The Supreme eG Baking and Pastry Challenge (Round 4)

[Shalmanese]

When Mette said to create a series of "seasonal and local" dessert tapas, he didn't exactly say where it should be local to so I decided to get a bit creative with the rules. If you were to search for "vegemite dessert before today, you would get a stunning zero links. Such a thing evidently did not exist. Of course, after google crawls this page, this will mark the record of the public unveiling of the world's inaugural vegemite based dessert.

This last dessert comes at a particularly auspicious time for me seeing as I managed to lose both The right to Habeas Corpus and also The right to own Vegemite in the same month. If you don't hear from me again, you may assume the worst.

So enough with the fanfare, I present to you:

Vegemite and Parmesan Cheesecake

This totally stunned me but it actually works far better than I would have imagined. The taste of vegemite is definately recognisable but it loses it's harshness which puts so many people off. Instead, it morphs into something kinda nutty, kinda chocolatey, kinda savoury but very hard to pin down. In short, it tasted really, really good. I was really suprised by the extreme amount of vegemite I had to put into each one of these to get that effect. For each ramekin, there was a heaping teaspoon of vegemite. For those unfamiliar, thats about 20 servings worth.

Still, I wanted to do something out there and a bit eye opening and this dessert definately fits the bill. I'm just glad it came out incredibly tasty as well.

[gfron1]

oh sure...do a Vegemite dessert right after I learned its been banned in the US Actually I have plenty at my store, so no worries...now get it up on the recipe area so we can make it! Good job on the challenge. BTW, I would have grabbed the pumpkin ice cream cake first - SLURP

[Kerry Beal]

Round 5 here. Chantiglace "creates a dessert involving smoke that evokes autumn".

Should be an interesting challenge.

[Pontormo]

Hilarious ending to a creative array of tapas. Not at all what I expected!

I once participated in an international food blog by mail where the person who paired up donors and recipients was wicked. She asked if there were any allergies or aversions we needed to announce. I said I was easy, but would prefer not being paired with anyone from countries familiar to me, or in mentioning the UK, I mentioned my utter dislike of Marmite.

So, what does she do? Yup, a package from Australia was thrilling except for the fact that it contained a little packet of Vegemite!

I hope you at least used a green box of Kraft Parmesan to go with the company's other ignoble product.

ETA: Really, meant in fun. Looks gorgeous. Okay?

Edited October 23, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[K8memphis]

I am certain that I am the only person that did not know what vegemite was (isn't that what Lucy and Ethel were selling?) but anyway, this is what I discovered.

[LittleIsland]

Congralations Shalmanese, on an incredible effort... and for clearing up any confusion about your gender

Also, from her picture with her challenge results, I am pretty sure now that Mette is a gal !!

And, I think it would be interesting to try your Vegemite cheesecake... I ate the stuff when living in Oz but didn't find it too different from what we already had here in Singapore - Marmite. Both yeast extracts. Yummm on hot buttered toast.

[Kouign Aman]

That Vegemite ban is reallllly weird.

Is Marmite also banned?

[gfron1]

Here it is. I believe its only Vegemite.

[Mette]

What a great result!!! Not at all what I'd expected, but then again, that's why you were a great choice for challengee.

My husband (yes, I am a woman) was in hysterics when I told him of the vegemite/parmesan cheesecake - he is english and lives marmite. Has trouble believing that the stuff is good for anything other than spreading thinly on toast. I may just have to try it - will the recipe make it to recipeGullet.

What do wild kiwis tast like? Never heard of them, but then again, I don't exactly live in the kiwi growing regions of the world.

Anyway - excellent and highly unexpected result - hope the Aussies make it tonight!

[Shalmanese]

The recipes are finally up. Sorry about taking so long. I kept trying to fit them all into one recipegullet entry but it always got too unwieldy and I kept on giving up. Finally I threw in the towel and made a seperate entry for each one.

Grapefruit Terrine & Lygonberry Shooter

Wild Kiwis with a Lygonberry Biscuit

Mini Pumpkin Ice-Cream Sandwiches

Duck Biscuits with Cilantro Jelly

Mini Cherry Toffee Apples

Mini Chocolate Bar

Vegemite Parmesan Cheesecake

[LucyInAust]

As an Australian that Vegemite Parmesan Cheesecake will be added to my list of "must makes" one day!! What a fascinating idea to work with vegemite in desserts ... now since I'm a chocoholic ... I wonder how the two would work together?!

[Shalmanese]

I was wondering whether to put chocolate in or not but after I tasted the end result, I felt it would work better pure. I could definately see chocolate working there so feel free to experiment.