It’s been a while since I made a pretty dessert and making this one reminded me just how much I love doing them! This one was inspired by apricots and custard so it’s made up of bruleed (caramelised) amaretto soaked apricots, crème patisserie (aka custard), and chocolate ganache and then decorated with stem ginger, almonds, amaretti biscuits and mint! Because the three main elements (the apricots, custard and ganache) are relatively easy to make this dessert is surprisingly easy and quick to throw together (unlike some of my other pretty dessert plates!). You can also display it however you like – I enjoy getting out the blowtorch and tweezers to make a little crescent shape but it works just as well all thrown into a bowl for pudding!

(Note: I’ve made meringues for this to use up the egg white leftover from making the custard, but it’s a completely optional element to the dessert!)

Recipe

Serves about 4

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

For the apricots

• 1 tin of apricot halves in fruit juice
• 2 tbsp amaretto liqueur
• 2 tbsp stem ginger syrup

For the crème patisserie

• 80ml whole milk
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla bean paste
• 20g caster sugar, plus 2-3 tsp for the brulee
• 1 egg yolk
• 5g plain flour
• 5g cornflour

For the meringue (optional)

• 1 egg white
• 40g caster sugar (ideally the same weight as the egg white, you might need to use less or more sugar accordingly)

To decorate

• 100g dark chocolate
• 100ml double cream
• 4 tbsp flaked almonds
• A few pieces of stem ginger
• 2-3 amaretti biscuits, crushed
• A few sprigs of fresh mint

Method

1. Put the apricots and their juice into a bowl. Add the amaretto and stem ginger syrup and leave to soak for at least 1 hour (you could do this the night before if you want!).
2. Meanwhile make the crème patisserie. Put the milk and vanilla into a saucepan, stir once and bring to the boil.
3. Separate the egg by rocking the yolk between the two halves of the shell and letting the egg white drip into a bowl below. Put the egg yolk into a separate bowl.
4. Add the sugar and two flours to the egg yolk and whisk together until fully combined.
5. Once the milk is heated, remove the pan from the heat and mix around 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture.
6. Whisk the mixture quickly and then pour the egg mixture back into the pan with the milk.
7. Put the pan back over a medium-low heat and whisk until the mixture thickens.
8. Pour the mixture into a pipping bag and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, until cool.
9. Meanwhile prepare the decorations. If you’re making the meringue put the egg white into a spotlessly clean bowl and whisk with an electric which until soft peaks form.
10. Add the caster sugar to the egg whites, 1tbsp at a time, whilst whisking until all the sugar is added. Keep whisking until the mixture hits firm peaks.
11. Tip the meringue out onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Smooth out with a palette knife until it’s an even sheet about the thickness of a 1p coin.
12. Pre-heat the oven to 120C and bake the meringue in the oven until crisp (about 20 minutes). Turn the oven off and leave to cool completely in the oven (this will prevent them from cracking).
13. Now make the ganache. Roughly chop the chocolate for the decoration and put it into a glass or metal bowl.
14. Put the cream into a small pan and bring up to just below the boil. Then pour it on the chocolate and stir until smooth.
15. Pour the ganache into a pipping bag and leave in the fridge for about 20 minutes, until just set enough to pipe and hold it’s shape. (If the ganache becomes too set you can warm it up in the microwave with 10 second bursts).
16. When all the components are ready start plating up. Take the apricots out of the soaking liquid and place on a plate lined with kitchen paper to soak up the excess juices.
17. Take 3 of the apricots and place them on a plate so that the hole where the stone was is facing up. Sprinkle a little caster sugar into this hole and then use a blowtorch to caramelise it (you could use a grill if you don’t have a blow torch).
18. Pipe 3-4 blobs on the crème patisserie onto a plate, making the blobs smaller further away from the apricots to start building up the crescent shape. Then take the ganache and then pipe small blobs in the gaps. Break the meringue into shards and prop them up around the plate by leaning them into the ganache and crème patisserie.
19. Finish the plate with some flaked almonds, crushed amaretti biscuits, slices of stem ginger and some fresh mint. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Dome tartlets are very much the ‘in’ thing in home-made patisserie at the moment, and after this I can see why! They’re relatively easy to put together, are open to creativity and look stunning. For these ones I’ve gone with my favourite flavour combo – chocolate and mango. I found that you can buy mango puree in tin cans which means gone are the days of getting all slippery and messy peeling, stoning and pureeing mangos! However, you could also easily make this dessert with any kind of fruit puree you like. Raspberry, strawberry or even orange would I think work well.

