SHF 24: Tiny Mousse and Tiny Clafoutis
How to make an irresistable dessert more appealing? Make a miniature version! I’m thrilled about this month’s theme, Little Bits Of Delight, for Sugar High Friday. In fact, this topic is quite familiar for me as it is something that I occasionally do at my workplace when they require a sweet table for group dinners. Converting a regular recipe to miniature portion is actually quite easy most of the time. If it doesn’t require any baking, the lazy way to go is to pick small serving vessels and adjust the garnish to scale accordingly. I’ve chosen to make a caramelized pineapple mousse as an example of this approach. However, for something that requires baking, it is best to experiment with the baking time and keep a close watch on the oven because things may bake up much sooner than expected. One of my favourite examples is mini cherry clafoutis. The best part is of course being able to taste the finish product much sooner with such a short baking time!
Caramelized Pineapple and Star Anise Mousse
adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s Just Desserts
Ingredients
- 250g fresh ripe sweet pineapple cubes
- 50g sugar
- 2 star anise
- 2 tbsp Malibu rum
- 350mL pate a bombe base (100mL water, 150g sugar, 5 large egg yolks)
- 600mL Italian meringue base (120g sugar, 1 tsp liquid glucose, 2 tbsp water, 2 large egg whites)
- 200mL heavy cream
Method
- Heat a heavy frying pan on high heat. Toss pineapple in sugar. Brown in pan along with star anise until the pineapples are caramelized. Add rum to pan and cook until liquid is reduced. Remove from heat and cool.
- To make the pate a bombe base, cook the water and sugar to the hard ball stage. In the mean time, whisk the egg yolks with a electric hand mixer until pale. Once the syrup is ready, continue mixing the yolks on high speed while drizzling in the syrup at the same time. The pate a bombe should increase in volume and quite creamy. Put the mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and keep mixing until the base becomes thick and glossy. Remove bowl from pan of water and continue whisking until it cools to room temperature.
- To make Italian meringue: Put sugar, glucose, and water in a clean pan and cook to hard ball stage. In the mean time, whisk the whites with an electric hand mixer until foamy. Drizzle in the syrup and keep mixing until the meringue turns glossy soft peak. Continue mixing until the meringue cools to room temperature.
- When the pineapple is cool, throw away the star anise and puree the fruit.
- Fold the pineapple puree into the meringue gently and then fold in the pate a bombe.
- Whip the cream to soft peak and fold cream into fruit mixture. Spoon into wide mouth shot glasses and chill until lightly firm.
- Garnish with triangles of caramelized phyllo pastry and fresh pineapples.
Mini Cherry Clafoutis
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets
Ingredients
- a batch of your favourite pate sablee (sweet tart dough). I like to use Pierre Herme’s recipe from Chocolate Desserts By Pierre Herme. The addition of ground almond goes very well with the cherries in this recipe.
- 3 large eggs
- 75g sugar
- 240g creme fraiche
- pulp of half a vanilla bean
- fresh cherries, pitted
Method
- Line mini tart tins with the dough. Partially bake the tart shell according to your recipe’s instruction. A trick to weigh down the tart shell is to put a paper muffin liner on top of the dough and spoon rice inside the liner.
- Preheat oven to 400F. Put the tart shells (still in the tins) on a large baking sheet.
- In a large measuring cup with a spout, whisk the eggs until they are blended. Whisk in the sugar, creme fraiche, and vanilla very gently until mixture is homogenous.
- Place two cherries in every tart shell and top each tart shell with custard mixture.
- Bake for about 15 minutes or until the custard is set in the centre. Unmold as soon as the tart is cool enough to handle. I like to eat them while they’re still warm!
Technorati: Sugar High Friday, SHF
