Kirsch brandy snaps with cherry mascarpone and chocolate

To begin, make the chocolate gel. Place the water, sugar and cocoa powder in a saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking regularly to avoid the liquid catching on the bottom of the pan. Once boiling, remove from the heat and set aside to cool

When the mixture is cool, whisk in the agar agar and return to the heat. Bring back to the boil, whisking continuously

Pour the liquid into a container and chill until set. Once set, transfer to a high-powered blender and blitz to a smooth gel. Place in a piping bag or squeezy bottle and keep in the fridge

Next, make the cherry mascarpone cream. Begin by making a crème pâtissière, which will later be added to the cherry and mascarpone mixes. Place the milk, cream, vanilla and half the sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan and bring to the boil

Mix in the remaining sugar, egg yolks and flours thoroughly before taking off the heat. Pour into a tray, cover with cling film to stop a skin forming and allow to cool. Once cool, blend until smooth and set aside

For the cherry mix, pour the cherry purée into a heavy-bottomed pan. Place on a low heat and bring up to a gentle boil, stirring regularly. The plan is to reduce the purée by half (to 125g). This will take time, and it is important to continue stirring so the purée doesn't stick to the pan

Meanwhile, soak the gelatine sheet in cold water and set aside. When the purée has reduced to 125g, season with 10g caster sugar and the malic acid (or lemon juice). Once the gelatine in soft, wring it out and mix thoroughly into the hot purée before taking it off the heat and setting aside to chill

Place the mascarpone in a mixing bowl. Stir in the caster sugar, sweet wine and kirsch until well-combined

Now, fold 250g of the crème pâtissière into the cherry mix and finally fold in the mascarpone mix. Transfer to a piping bag and place in the fridge. (Please note, you will have crème pâtissière and the final mix left over, both of which can be used for a number of other dishes – for example, simply add to a fresh fruit salad)

To make the cocoa soil, heat the white chocolate in a heavy-bottomed pan until the oil separates out and the chocolate has melted. Stir in the flour and cocoa until the mixture has formed into one hard lump. Set aside to cool

Place the lump in a blender and pulse until a soil/crumble mixture has been created. You may have crumble left over – it keeps well in an airtight container and can be used as a garnish in many dessert dishes

To make the kirsch snaps, preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, gently heat the golden syrup, Demerara sugar and butter until the sugar has melted

Mix in the flour and kirsch and cook out for about 3 minutes. Place the mixture in a container and set aside briefly

Meanwhile, take a baking sheet and cover it with baking parchment. Roll the mixture into rough balls the size of a 20p coin and place evenly across the baking parchment, making sure there is enough space between each ball so they can melt without touching each other

Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, or until each ball has melted and is bubbling and golden in colour. Remove from the oven and set aside – the mixture needs to be cool enough to roll but not so cool that it becomes brittle. Using a metal cylindrical object, roll the snaps around it into cylinders. Store the kirsch snaps at room temperature in an airtight container with pieces of baking parchment separating them

To assemble the dish, fill each kirsch snap with the cherry mascarpone cream. Dab two small dots of the cream on the plate and position the snaps on top so they don't roll about

Squeeze dots of the chocolate gel around the plate and crumble over the cocoa soil. Finally, garnish with some whole and half cherries and serve