Sweetie Pie
  • Mont Blanc and a different Christmas

    Chestnuts everywhere

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  • This year my Christmas is going to be a bit different, I am working in the kitchen, I have to assume that my profession is like that, the bittersweet side of my job because hotels are open 365 days a year. But I don’t want that to make me sad, so I decided to make lots of Christmas desserts (if I have enough time).

    Mont Blanc is a traditional French dessert, it was created by Angelina pâtisserie, the classic version in with chestnuts, a hard meringue and chantilly cream (super, super light) but well that is what happens when the holidays are in winter. Because in Chile for Christmas we enjoy some ice cream or in my family that was the tradition.

    The dessert is inspired by the famous mountain Mont Blanc and that is why it has a mountain kind of shape and the final touch is the icing sugar on top, resembling the snow. It is a sugar bomb, and it brings me memories of my mom and grandma because when we were kids they devoured the jars of marron glace, they were a luxury to have at home.

    I didn’t like them, I think chestnuts are that kind of food that you only really enjoy when you are older, haha, or maybe that is just me, and also that means I am old now.


    I went to Paris last month and you could see every pastry shop with their version of the Mont Blanc. You could also smell the chestnuts being fried in pans on the street and it was so cold you wanted to eat them all. So I decided to get all the ingredients to make this dessert.

    It has a lot of components, I am not going to lie and say it is easy to make, but when I was able to acomplish the mission I felt so proud of myself. You are going to need a special nozzle to make the final touch.

     

     

    ¿Quieres tener algunas de mis recetas a mano?

    ¿Quieres tener algunas de mis recetas a mano?

    Conoce mis libros

    Mandarin Mont Blanc

    Preparation time: 4 hours
    Servings: 8 individuals

    Ingredients

    Almond sable 

    • 125 g flour
    • 90 g butter
    • 30 g icing sugar
    • 30 g almond flour
    • 1 egg yolk
    • pinch of salt

    Chestnut frangipane

    • 75 g butter
    • 75 g caster sugar
    • 75 g almond flour
    • 75 g eggs
    • 75 g chestnut paste

    Chestnut pastry cream (Cedric Grolet recipe) 

    • 250 g pastry cream
    • 10 g chestnut cream
    • 10 g chestnut paste

    Mandarin compote 

    • 150 g mandarin puree
    • 20 g caster sugar
    • 3 g pectin
    • 4 g gelatine

    Italian meringue

    • 225 g caster sugar
    • 100 ml water
    • 120 g egg whites

    Chestnuts cream for the outside (modified recipe from Pierre Hermé)

    • 125 g chestnut paste
    • 275 g chestnut puree
    • 125 g chestnut cream

    Preparation

    Almond sable 

    1. Mix the butter with the flour, the sugar, and the almond flour until it resembles crumbs.
    2. Add the egg yolks, without over mixing, add the salt and make a disc with the dough covering it with cling film and chill it for at least 2 hours.
    3. Once it is ready with a rolling pin work the dough and put it in tart rings of 8 cm diameter, bake for 15 minutes at 170ºC.

    Chestnut frangipane

    1. Soften the butter with the sugar, once it is well mixed add the almond flour and the eggs. 
    2. Add the chestnut paste and fill the bottom of the blind-baked tart cases, and bake for 10 minutes or until the frangipane looks golden brown. 

    Chestnut pastry cream

    1. Prepare a pastry cream adding the gelatine at the end
    2. To the pastry cream, add the chestnut cream and the paste
    3. To the baked tart cases with the frangipane pipe the cream to the top of the tart case. 

    Mandarin compote

    1. Heat the mandarin puree until it boils. Mix the pectin with the sugar and hydrate the gelatine with cold water. 
    2. Once the puree boils add the sugar and pectin and let it boil one more minute so the pectin works. 
    3. Take out of the fire, add the gelatine and pour in a silicone semi-sphere mold, freeze for at least 1 hour. 

    Italian meringue

    1. In a pan put the water and sugar to heat and in another bowl put the egg whites, once the syrup reaches 100ºC start whisking the egg whites.
    2. Leave it in the fire until it reaches 118ºC and pour slowly to the egg whites, always whisking. Once all the syrup is in the bowl, speed up the whisk to maximum speed, until the meringue is at room temperature and shinny. 

    Chestnut cream for the outside

    1. Mix the creams in the order they are written, taking care to not over mix, put in a piping bag with a Mont Blanc nozzle and leave it in a cold place.

    Assembly

    1. Once we have the pastry cream in the base of the tart, put on top the mandarin insert. With a plain nozzle pipe the rest of the cream covering the insert.
    2. Pipe the meringue giving it the shape of the mont blanc, while we do the same with the rest keep them in the fridge.
    3. With a mont blanc nozzle, we decorate the outside using a turntable and sprinkle some icing sugar on top. Enjoy! 

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