Valentine’s Day is already tomorrow! So even if, for some, this celebration is purely commercial, as far as I’m concerned, I think it’s above all one more occasion to treat yourself and to treat your sweetheart. Speaking of love, it will soon be 12 years that I’ve shared my life with my beloved — a third of my life. Whoa.
But the most beautiful thing in all this is that two beautiful children were born from that encounter <3 Enough about me… For this special occasion, I’ve made you a hibiscus and red berry entremets full of freshness, with a highly original look.
Hibiscus is a flower I don’t use in baking, but I like discovering new things. The only difficulty lies in using the dried hibiscus flowers. You need to be able to taste this very original flavour without it being “too much”.
Personally, I’d have liked to taste it more in my dessert. I’d infused the hibiscus for about twenty minutes in the cream; in the recipe, I suggest you do it for an hour.
For the decoration, I used pansies that I found at Grand Frais. There were all sorts and all colours.
After rinsing them, I arranged them at the bottom of my silicone mould, taking great care not to damage them, and I poured the bavarian mousse over the top. No problem at all when unmoulding — I found the result really very nice. And to accentuate the hibiscus flavour, I made a hibiscus-infused neutral glaze.
For information, I bought the dried hibiscus flowers in an organic shop.
It’s a very fresh dessert, very pleasant to enjoy after a lovely romantic meal. I can only advise you to try it yourself 🙂 To all the lovers out there, I wish you a very happy Valentine’s Day <3
Ingredients & method
8 components · Full recipe
Sweet pastry (start 2 days 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 (one 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 on low speed. Add the almond powder, vanilla powder and fleur de sel and mix again.
2
Add the beaten egg and mix with a spatula this time (it will be easier than with the mixer).
3
Finish with the flour and mix quickly with the mixer until you get a homogeneous ball of dough. Do not overwork the pastry. Bring the dough together into a ball without insisting. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions.
Red berry compote (make the day before)
Ingredients
- 200 g (7.1 oz) red berries
- 20 g (0.7 oz) sugar
- 2.5 g (0.1 oz) pectin
Method
1
In a saucepan, gently warm half the red berry purée.
2
Add the sugar and NH pectin, well combined beforehand. Bring the mixture to a boil while whisking and continue boiling for one minute.
3
Add the remaining red berry purée, mix then pour into an 18 cm (7.1 in) × 18 cm (7.1 in) square mould to a maximum depth of 1 cm (0.4 in). If, like me, you use a non-silicone mould, line the bottom with cling film so you can unmould the compote easily afterwards.
Ladyfinger sponge
Ingredients
- 60 g (2.1 oz) egg whites
- 50 g (1.8 oz) sugar
- 40 g (1.4 oz) egg yolks
- 50 g (1.8 oz) flour
- pink/red food colouring
Method
1
Whip the egg whites with the sugar and a touch of colouring.
2
Fold in the lightly beaten yolks with a spatula, then gently add the sifted flour.
3
Spread the sponge batter over a sheet of parchment paper placed on a baking tray.
4
Dust with icing sugar and wait 5 minutes. Dust a second time then bake for about 12 minutes at 180°C / 350°F.
Hibiscus mousse
Ingredients
- 100 g (3.5 oz) liquid cream
- 100 g (3.5 oz) whole milk
- 15 g (0.5 oz) dried hibiscus flowers
- 40 g (1.4 oz) egg yolks
- 20 g (0.7 oz) caster sugar
- 140 g (4.9 oz) full-fat liquid cream
- 3 g (0.1 oz) gelatine
- 18 g (0.6 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatine)
Method
1
Rehydrate the gelatine in the water.
2
Heat the milk and the 100 g (3.5 oz) of cream. Off the heat, add the dried hibiscus flowers, cover the saucepan and leave to infuse for one hour.
3
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.
4
After one hour of infusion, strain the contents of the saucepan, pressing well on the hibiscus flowers. Weigh the milk and cream again and top up to a total of 200 g (7.1 oz) of liquid (I needed 50 g (1.8 oz) extra, so I added 25 g (0.9 oz) milk and 25 g (0.9 oz) cream). Reheat.
5
Pour the contents of the saucepan over the yolk-sugar mixture, mix well and return to low heat (you’ll get a strange colour — don’t worry).
6
Cook to 83°C / 181°F, stirring constantly with a spatula. Be careful not to boil the custard.
7
Off the heat, add the rehydrated gelatine. Leave to cool. You can strain this custard through a fine sieve or blend with an immersion blender to remove any lumps. Whip the full-fat liquid cream until mousse-like — do not over-whip.
Assembly
Ingredients
- pansies
Method
1
Place 2 pretty flowers (pansies here) at the bottom of each cavity.
2
Half-fill each cavity with hibiscus mousse. Run the mousse up the sides of the mould with a small spoon for a clean finish.
3
Press a red berry compote insert in and push down slightly to bring the mousse up. Add the ladyfinger sponge. Add a little more hibiscus mousse if there is space.
Baking the sweet pastry
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Roll the pastry to 2–3 mm thickness and return to the fridge for 1 hour. This will prevent the pastry from warping during baking.
2
Using the cutter from the Fashion éclair kit, cut out 10 biscuits (use the larger shape). Freeze for 30 minutes.
3
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 325°F.
4
Arrange the pastry strips on a Silpain mat (which gives a nice grid pattern to the pastry), itself placed on a perforated baking sheet. Place a sheet of parchment paper (or another Silpain mat) on top and weigh down with another perforated tray to prevent the pastry from rising or warping during baking.
Hibiscus neutral glaze
Ingredients
- 120 g (4.2 oz) sugar
- 120 g (4.2 oz) water
- 6 g (0.2 oz) gelatine
- 36 g (1.3 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatine)
- a handful of dried hibiscus flowers
Method
1
Rehydrate the gelatine in the water for at least 15 minutes.
2
In a saucepan, heat the sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Off the heat, add the dried hibiscus flowers. Cover the saucepan and leave to infuse for about 15 minutes.
3
Strain the syrup to remove all the flowers, pressing well to recover maximum syrup.
4
Reheat the syrup to 103°C / 217°F.
Decorating the hibiscus and red berry entremets
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Remove the entremets from the freezer and carefully unmould to avoid tearing the flowers.
2
Place the frozen entremets on a wire rack set over a plate or tray to catch the excess.
3
When the neutral glaze is around 32°C / 90°F, pour it gently to completely cover each small entremet.
4
Using a small offset spatula, make back-and-forth movements under the rack to remove excess glaze at the base, then carefully place on a sweet pastry biscuit, centred.
Gallery
