Yesterday I shared the recipe for one of the confections demonstrated by Valrhona Chef and President of the Asia Pacific Pastry Cup Board, Vincent Bourdin who is one of the most respected pastry chefs in the world. He and his staff traveled from Singapore to attend the recent Chocolate Festival in Kona.
Chef Bourdin used Valrhona’s newest chocolates to create two desserts, 'Bahibe Queen' (check my post of yesterday) and 'Verrine à la Coque' which uses Dulcey, the one and only blonde chocolate. Chef Bourdin said the two were easy chocolate creations to make...but if we were to make them at home, we would need to make a few allowances. These recipes were as submitted to us. I haven't made either dessert myeself, so not sure how I would try to adapt them to my own "home cook" type of cooking.
Verrine à la Coque
Resembles a soft boiled egg in the shell - small shot or liqueur stem glasses might work for this presentation if you manage to find the capsule molds.
Streuzel Amandes (Almond Streuzel)
(Total weight 601 g)
150 g butter
150 g Demerara sugar
150 g ground almonds (he prefers Marcona)
1 g fine sea salt
150 g flour for sweet pastry
Dice the butter into small cubes. Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the butter and mix, using the paddle attachment. Small grains form, then the mixture forms an irregular mass. Stop mixing and let the mixture rest in a refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Press the paste through a 4 mm (0.15748 of an inch) sieve or candy grid to obtain regular grains. Store in refrigerator or freeze until needed. Spread the grains out regularly (do not pat down to hard) on a silicone sheet and bake at 150-160 C (302-320 F), damper open, until streuzel turns a golden brown. Crumble it before using it.
Mousse Allégée Opalys (Opalys Light Chocolate Mousse)
(Total weight 2505 g
500 g milk)
20 g gelatine sheets
985 g Opalys 33% Couverture
1000 g fresh cream
Soak the gelatine in a large volume of water. Bring the milk to the boil and add the drained gelatin. Gradually pour about a third of the hot liquid into the chocolate and stir with a whisk vigorously in order to get a smooth, glossy and elastic texture, sign of a good emulsion. Add the remaining liquid keeping the same texture, and mix. When the temperature of ganache reaches about 35 C (95 F), fold in the light whipped cream. Pour inside the glasses.
Capsule Opalys
(Total weight 1070 g)
1000 g Opalys 33% Couverture
70 g cacao butter
Mix all ingredients together. Tempered and mold (the molds he used were sort of egg shaped capsules).
Gelée Pamplemousse (Grapefruit Jelly)
(Total weight 602 g)
530 g grapefruit juice
60 g caster sugar
12 g gelatine sheets
Heat a small part of grapefruit juice and mix, add the gelatin and sugar. Add the rest of the grapefruit juice. Pour inside Opalys capsure when the temperature of the jelly is bellow 30 degrees and fill about 3/4 full and chill to set.
Assembling: Chef Bourdin used a pre-formed egg shaped capsule. Standing on an egg carton, he spooned the grapefruit jelly into the capsules about 3/4 full. Meantime, the mousse was spooned into the bottom of the glasses, then a bit of the streuzel was added. Place the grapefruit jelly filled capsule upside down over the glass and push down just a little bit... not hard or you will break the 'eggshell'.
To eat, tap the top of the 'eggshell' as if you were opening a soft boiled egg, but make sure the 'shell pieces' fall down into the container. A small soft boiled egg or demitasse spoon will work well.
The combination of tastes and textures of the grapefruit jelly, the mousse, the struzel and the 'blonde' chocolate is heavenly!
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If you missed my four previous posts about the 3rd Annual Big Island Chocolate Festival, please click on the following links:
There will be one more post about the festival...The Saturday Evening Gala!
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To learn more and keep up with information about the Big Island Chocolate Festivals, please click on the following links:
