Recipe

Vegetarian Dark Chocolate Icing with Agar Agar Recipe
Dessert  Sauces & Condiments  Dairy  French  
Ingredients
Element #6 Dark Chocolate Icing

Ingredients:
1 tsp- 1 1/2 tsp agar flakes, ground in a spice grinder or food processor
1/4 cup (60g) heavy cream
2.1 oz (5 Tbsp / 60g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (50g) water
1/3 cup (30g) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 1/2 tsp water to make a slurry

Preparation time: 25 minutes (10mn if you don’t count softening the agar-agar)

Equipment: Small bowl, small saucepan

Directions
Soften the agar-agar in 1 tbsp. or so of cold water for 15 minutes.

Bring all of the ingredients to a boil in a pan and simmer for up to fifteen minutes.
Let cool and check the texture as it cools. As soon as the mixture is smooth and coats a spoon well (it is starting to gelify), use immediately.

Once yule log (or cake etc) is frosted, place it in the freezer and allow to harden overnight.

Notes
Note: Because the icing gelifies quickly, you should make it at the last minute.

This recipe originally had gelatin, but I substituted agar-agar. It was one of the first times I’d used agar-agar (although I did once unsuccessfully try to use it to make vegetarian marshmallows).
If you need to substitute agar-agar for gelatin in a recipe, here are the equivalences:

8g powdered gelatin = 1 (0.25 oz) envelope powdered gelatin = 1 Tbsp powdered gelatin = 1 Tbsp Agar-Agar.
1 Tbsp. of agar-agar flakes is equal to 1 tsp. of agar-agar powder.

This was a first attempt, so the recipe has some kinks to be worked out. It really does need to be frozen overnight, and even then the frosting will be soft and softens quickly.

Rating:  6

Original Source:  Adapted from Daring Baker Challenge to be Vegetarian

Recipe ID:  1344 		Added:  December 29, 2008

Last Modified:  December 29, 2008