Cheesecake Bonbons
Speculoos Cookie Butter, Cream Cheese Ganache, and Citrus
Pastry Chef Meg Galus of BOKA | Chicago
Adapted by StarChefs | March 2021
INGREDIENTS:
Speculoos Cookie Crumbs:
590 grams butter
375 grams sugar
825 grams dark brown sugar
1175 grams all-purpose flour
7.5 grams baking soda
15 grams salt
250 grams whole egg
30 grams vanilla extract
12.5 grams cinnamon
3.75 grams ground nutmeg
3.75 grams ground cloves
5 grams ground ginger
2.5 grams ground white pepper
2.5 grams ground black pepper
2.5 grams ground cardamom
Speculoos Brown Butter Spread:
300g grams speculoos cookie crumbs
145 grams browned butter (weight after browning)
20 grams invert sugar
125 grams milk
1 grams kosher salt
Cheesecake Ganache:
400 grams Smithfield pourable cream cheese
120 grams glucose
120 grams milk
830 grams white chocolate
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
2 grams salt
10 grams lemon juice
5 grams vanilla extract or paste
METHOD:
For the Speculoos Cookie Crumbs:
Put chilled butter cubes, sugars, baking soda, salt, and spices in the mixer. Cream until well combined. Add egg and vanilla – beat to combine. Add flour – beat to combine. Roll to ½” thick. Bake at 375F for 9-11 minutes, until golden. Will still be soft when it comes out of the oven – should be crisp when cool. If still soft, break into chunks and return to the oven. Once completely cook, grind in food processor to crumbs
For the Speculoos Brown Butter Spread:
Brown the butter and strain – make sure to scale accurately after straining. Process the crumbs, salt, invert sugar, and brown butter in a blender or food processor until a paste forms. Drizzle in the milk and continue blending until smooth. Pass through a chinois to remove any remaining crumbs
For the Cheesecake Ganache:
Heat the milk with the lemon and orange zests– leave to infuse for 30 min. Add the glucose and salt, and return to a boil. Strain. Melt the chocolate. Emulsify the cream into the chocolate and then add the pourable cream cheese. Add the lemon juice and vanilla. Hand blend until smooth. Let ganache cool to 29°C.
To Assemble and Serve:
Cast a chocolate mold (deep molds work best for the double layer) with dark chocolate & let set. Fill each cavity 1/3 with cookie butter. Fill the remaining 2/3 with cheesecake ganache. Let crystallize several hours overnight. Cap the bonbons and after setting and take out of molds.