Recipe

Makes 6

Time: 3 hours, plus chilling time overnight

Ingredients

For the chocolate pastry

• 90g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 40g icing sugar
• 25g cocoa powder
• 80g butter
• 1 medium egg yolk

For the brownie

• 150g butter
• 210g dark chocolate
• 3 medium eggs
• 210g caster sugar
• 40g plain flour

For the mango bavarois

• 200g mango puree
• 80ml whole milk
• 60g egg yolks (about 3 eggs – see my post on what to do with the leftover egg whites!)
• 80g caster sugar
• 3 sheets of gelatine
• 100ml double cream

For the mango crème patisserie

• 150ml whole milk
• 100ml mango puree
• 2 egg yolks
• 35g caster sugar
• 20g cornflour
• 40g unsalted butter

For the mirror glaze

• 150ml double cream
• 135g caster sugar
• 60g cocoa powder
• 3 sheets of gelatine

Method

1. Begin by making the pastry. Sift the flour, icing sugar, and cocoa into a bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the egg yolk and mix it in with a round bladed knife until the mixture forms a soft paste. Make the dough into a ball with your hands, then wrap it in cling film and put it into the fridge for at least 1 hour to chill.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 160˚C.Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out between two sheets of cling film to the thickness of a 50p piece.
4. Take the top layer of cling film off the pastry and cut out 9.5cm circles. Carefully transfer each pastry disk onto a lined baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes until baked through and starting to look crisp. Leave to cool to one side until needed.
5. Meanwhile make the brownie. Raise the oven temperature to 180˚C and then grease and line a 23x30cm tin (or a tin that you can cut 6, 9.5cm circles out of) with butter and baking paper.
6. Put the butter and chocolate into a bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave to melt.
7. Take another bowl and whisk the eggs until pale and fluffy with an electric whisk. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until it leaves a trail when the whisk is taken out.
8. Fold the chocolate into the eggs, sieve in the flour and then fold everything again until combined.
9. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and smooth over to make it an even layer. Bake the brownie for 15-20 minutes until a crust has formed on top and it feel slightly firm. Set aside to cool.
10. Now make the mango bavarois. Put the mango puree, milk, egg yolks and sugar into a pan and bring up to just below boiling point. Meanwhile put the gelatine sheets into a bowl of cold water and leave for 5 minutes to soften.
11. Squeeze the gelatine to remove excess water and then add it to the warm mango mixture. Stir to dissolve and then pour the mixture into a bowl and allow to cool.
12. Whisk the cream into soft peaks and then, when the mango mixture is room temperature, fold in the cream until the mixture is of an even consistency with no lumps.
13. Pour the bavarois into some hemisphere silicon moulds and leave to set in the fridge. Once set solid, transfer the bavarois filled mould into the freezer to freeze overnight.
14. The next day make the mango patisserie. Put the milk and mango puree into a pan and bring to just below boiling point.
15. Meanwhile put the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour into a bowl and whisk together until pale and smooth. Slowly pour a little of the hot milk over the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Gradually add the rest of the milk into the egg mixture, still whisking.
16. Pour the crème patisserie mixture back into the pan and whisk over a medium heat until the mixture thickens smoothly. You’ll want this creme patisserie to be thicker than you’d normally expect a custard to be as you’ll be pipping it later.
17. Take the mixture off the heat, add the butter and whisk in until smooth. Spoon the crème patisserie into a bowl cover with clingfilm and leave to cool.
18. Now make the mirror glaze. Put the cream, sugar, cocoa and 150ml water into a pan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to the boil and then leave for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool slightly.
19. Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for about 5 minutes, until flexible. Squeeze out the excess water and then add the gelatine to the glaze and stir to dissolve.
20. Cool the glaze down to 38˚C and then it’s ready to use. This can take a while so I’ve found that transferring it into another bowl and whisking it every so often will help! Sieve the glaze to make it super smooth.
21. Take your mango hemispheres out of the freezer and carefully turn them out onto a wire rack with a large roasting tin underneath.
22. Pour the glaze evenly over the hemispheres so it covers each one in an even layer of glaze. Leave the hemisphere for 30 minutes so the glaze can set.
23. Meanwhile assemble the rest of the entremet. Cut out 9.5cm circles of the brownie, using the same cutter as you did the pastry bases. Then gently place each brownie circle on top of the biscuits.
24. Take the set mango hemispheres and place them carefully in the centres of each of the brownies (a palette knife can help with this). Then take the crème pat and pipe blobs around the dome. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x