SHF #37 - Carrot ganache covered and clementine curd filled petit four

This was not what I had in mind for the November edition of SHF. But if plan A fails, plan B just has to do. When I read that Leslie at 'definitely not martha' wanted to see beta carotene packed recipes I thought I had the ultimate recipe, nice and sweet, orange coloured and packed with beta carotene. My idea was to make carrot and white chocolate truffles. Instead of using cream to make the ganache I used homemade carrot juice (I steamed the carrots before juicing). The ganache had a pretty orange colour due to the very intense orange of the carrot juice. I used more chocolate (100 g / 3 ½ oz) than carrot juice (75 ml / 2 ½ fl. oz) and also added some butter. I put the ganache in the fridge to firm up, and here we get to the core of the problem....it didn't firm up. I gave it a day more, and it seemed a bit firmer (but still liquid) and just to be sure I gave it another day....but as you already saw in the picture this didn't give the result I was looking for. So much for the truffles....
Plan B was excecuted in a hurry so it doesn't look very pretty. I used some orange chiffon cake scraps that I still had in my freezer from the Daring Bakers Oktober challenge and filled it with the clementine and lemon curd that was left over from the tart I made last week. I topped it off with the carrot and white chocolate ganache. This resulted in a very citrusy tangy sweet petit four. The ganache did not have a carrot taste (you could smell it a bit though) but it sort of mellowed down the sweetness of the white chocolate and and of course it added plenty of beta carotene! The ganache in turn mellowed down the tartness of the clementine and lemon curd. All in all it was a delicious combination.
I think the glaze would be excellent over carrot cake too or any other cake that happens to need an orange coloured glaze.

Btw the curd and chiffon are good sources of vitamine A too because of the eggs and egg yolks. Vitamine A is the vitamine beta carotene is transformed into in the human body. Just thought I'd share my infinite wisdom with you ;)

Recipe for the orange chiffon cake here.
Recipe for the clementine and lemon curd here.

Carrot and white chocolate glaze

75 ml (2 ½ fl. oz)carrot juice (made from about 350 g steamed carrots)
100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate, finely chopped
10 g (2 ts) butter, softened

Bring the carrot juice to a boil. Pour over the chocolate and butter. Allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth. Chill for at least 2 hours.