Tags
almonds, apricots, baking, dessert, financier, food, hand of buddha, hazelnuts, lime, Pierre hermes, sweet, yum
This is first of many (I hope) of the recipes from the Pierre Hermes book “Pastries” I gave Jason first choice and this was it. I never know if he picks for the pictures or the ingredients? Anyway it was a great choice.
The recipe calls for using Hand of Buddha a fairly obscure citrus fruit. Luckily I have seen it twice so I knew what was being referenced. I saw it once in Los Angeles and once in Seattle. Both times in fairly upscale supermarkets. I remember the fragrance as just catching my nose. That’s the only reason I even looked at the fruit as it’s kind of ugly and I probably wouldn’t have looked twice. But that fragrance…..I had to track it down. The fruit looks like this…
From what I could find online it is used for it’s zest and to fragrance a room and it will grow indoors. Hmmmm I could totally see myself having a whole grove of different citrus inside, Meyer Lemons, Hand of Buddha, Pink Grapefruit… The book said you could substitute lime instead (thank you for that!)
Caramel Mousse (see the custard recipe below, you could halve this recipe)
- 135 g heavy cream
- 50 g light corn syrup
- 85 g superfine granulated sugar
- 15 g unsalted butter
In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil then remove from heat. Combine the corn syrup and sugar in another saucepan and heat until it turns amber. (Be careful, once it starts to darken, it happens very quickly and can burn). Remove from heat, add the butter and mix well. Pour the cream into the caramel & cook, set aside to cool.
Starting the boil
Add the hot cream
Caramel Marscapone Custard (this made way too much, you could halve this)
- 1 gelatin sheet (I only had powdered so used about 1 tsp)
- 140 g heavy cream
- 150 g caramel mousse (from above)
- 2 egg yolks
- 280 g marscapone cheese
Soak the gelatin in cold water for 20 mins. Combine the mousse with the egg yolks. In a separate saucepan boil the cream and then whisk it in into the mousse. Put back on the heat until it reaches 185 degrees. Drain the gelatin of excess water if there is any (Oh I used 2 tsp water to the 1 tsp of gelatin) and add it to the mixture. Blend with a hand blender and cool in the refrigerator for 4 hours. No I haven’t forgotten the marscapone, that comes later….
Egg yolks!
Citron Flavored Dough
- 115 g unsalted butter
- 20 g ground hazelnuts
- 150 g confectioner’s sugar
- 50 g all purpose flour
- 60 g ground almonds
- 5 g lime zest
- 140 g egg whites (5)
Apricot filling
- 600 g halved apricots (I had to used canned, which I drained)
- 100 g chopped almonds
- 5 g simple syrup (I just used the syrup the apricots came in)
- 20 g superfine granulated sugar
Melt the butter on low heat and remove when it turns a nutty brown color. Strain it and let it cool. Toast the ground nuts, be careful they will burn quickly, at 350. The recipe said to butter a flan ring. I don’t have one so I just used a cheesecake springform pan, I put parchment on the bottom and buttered the sides.
Preheat oven to 375. Mix together the confectioner sugar, flour, ground nuts and grated citrus zest. Incorporate the egg whites and the browned butter and mix until smooth. Pour the batter into the pan. Place the apricot halves on top. Mix the chopped almonds with the syrup & sugar and then sprinkle over the top. Bake for 40 minutes.
Remove the caramel custard from the fridge and beat in with the marscapone. (I never use marscapone because I can’t find it easily. So I use a combination of cream cheese, sour cream and a splash of heavy cream.) Fill a piping bag and pipe the marscapone caramel cream onto the top of the apricots. Decorate with chips of caramel. Melt sugar over med heat until golden and then pour onto a silpat covered backing sheet. Let cool and break up.
I can’t wait to try another recipe!
So yummy
delicio8 