Recipes | Chopped Challenge

Today in class we did our Chopped Challenge, where we were given  a "Mystery Basket", or really a note card with our ingredients, and we had to create a dessert. We had to include all items and some form of a foam or sabayon and meringue or fruit chip. Luckily we got first grab on Thursday and got to plan over the weekend. This is what me and my team member came up with:

"Mystery Basket" Items

• Canned Peaches
• Figs
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Instant Espresso 
• Cream Cheese

What we created:

• Cream cheese pound cake layers
• Peach sabayon folded in whipped cream between layers
• Fig fruit chips
• Balsamic reduction with brown sugar
• Espresso caviar (not really caviar but any puree or juice with some gelatin, dropped into cold oil to make it look like little caviar dots)
• Topped with quenelle of whipped cream and sugar garnish

I was worried about the balsamic vinegar because it smelled strong but I have heard people roasting strawberries and other sweet fruit with the balsamic, plus adding the brown sugar helped cut the strong vinegar flavor. The cake layers were soaked with the syrup from the canned peaches which helped give the peach sabayon more flavor. The espresso caviar were a little bitter but reminded me of an Americano. Putting everything together tasted awesome because the elements helped each out. The balsamic reduction helped to cut the super sweet cream cheese pound cake, the whipped cream helped with the espresso caviar and the sabayon was just a nice cream accent to the cake. I would totally make this again and I had tons of fun with this challenge.

Have you ever seen the actual Chopped t.v show? What would you all make from these items?