Not really long time ago i made the mandarin&popcorn creation as u could see it… and i made a big discovery which i would like to share with u guys….

As usually for all the huge explorations need a coincidense somewhere…. in my case it was an “average” breakfast action when i mixed up a couple of things and realize that they are going surpisingly well…

Ok ok, its time to tell u the truth…

HAZELNUT

POPCORN

THYME

… together…. :) sweet magic!

Soooo… after my clementin plate had a big bowl of popcorn leftover with a nice bunch of fresh stolen thyme from my park…

(footnote: being totally honest with u guys, i burned this “cinema snack” in the micro… i never eat, never make but ive got memories from my childhood that every time my mum put the already buttered and salted bag in the microwave was never enought the time to pop out all…. so we couldnt eat half of the corn. This time for that reason i put loooong time and took it out when i ‘did smell something in the air’… a bit late…. but now, thanks for this, as i said above, accidents drive us further :))))

I was sitting in the middle of the kitchen with my big bowl of muesli which in this case contained lots of fresh whole and sweet hazelnut püréé. I had just a bit of this stuff at the bottom of my bowl when i ve seen a huge mountain of “half burnt” popcorn next to me seasoned with seasalt and thyme… accidentally grab a couple of pieces and dropped in the bowl mixing with the hazelnut püréé and spooned into my mouth… And the magic happened. :D

After finding my flavours could come the brainstorming about the textures and the main dessert elements… to reach complexity i decided having one big cake on the plate but plating up almost every elements separately… just to have some fun putting it together on the top of your tongue!!! :)

I have choosen the hazelnut to role the “spongy cake” part with the marriage with an old friend, a deconstructed cheesecake-snake as a “cake filling” flavoured by some “nicely burnt” popcorn and covered with salty hazelnut powder. In the meanwhile supporting it from the backround: sweet hazelnut tuille and püréé with salty popcorn crunch, and crystallized lemon thyme sugar with a drop of its own oil.

Beautiful – beautiful dish. No need more words. Lets try.