You’ve probably noticed, the latest recipes published on the blog have been particularly indulgent and chocolatey. The return of the lovely weather made me want something fresher and lighter.
So here are some little entremets with mint, raspberry and lime flavours. I love the mint raspberry combination — it’s incredibly fresh. I’d already tried this combination to make mint raspberry macarons.
The recipe isn’t too difficult to make, but it requires several steps and a little organisation, like any entremets. This little dessert is made up of a pâte sucrée, a lime almond sponge (whose recipe I borrowed from the blog Empreinte sucrée, replacing the ground hazelnuts with ground almonds), a raspberry confit, a mint whipped ganache and a mint lime gel to add a bit of zing!
For a nice look, I used a ready-made red velvet spray (the ideal is to make your own velvet coating and use a paint sprayer reserved just for that). I do have a paint sprayer, but I admit that when I’m in a hurry, these velvet sprays come in rather handy. In any case, these little entremets didn’t last long — they were delicious and very light. I’m becoming more and more of a fan of this kind of dessert (I used to be on team chocolate, but I’m starting to switch sides :P)
Ingredients & Method
8 components · Complete recipe
Sweet pastry (to start 2 days ahead or the day before)
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.3 oz) butter
- 95 g (3.4 oz) icing sugar
- 30 g (1.1 oz) almond powder
- 60 g (2.1 oz) egg (1 large egg)
- 250 g (8.8 oz) flour
- a pinch of fleur de sel
- a knife tip of vanilla powder
Method
1
Place the softened butter and icing sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix at low speed. Add the almond powder, vanilla powder and fleur de sel and mix again.
2
Add the beaten egg and stir with a spatula this time (it will be easier than with the machine).
3
Finish with the flour and mix briefly with the machine until you obtain a smooth dough ball. Don't overwork the dough. Bring it together without insisting. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions.
Mint Lime Gel (can be made the day before)
Ingredients
- 30 g (1.1 oz) lime juice
- 20 g (0.7 oz) water
- 15 g (0.5 oz) sugar
- 3 g (0.1 oz) powdered gelatine
- 12 g (0.4 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatine)
- zest of 1 lime
- about ten mint leaves
Method
1
Rehydrate the gelatine in the water.
2
In a small saucepan, pour the lime juice with the water and sugar and heat without boiling until the sugar dissolves.
3
Off the heat, add the rehydrated gelatine.
4
Add the lime zests and the finely chopped mint leaves.
Mint Whipped Ganache (to be made the day before)
Ingredients
- 100 g (3.5 oz) white chocolate
- 100 g (3.5 oz) whipping cream
- 100 g (3.5 oz) very cold whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons neutral honey (acacia honey, for example)
- about thirty mint leaves
Method
1
Break the white chocolate into pieces in a bowl (you can melt it slightly in a bain-marie or in the microwave).
2
Put the 100 g (3.5 oz) of cream and the mint leaves in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Leave to infuse uncovered for a maximum of 10 minutes.
3
Strain the cream to remove the mint leaves. Press the leaves firmly to extract as much cream as possible (NB: I recommend weighing your cream to know how much cold cream to add afterwards — make it up to 100 g (3.5 oz)).
4
Add the honey and reheat the cream.
5
As soon as it simmers, pour a third of the cream over the white chocolate and stir to create an emulsion. Then add the second third, then the third, to obtain a smooth and homogeneous mixture.
Raspberry Confit (to be made the day before)
Ingredients
- 200 g (7.1 oz) raspberry purée
- 20 g (0.7 oz) sugar
- 2.5 g (0.1 oz) pectin
Method
1
In a saucepan, gently warm half the raspberry purée.
2
Add the sugar and NH pectin, previously well mixed together. Bring everything to the boil while stirring with a whisk, and continue boiling for one minute.
3
Pour the raspberry confit into an 18×18 cm (7.1 in) square mould to a maximum depth of 1 cm (0.4 in). If, like me, you're using a mould that isn't silicone, remember to line the bottom with cling film so you can unmould the confit easily.
Lime Almond Biscuit
Ingredients
- 20 g (0.7 oz) almond powder
- 20 g (0.7 oz) icing sugar
- 8 g (0.3 oz) flour
- 14 g (0.5 oz) milk
- 57 g (2 oz) egg whites (approx. 2 whites)
- 8 g (0.3 oz) sugar
- zest of 1 lime
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.
2
In a bowl, mix all the powders (almond powder, icing sugar and flour), then add the milk. Mix with a rubber spatula until smooth.
3
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the 8 g (0.3 oz) of sugar gradually.
4
Fold the whipped egg whites into the previous mixture, mixing gently with a rubber spatula.
Assembly
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Whip the mint ganache like a chantilly (but not too firm) and transfer to a piping bag without a nozzle.
2
Fill the moulds three-quarters full with the mint whipped ganache. Push the ganache up the sides of the mould with a small spoon for a clean assembly.
3
Press in a raspberry confit insert and press lightly to bring the mousse up. Then add the lime almond biscuit. Add a little more whipped ganache if there is space.
Baking the sweet pastry
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Roll the pastry to a thickness of 2-3 mm using a rolling pin and return to the fridge for 1 hour. This will prevent the pastry from deforming during baking.
2
Using the cutter included in the Fashion éclair kit, cut out 10 biscuits (use the largest shape). Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
3
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 325°F.
4
Lay the pastry strips on a Silpain mat (which gives a nice grid pattern to the pastry), itself placed on a perforated baking tray. Place a sheet of baking paper (or another Silpain mat) and then another perforated tray on top (with a weight) to prevent the pastry from rising or deforming during baking.
Decoration
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Either you've invested in a spray gun (which is used only for that purpose, obviously), or you do as I do and use ready-made velvet sprays. But either way, there are a few rules to follow if you don't want to repaint your kitchen!
2
Personally, I stopped spraying inside my dishwasher as it still left marks after washing. And now we have a new dishwasher so we'll take care of it. I use whatever I have on hand to protect the work surface (cardboard, packaging, plastic bags or baking paper…). Remove the small entremets from the freezer and carefully unmould. Place them on a rack.
3
Spray a thin coat from a distance of 30-40 cm (15.7 in).
4
Place each small entremet onto a sweet pastry base using a small spatula.
5
Loosen the mint-lime gel with a whisk, then transfer to a small piping bag (or a paper cone). Pipe small dots of mint-lime gel into each small cavity.
Gallery
