I’m officially announcing the launch of the Christmas desserts, ho ho ho! And I’m starting with these Christmas baubles with caramel, apple and tonka bean flavours, warm and comforting flavours that will surely remind you of my apple, caramel and Dulcey entremets from last week.
To make these Christmas baubles, I took inspiration from the dessert by Ciciya, which I’d spotted a year or two ago already. I really loved the look of it; it makes a change from the traditional Yule log and it’s just as festive 🙂
These Christmas bauble entremets are made up of a vanilla sponge, a caramel crémeux, an apple compote and a tonka bean bavarian mousse, a spice I like to use in baking. But if you’re not too keen on tonka bean, you can simply replace it with vanilla.
To make this dessert, you’ll need the Dolce Tartufo mould by Silikomart, which will let you get ball-shaped entremets. For the insert, I used the Globe mould, also by Silikomart, but a 3 cm diameter half-sphere mould will do the job just as well. I simply joined an apple half-sphere to a caramel half-sphere to form a perfectly round insert.
Here, no crunchy layer, but it’s something you can add if you particularly like that. You can also make a pâte sucrée to form a base on which the Christmas bauble will sit (as in this recipe “les tétons de Vénus”). Personally, I didn’t want a base, just the bauble.
For decorating these Christmas baubles, I wanted to go with little gold stars as in the recipe that inspired me but I didn’t have a star cutter that small. In the end, I made snowflakes out of sugar paste. For the gold cap, I used white sugar paste which I then dusted with gold powder but the result isn’t perfect (the powder doesn’t hold very well on sugar paste). Ideally, I recommend using gold-coloured sugar paste or almond paste; the result will be much cleaner.
I hope you’ll like this first Christmas recipe. More new Yule log recipes are on the way but in the meantime, I suggest you take a little tour of the blog, there’s already a multitude of Christmas recipes 🙂
Ingredients & Method
7 components · Full recipe
Apple compote (make the day before)
Ingredients
- 2 pommes
- 1/4 vanilla pod
- 20 g (0.7 oz) sugar
- 20 g (0.7 oz) butter
Method
1
Peel and cut the apples into small cubes of about 1 cm (0.4 in).
2
Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat then cook gently with the vanilla and sugar for about fifteen minutes (the apples should be tender).
3
Pour the apple compote into a half-sphere mold (I use the Globe mold by Silikomart).
Caramel cremeux
Ingredients
- 50 g (1.8 oz) sugar
- 125 g (4.4 oz) milk
- 20 g (0.7 oz) egg yolks (the yolk of 1 large egg)
- 5 g (0.2 oz) cornflour
- 0.6 g (0 oz) gelatine
- 3.6 g (0.1 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatine)
- 70 g (2.5 oz) butter
- 1 pinch of fleur de sel
Method
1
Rehydrate the gelatine in water.
2
Heat the milk in a small saucepan.
3
Make a caramel by cooking the sugar in another heavy-bottomed saucepan. Remove from heat and deglaze the caramel by gradually adding the hot milk. Watch out for splashes!
4
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the cornstarch.
5
Pour the caramel over the top, mix, and transfer back to the saucepan.
6
Bring to the boil as for a pastry cream, stirring constantly with a whisk to prevent the bottom from scorching.
7
Remove from heat and strain through a fine sieve, then add the rehydrated gelatin. Mix well until the gelatin is melted.
8
When the caramel is at 50°C / 122°F, add the butter cut into pieces and the fleur de sel and blend with an immersion blender to homogenize the mixture.
9
Pour the caramel cremeux into a half-sphere mold (the same mold as for the apple compote).
Vanilla sponge (Philippe Conticini)
Ingredients
- 80 g (2.8 oz) sugar
- 50 g (1.8 oz) eggs (1 egg)
- 1 vanilla pod
- 40 g (1.4 oz) thick cream
- 60 g (2.1 oz) plain flour
- 1 g (0 oz) baking powder
- 20 g (0.7 oz) olive oil
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 170°C / 340°F fan.
2
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk, blanch the eggs with the sugar then add the seeds from the scraped vanilla pod and the thick cream.
3
Sift the flour with the baking powder and fold into the previous mixture.
4
Then fold in the olive oil and mix again.
5
Pour the preparation into a buttered 20 cm (7.9 in) diameter mold (remember to place a disc of parchment paper at the bottom to facilitate unmolding) and smooth the batter with a small spatula.
6
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden.
7
Once out of the oven, unmould the sponge and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Tonka bean Bavarian mousse
Ingredients
- 30 g (1.1 oz) egg yolks
- 30 g (1.1 oz) sugar
- 100 g (3.5 oz) whole milk
- 15 g (0.5 oz) full-fat whipping cream (1)
- 300 g (10.6 oz) full-fat whipping cream
- 1/4 grated tonka bean
- 4 g (0.1 oz) powdered gelatine
- 24 g (0.8 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatine)
Method
1
Bloom the gelatin in the water.
2
Heat the milk with the 15 g (0.5 oz) of heavy cream and 1/4 of grated tonka bean.
3
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.
4
Pour the hot milk over the yolk-sugar mixture, mix well, then return to low heat.
5
Cook to 83°C / 181°F, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula. Be careful not to boil the cream.
6
You can pass this crème anglaise through a fine-mesh sieve. To speed up cooling, place the bowl over a cold bain-marie (bowl of ice water).
Assembly of the apple caramel tonka bean Christmas baubles
Ingredients
- Aucun
Method
1
Pour the tonka bean bavarian mousse into each cavity up to halfway. Run a spatula along the sides for a clean finish. Freeze for 5 minutes so that the mousse sets slightly before adding the insert.
2
Remove the caramel cremeux and apple compote inserts and assemble them in pairs to form a single insert. Gently press it into the mousse, centered.
3
Cover with a very small amount of Bavarian mousse.
4
Finish with the vanilla sponge disc. Press lightly to embed it. Smooth the surface with a spatula.
White velvet
Ingredients
- 140 g (4.9 oz) white chocolate
- 60 g (2.1 oz) cocoa butter
Method
1
Melt the white chocolate and cocoa butter in a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir with a spatula.
2
Strain then pour the mixture into the reservoir of your spray gun (ideally use a container smaller than the reservoir, such as a jam jar, placed inside the larger reservoir).
3
Remove the small entremets from the freezer, unmold them carefully and place them on a rack. Don’t forget to protect your work area well. Personally, I stopped spraying directly on the rack and instead place them on a sheet of acetate so I can pick them up with a spatula without damaging the velvet.
Decoration of the Christmas bauble entremets
Ingredients
- Aucun
Method
1
To make the snowflakes, I used white sugar paste and a plunger cutter in the shape of a snowflake.
2
Then, to attach the baubles, I made a small roll of sugar paste which I curved and sealed the ends with a small drop of water.
Gallery
