These little pearls were inspired by a recent trip to Hawaii(yes, I have been to Oahu 4 times in the past 3 years, I am addicted. Well, that and I have a bunch of friends who live there – shout out to Ann and Lauren – so Waikiki along with Austin have been two places I find myself traveling to at least once a year now. P.O.G. is a Hawaiian drink, standing for passionfruit, orange, and guava. A.K.A. three ingredients I love individually and even better together. It is sweet, tangy, and tart, so it is already quite flavorful and well balanced on its own. A long, long, LONG time ago, we’re talking when I was still a highschooler just learning how to bake, one of my O.G. dessert concepts was this lime-coconut sabayon tart with guava foam. This recipe is basically taking that original inspiration, but taking it up a bunch of notches on a technical front, while also using P.O.G. in place of lime – the passionfruit and the orange specifically are substituting it.

This recipe features a POG mousse with a POG liquid core, a white chocolate shell, a coconut shortbread “shell”, and pink bubble sugar for garnish. I used a seashell-shaped madeleine pan to achieve the seashell shape for the shortbreads, but if you do not own one, you can also just bake the shortbreads in rings instead! Since there is a white chocolate shell, and the garnish is very sweet(being straight sugar), I opted to not use a whole lot of additional sugar elsewhere – the mousse has no additional sugar, just so that the white chocolate can sweeten the mousse itself. With the POG components, I used a little bit of xanthan gum to thicken the liquid core, giving it a coulis-like texture – the cores are frozen solid prior to adding into the centers of my POG mousses, just for cleaner assembly. The mousse is set with gelatin and cornstarch to give it a luscious, silky texture. I also used silicone sphere molds to form the mousses, which guaranteed a smooth, round shape and already-formed spheres, as opposed to sealing two half mousse spheres together.

In terms of order of operations, I recommend making the liquid core first, and then when that is frozen solid, then work on your mousse. With the shortbreads, they can be fragile since we used coconut flour to bring in a more concentrated coconut flour, so I did brush the exterior of the cookies with some leftover white chocolate shell just to keep the shortbreads stable. The white chocolate shell is a take on the magic chocolate shell, made by melting down white chocolate with coconut oil and using that to both coat the frozen POG mousses and to coat the shortbreads. The bubble sugar, I wish I could have used POG juice in it, but I found that the additional things from POG juice caused the sugar to burn before it could set, so I had to default to using regular sugar to just get that coral-like pink sugar garnish made. At the least, I can assure you that this dessert does not run the risk of being too sweet, as the core and mousse being unsweetened balance it all out!

Makes 6 servings:
For the P.O.G. liquid core:
5oz P.O.G. juice
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
a pinch of salt

In a pot, heat up the ingredients while stirring until everything comes up to a boil. Allow the mixture to cool down to room temperature before pouring into 1/2-inch half sphere molds and freezing solid, at least 2 hours. Press the sphere halves together to form full spheres.

For the P.O.G. mousse:
6oz P.O.G. juice
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp gelatin powder
a pinch of salt
4oz heavy cream, whipped stiff

In a pot, whisk together the juice, sugar, cornstarch, gelatin, and salt first. Place the pot on heat and whisk on medium-high heat until the liquid thickens and clings to the sides of your whisk. Transfer the liquid into a bowl and allow that to cool down before folding in the whipped cream.

For initial assembly:
Using a silicone sphere mold, fill the molds halfway full with the mousse. Press into each cavity your frozen-solid liquid core and then pipe the remaining mousse on top. Press the top half of the sphere molds onto the mousses, sealing the mold tightly around the mousses. Transfer to the freezer and freeze for at least 3 hours before attempting to unmold.

For the coconut shortbread:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp coconut flour or finely ground coconut flakes
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, mix everything but the egg yolk and vanilla together until it resembles sand. To that, add the egg yolk and vanilla, stirring until it all forms a dough. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut out 6 3-inch disks. Transfer the disks onto a lined sheet tray and bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes. Allow the shortbreads to fully cool before using.

For the white coconut shell:
1/2 cup white chocolate
.1oz coconut oil
a pinch of salt

In a heatproof bowl over a double boiler, melt down 3/4 of the white chocolate with coconut oil and salt. Take the bowl off heat and stir in the remaining white chocolate, mixing until it is all melted together. Prepare another bowl with cold water. Skewer the frozen-solid mousse spheres and carefully dip them into the melted chocolate. Once coated, dip the spheres into the cold water to fast-set the chocolate shells before carefully removing the mousses from the skewers. With any residual shell, brush that onto the exterior of the shortbreads, allowing that to set on the outside of the cookies so that they have a thin, white chocolate exterior.

For the pink bubble sugar:
1oz granulated sugar
.1oz corn syrup
1oz water
1 drop pink food coloring
.1oz rum

In a pot, bring everything but the pink food coloring and rum to a boil, allowing everything to reduce into a syrup. Take some parchment paper and crinkle it. Once the syrup registers at 300 degrees F, take the pot off heat and stir in the coloring. Brush the rum onto the crinkled parchment. Pour the sugar over the parchment in a thin layer(I recommend putting the parchment on a slanted surface so that the sugar will spread as it pours) and allow it to harden before breaking into smaller pieces to garnish the pearls with.