Recipe of the month
Wild strawberry & lemon heart
For 10 desserts, 2 portions.
White chocolate shell
- Tempered white chocolate 220 g
- Cocoa butter 70 g
Add cocoa butter into tempered white chocolate. Thinly mould chocolate and leave to crystallise.
Pistachio dacquoise sponge
- Egg white 70 g
- Caster sugar 20 g
- Iranian pistachios 40 g
- Brown sugar 15 g
- Raw sugar 25 g
- Pistachio praline 20 g
- Maldon salt 10 pinches
- Flour 20 g
Mix pistachios with raw sugar, brown sugar and salt. At the same time, whip egg
whites, adding 20 g of sugar in three times. Fold the pistachio mixture into the whipped meringue and finish with the praline and the sifted flour. Bake at 175°C for 17 minutes.
Puff pastry
- Flour 170 g
- Maldon salt 10 pinches
- Butter 30 g
- Water 80 g
- Vanilla a couple of grains
- Dry butter 90 g
Make a classic puff pastry.
Wild strawberry jelly
- Wild strawberry jelly 320 g
- Caster sugar 60 g
- Pectin NH 5 g
- Lemon zest 10 g
Heat the puree with sugar. Add zest and the pectin mixed with the rest of the sugar.
Boil and refrigerate.
Lemon cream
- Lemon juice 100 g
- Fresh lemon zests, mixed 10 g
- Caster sugar 140 g
- Eggs 40 g
- Egg yolks 70 g
- Butter 50 g
Cook all of the ingredients to 83°C, pour into containers to cool and at 35°C mix
in the butter with a hand mixer.
Whipped cream
- Cream 35% fat 520 g
- Icing sugar 50 g
- Mascarpone 50 g
- Vanilla a couple of grains
Whip all of the ingredients to a chantilly texture.
Final cream
- Lemon cream 400 g
- Gelatin 10 g
- Water 40 g
- Whipped cream 630 g
Cool the lemon cream and add the melted gelatin. Leave to cool and fold in the lightly whipped cream.
Plating
Line the mould with the final lemon cream. Add the wild strawberry jelly and the pistachio sponge. Finish with the mousse and stop 1 cm from the top of the mould. Leave to freeze. Turn out the mould and place onto a baked puff pastry.
Recipe given by
Pierre Marcolini
Maison Marcolini, Bruxelles, Belgique
The idea?
When creating this dessert, I came up with the idea to create something to share for two persons. I also wanted something light
and fresh.
The shape?
Considering that I was taking a risk with the flavours, I wanted to be conservative with the shape. A heart is certainty on Valentine’s Day. I wanted a pure finish and that is why I left is white with just a couple of red notes.
The flavours?
I always a lightly acidic dessert which balances out the rest of the meal. Therefore I decided to work with lemon and wild strawberries. I also played with the different textures with the crunch of the puff, creaminess with the lemon cream and the softness of the dacquoise sponge.
The technical step?
The most technical step would have to be the finishing. The most important thing in a dessert is to ensure a prefect balance of flavour. It is important that each element pairs well with the others and finish with an explosion of flavours.
Careful
For me it is important that the flavour balances prefectly. If there is too much mousse, it can become too rich. It is equally important to play with different textures; finding the perfect balance in between
crunch, creaminess and softness.
