The dessert was partly adapted from a recipe by the Swedish pastry chef Daniel Roos. I admire Daniel Roos's pastry creations and in the last couple of years, Daniel Roos composed the most beautiful desserts for the Nobel Prize Banquet (look at this beautiful plated dessert).
Dill is a very Scandinavian herb and it is used a lot in Scandinavian cuisine. Growing up, my mother used dill a lot in cooking. When I was a child and I realized that many (German) people were not fond of this herb, I found it very peculiar. Though I like dill a lot, it never came to my mind using dill in a dessert but when I saw the Daniel Roos's recipe in his book "Desserter med stil" I was intrigued by the combination of dill and lemon and decided to make the dessert for New Year's Eve. I worried a little bit if my dessert was a little bit too adventurous because dill is not only not everyone cup of tea but a dill flavored dessert might be for some a little bit strange. But it is not. Lemon and dill (given you like dill) is a wonderful pairing and my dessert was a big hit among my guests. While enjoying the dessert, I was already thinking ahead and I was brainstorming how to make little cakes of the different components of my New Year's dessert. The recipe that I am sharing today with you, my dear readers, is the result. I love this cake. And I am addicted to dill mousse. It is incredible. And it became to one of my favorite mousse flavors.
TART SHELLS
- My recipe for tart shells is here; it is a recipe by Cheryl Koh.
- I have written here a blog post about my tips on making tart shells.
DILL MOUSSE
- 100 g / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 30 g dill
- 30 g egg yolks / equals egg yolk of two medium sized eggs
- 45 g / 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 150 g / 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 2 g / 1 1/3 gelatin sheets, soaked
- Place heavy cream and dill into a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover the saucepan with a lid and let it steep for 10 minutes. Pour the heavy cream through a sieve in order remove the dill.
- Mix the egg yolks and the granulated sugar. Add the dill infused heavy cream to the egg mixture and mix well.
- Pour the mixture back to the saucepan. Over medium heat, heat the mixture until it has reached the temperature of 82 °C / 180 °F. Remove from the heat. Add the gelatin and mix well until the gelatin is completely melted. Place the mixture into a medium sized bowl and let it cool to room temperature.
- Whisk heavy cream until creamy. Fold the heavy cream into the dill infused mixture. Fill the dill mousse into moulds. I use a muffin silicon mould and fill the mousse 1,5 cm / 0.6 inch high.
- Freeze the dill mousse for at least 4 hours. You can keep the frozen mousse in the freezer for about a month.
LEMON CURD
- 50 ml / 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 25 ml / 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 50 g / 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 30 g egg yolks / equals egg yolk of two medium sized eggs
- 1 egg (medium sized)
- 0,75 g / 1/2 sheet gelatin, soaked
- 50 g / 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- Pour lemon and orange juice into a medium sized saucepan and add the sugar. Bring the mixture almost to a boil.
- Place egg yolks and egg in a bowl and mix well. Pour the hot citrus fruit mixture to the beaten eggs and stir well. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Over medium heat, heat the mixture. As soon as the mixture starts thickening, remove from the heat. Add the soaked gelatin and stir well until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
- Pour the mixture through a sieve. Add the butter cubes and stir well until smooth.
- Place cling wrap onto a flat board. Spread the lemon curd onto the board, to the size of 21 cm / 8 inches x 9 cm / 3.5 inches.
- Freeze the lemon curd for at least 3 hours.
- Cut out 4 cm / 1.5 inches circles with a cookie cutter.
MASCARPONE WHIPPED CREAM
- 100 g / 3 1/2 tablespoons mascarpone
- 150 g / 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 10 g / 1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar
- Place mascarpone, heavy cream and the powdered sugar into a medium sized bowl and whisk until creamy.
GLAZE
- 90 ml / 1/3 cup water
- 35 g / 2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 75 g / 3 374 tablespoons liquid glucose
- 3.75 g / 2 1/2 sheets gelatin, soaked
- 75 g / 2.25 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
- 55 g / 4 tablespoons crème double, or heavy cream
- 1 drop of green food color
- Place water, granulated sugar and glucose in a medium sized saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it boil until it has reached the temperature of 103 °C / 219 °F. Remove from the heat, add gelatin, the finely chopped chocolate and mix well until smooth. Then add the crème double and one drop of green food coloring and mix well again,
- Pour the glaze through a sieve and let it cool until it has reached 35 °C / 95 °F.
- You can also prepare the glaze in advance. Keep the glaze in a sealed jar in the fridge. You can keep the glaze in the fridge up to 5 days. Gently heat the glaze in a saucepan.
ASSEMBLING
- Fill the tart shell with the mascarpone cream. Gently press a lemon curd circle into each tartlet. Set the tartlet shells aside and glaze the dill mousse.
- Unmould the frozen dill mousse. Place the mousse on a wire rack. Place a deep plate under the wire rack, so you can catch the excess glaze which you can reuse. Pour the glaze over the mousse cakes.
- Carefully place each dill mousse cake on top of each tartlet shell.
- Let the cakes defrost in the fridge. The cakes taste the very best on the day you assemble the cakes. The next day the tart shells of the cakes become soft and are not that crunchy as on the day of preparation.
Yum!!
ReplyDelete