Dessert First + Alessi: Chocolate Namelaka and Orange Blossom Cream

chocolate namelaka with orange blossom cream, cookie crumbles, and cocoa nibs

I hope you’ve enjoyed my monthlong collaboration with Alessi. It’s been truly inspiring to get to work with some of their pieces – not to mention they’ve been making my place look that much lovelier too! I have a newfound appreciation for the pleasure a beautifully designed product can elicit, whether I’m using it or just admiring its craftsmanship. 

For this last post, I’m featuring one of my favorite collections from Alessi. Although they may be best known for their fanciful pieces, Alessi also has an equal number of more understated, slightly more practical styles, including Dressed. The Dressed collection was designed by renowned Dutch designer Marcel Wanders, who has an offbeat, whimsical, and deeply humanist style. The entire collection includes cookware and table settings in aluminum, stainless steel, porcelain, and crystal. Most of the pieces look straightforward, almost minimalist, but then you notice certain portions like the lids or sides covered with a gorgeously rococo raised scrollwork that’s elaborate yet refined at the same time.

They are a stunning, poetic melding of the practical and the decorative, especially with the pots and the pans, workhorse staples of any kitchen that are often reduced to the most utilitarian of forms. It’s striking to see a simple, plain aluminum pot adorned with a mirror-polished stainless steel lid marked with intricate curls and swirls. It looks like a museum showpiece, but it’s actually usuable.

Although I would love to have used some of the cookware in this photo series, it made more sense to show off the table settings. The porcelain dishes and bowls are cut in a sort of abstract curved pattern that looks a bit like petals and a bit like waves. It looks both organic yet structured at once. Some of the dishes and flatware have the same baroque scrollwork on the top, or sometimes the underside. Wanders calls it “introverted decoration”, placing details in unexpected areas, and I think it add to the whimsical yet formal nature of the collection.

chocolate namelaka and alessi dressed dessert plate and spoons

I just really loved the Dressed dessert bowls and plates, and I wanted to use them to present my recipe, but after some deliberation I wanted a more elegant presentation than just arranging some cake on a plate. So I added in some Marni water tumblers, pressed into service as verrines for a layered chocolate dessert.

Chocolate knows no season, but since it’s summer I wanted a very light and chilled dessert. This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy chocolate – It’s like a mousse but with an even softer and more unctuous mouthfeel. Namelaka is Japanese for “creamy”, and I go dreamy about it in this Valrhona post where I first learned the technique.

Namelaka is a ultra-refined, luxurious way to enjoy chocolate – it has a pleasing thickness and sheen to the eye, and melts like a dream in the mouth. It hardly takes any extra effort to make than ganache; just a bit of added gelatin and corn syrup, and a whir with a stick blender. It will seem very liquidy when you first make it, and you might think there isn’t enough gelatin, but that’s how it should be. There is just enough gelatin to give the mixture some body without taking away the smooth, almost-liquid flow. You can really see the difference after it’s set in the refrigerator: at first glance, it looks just like solid ganache. But once you set a spoon in, it immediately gives and you see it’s still perfectly soft and creamy.

I used a mix of Guittard’s Etienne 64% and 70%, some of my current favorite baking chocolates. I like them for their clean, not too sweet chocolate flavor with notes of red fruit and cherries, and a dry but not too astringent finish. Use your favorite chocolate between 64%-70% cacao for this recipe.

chocolate namelaka and alessi dressed – love the scalloped plates

To balance the richness of the chocolate, I added a dollop of orange blossom water-scented chantilly cream for a floral note. I originally wanted to do a pastry cream but it ended up being too much creamy texture. Instead, contrast is provided with chocolate cookie crumbs and cocoa nibs. You can even put a layer of cookie crumbs at the very bottom if you want even more crunch.

Although it has several components, they are all easily made ahead of time, and you can assemble it right before serving, or assemble beforehand and then chill in the refrigerator. This dessert will take even the simplest of dinners from everyday to special, just like the Dressed collection.

Thanks again to Alessi for the opportunity to do this collaboration. I hope some of the pieces and the recipes have inspired your summer style!

chocolate namelaka and dressed spoon