Whipped Honey Ricotta Dip with Corn Flake Crunch

The most angelic of all my recipes so far, I mean, this Whipped Honey Ricotta Dip with Corn Flake Crunch looks like an angel turned into a dip. Or it just resembles a golden retriever, which is essentially an angel with four paws, no?

Inspired by honey cluster cereal and Honey Joys, the extra crunchy honey corn flakes make for a gorgeous garnish and double as a cracker to smear whipped ricotta onto.

This is a fairly sweet dip, matched with the creaminess of lemon-y ricotta, so I would suggest serving this with a couple of savoury dishes to balance the flavours. It can be served with appetizers, as long as there are olives, garlic and anchovies about! Just make sure to invite me.

To make sure the corn flake mixture is extra crunchy, it gets dowsed in both melted butter and brown butter. Then, it is baked and put in the fridge to set. The crispiness and crunch will come from the butter hardening in the fridge, so don’t worry if it comes out the oven and is still a bit soft.

Once it sets in the fridge for an hour, you’ll get the most satisfying crunch when you break it apart to put along the whipped ricotta dip. The golden corn flake crunch will be so crunchy that you can use it as a cracker.

You can expect pockets of gooey caramel-like sauce in between corn flakes in the golden crunch. We brown half the butter mixture with honey until it becomes a sticky, gooey glaze, very similar to caramel in texture. Once it clumps with the corn flakes, there will be pockets of it amongst the super shatteringly sharp corn flakes. I know, sounds insane, and it is!

Ingredients:

250g ricotta

squeeze of fresh lemon

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 tbsp honey, to garnish

pinch of salt

Honey Crunch:

1 cup corn flakes

1/2 cup flaked almonds

2 tbsp sesame seeds, white

50g unsalted butter

2 tbsp honey

pinch of salt

Method:

To make the honey crunch: combine corn flakes, flaked almonds, sesame seeds and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

In a small saute pan, melt butter with honey over low heat. Remove half of the melted butter and honey mixture once it begins to foam and set aside in a small bowl. Keep browning the remaining butter and honey in the pan, stirring constantly, until it becomes a light caramel colour and has the consistency of a caramel. Once it becomes this colour, turn off the heat, pour into a small bowl and set aside.

You should now have one small bowl of melted butter with honey and another small bowl with gooey and sticky brown butter and honey.

Pour the gooey caramel butter into the mixing bowl with our corn flake mixture. Mix and combine with your hands, it will be sticky so it will clump easily. Pour the second bowl of melted butter over the corn flake mixture and combine until everything is nicely coated in butter and honey.

Pour the corn flake mixture onto a baking paper lined sheet tray and bake for 15 minutes in the oven at 80C/175F, fan forced. After it’s baked, leave to cool for 5-10 minutes, then place in the fridge to harden and crisp for one hour.

Meanwhile, whip the ricotta in a food processor with lemon, olive oil and salt. Once smooth, keep in the fridge until ready to assemble.

To plate: smear whipped ricotta over a beautiful plate, creating a crater in the center for a puddle of honey. Drizzle in about 1/2 tbsp of honey to the center, then olive oil all around and shards of the honey crunch over the top. Sprinkle over flakey salt and dig in.