Chai Tea Parfait

Name: Chai Tea Parfait
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Switzerland
Ingredients: 40 g egg yolk; 30 g icing sugar; 30 g chai tea syrup; 1 pinch of vanilla seeds; 200 g whipping cream, whipped; 50 g white flour; 50 g hazelnuts, ground; 50 g granulated sugar; 75 g butter, cold; 2 fresh figs; 20 g granulated sugar; 5 g pectin; 80 g water

Festive Chai Parfait

Parfait, also known as semifreddo, is arguably one of the most festive of dessert creations, because, as its French name suggests, it is simply perfect. A parfait is quite simple to make in terms of the base mixture, and it is only through the addition of carefully selected ingredients and accompaniments that it becomes the perfect dessert treat we all know and love. In summer, you can enhance a parfait wonderfully with fresh fruit and whip up a matching sauce to go with it. In winter, nutty flavours, winter fruits and spices are particularly well-suited to the delicate ice-cream mixture. A parfait is usually served with a sauce or compote; we’ve taken it a step further and added a crumble. Our festive recommendation for you and your family: a melt-in-the-mouth chai parfait with a cocoa butter coating, delicate fig compote and a delicious hazelnut crumble. You’re guaranteed to blow everyone away with this!

At the end of this post, you’ll find the recipe available to download as a PDF.

Key figures

Serves: 6

Difficulty: Easy

Shelflife: 3 days

Chai Parfait

Egg yolk		40 g
Icing sugar		30 g
Chai tea syrup		30 g
Vanilla seeds		1 pinch
Double cream \| whipped		200 g

Hazelnut Crumble

White flour		50 g
Hazelnuts \| ground		50 g
Granulated sugar		50 g
Butter \| cold		75 g

Fig compote

Figs \| fresh		2
Granulated sugar		20 g
Pectin		5 g
Water		80 g

Monin Chai Tea Syrup, 250 ml

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF14.90

Pasteurized egg yolk powder, 100 g

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF10.90

Silicone mold Savoiardo 6 pieces

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF19.90

How to make the chai parfait

To begin with, whisk the egg yolks together with the icing sugar and the vanilla seeds. As soon as the mixture starts to become frothier and slightly firmer, you can add the chai tea syrup and whisk for a further 2–3 minutes. Now whip the double cream until it’s nice and stiff, then fold it into the egg mixture. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe about 50 g of the mixture into the silicone moulds. Place the parfait in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

White flour, 1 kg

Ready-to-ship quantity: 19

CHF4.50

Plastic bowl 1 liter

Ready-to-ship quantity: 13

CHF4.50

Baking paper 42 x 33 cm, 25 pieces

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF4.95

How to make hazelnut crumble

Preheat the oven to 170 ºC (fan).

Whilst your parfait is setting nicely in the freezer, you can start making the crumble. Place all the ingredients on your worktop or in a bowl and rub them together quickly with your hands. Make sure you don’t knead it too much – we don’t want to end up with a dough, but rather lots of little crumbs. So you really only need to knead it briefly to bring everything together a little; after that, it’s more a case of breaking the mixture apart than kneading it. The key to this step is simply that the butter must be really cold. If the butter is too soft, you’ll end up with a very soft, homogeneous dough rather than small crumble pieces. In that case, however, you can wrap the mixture in cling film, pop it in the fridge for an hour and then either crumble it as you would a normal crumble or grate it using a very coarse grater.

Spread the crumble mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven for 5–8 minutes. Whilst baking, the crumble may naturally start to stick together a little as the butter softens, leaving you with several larger pieces. This isn’t a problem, though – simply leave them to cool for long enough after baking, and you’ll be able to crumble them easily between your fingers.

Pectin (yellow ribbon), 30 g

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF6.50

Progel gel color raspberry, 25 g

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF6.40

Stirring spatula

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF6.90

Making the fig compote

The pectin is mainly there to thicken the compote so that it becomes nice and creamy. If you prefer it a bit runnier, reduce the amount of pectin or leave it out altogether.

Cut the figs into small pieces, then place them in a small saucepan with the water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer for a few minutes. Mix the sugar with the pectin, then add it to the mixture. Continue to simmer the compote until it thickens. You can also add a little food colouring so that the compote doesn’t look so greyish-brown.

Velvet Spray dark brown, 150 ml

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF19.90

Rotating cake plate Ø 27.5 cm

Ready-to-ship quantity: more than 20 pieces

CHF29.90

Finishing the Christmas dessert

Always carefully remove just two parfaits from the mould at a time and put the rest back in the freezer. This is important as the parfaits thaw quickly. Place the two you have removed from the mould onto a rotating cake stand. Place this in a larger cardboard box and then spray the parfaits with the Velvet Spray.

Tip: If you place the spray can in warm water for 2–3 minutes before use, more colour will come out of the can and the nozzle won’t block up as quickly. The rotating cake stand isn’t essential, but it’s very handy as it allows you to spray the parfaits very evenly on all sides.

Put the coated parfaits back in the freezer and repeat the steps until they’re all coated with the cocoa butter colour. To serve, we quartered some figs and placed them on top of the parfaits. Add a little fresh mint, scatter the crumble and the compote over the plate, and you’ve created a magical dessert. Enjoy it and have fun being creative!