I really wanted to work with custard apple, also called cherimoya, and that’s where the inspiration came from for this dessert. Custard apple, as the name suggests, tastes like a creamy pear or apple. The catch is that it has tons of poisonous seeds in it that need to be removed. Ugh, me with inedible fruit seeds, I swear. But the idea of a semi poisonous apple reminded me of Snow White and how she ate a poisoned apple in the fairy tale, hence the name for the dessert. Playing off of that idea, I went with a ruby chocolate snow as well, and I had a ton of dried hibiscus, which has a more acidic flavor to it, so I opted to use that, since the color will be blood red, and it felt good to not have to rely on citrus this time to get acidity into a dessert! To capture the texture of cherimoya best, I went with a frozen parfait, something I also don’t do that frequently, and paired that with the hibiscus syrup, and disks of ruby chocolate for texture, and some ruby chocolate snow, since it’s Snow White’s apple, and there needs to be snow on the plate of some form. If you want to argue with me that the snow should be white, well it’s dyed pink because she ate a poisonous apple and the snow is now tainted with her blood. There you go. I went there.

For the custard apple parfait:
1/4 cup custard apple pulp, seeds and skin removed
1/4 cup yogurt
3 tablespoons honey
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a food processor, puree together everything. Pour into acetate-lined cylinder molds and freeze solid, for at least 3 hours.

For the hibiscus syrup:
1/2 oz dried hibiscus flowers
1 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt

Reduce the ingredients on low heat until the water is cooked out by half and the flowers and fully plump. Separate out the petals and cool everything down before it is time to garnish.

For the ruby chocolate disks:
1 cup ruby chocolate
a pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler in a heatproof bowl. Once the chocolate is half-melted, take off heat and stir in the salt and until combined. Pour out all but 2 tablespoons of the chocolate onto an acetate sheet and spread thinly. Scrape with a ridged bench scraper. Using a 1 1/2-inch ring mold and a skewer, cut and trace the still-melted chocolate to form circles, then freeze until set.

For the ruby chocolate dust:
2 tablespoons reserved melted ruby chocolate
1/4 cup tapioca maltodextrin

Combine the still melted chocolate with maltodextrin powder to form a dust.

To plate:
Start with some of your syrup on the bottom, then garnish Ith your parfait, the disks, petals, and ruby chocolate snow to finish.