez sherry is extraordinary alongside this plate — its notes of dried fig, molasses and anise mirror the liquorice perfectly. Alternatively, a late harvest Riesling will lift the entire plate with gentle acidity.
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