Pistachio – Blackberry Entremet

Cleaning the freezer I found a bowl with the last batch of last year's blackberries, and I didn't even remember it was there, lucky me. Besides, we had a small jar with insignificant amount of pistachios – only 50 grams, but it was enough to throw an entremet.

The inspiration for this one came from Hidemi Sugino again, and to be more exact – his Sicile entremet. But as always I couldn't stick to the recipe and changed it liberally to suit my products. For the original look of the recipe, head to Evan's Kitchen Ramblings. What I'm sharing here is my personal interpretation.

Raw pistachios are a rare product in Bulgaria, let alone pistachio paste, not to mention it's prize. This is why I made my own pistachio paste using this recipe just scaling down all the products to match with the 50 grams of nuts we had.

Tastewise, this was one of the best entremets I've ever made.

Tea: For the Pistachio – Blackberry entremet I chose Long Jing – one of my favourite everyday teas – for its delicate slightly sweet flavour with vegetal and nutty hints and mild, almost non-existent astringency.

Pistachio – Blackberry Entremet Recipe:
Makes 6 entremets Ø 5,5 cm, height 6 cm

Pistachio Sponge:

• 25 gr almond meal;
• 20 gr millet flour;
• 40 gr pistachio paste;
• 2 egg yolks;
• 10 gr butter, melted;
• 2 egg whites;
• 50 gr sugar.

Preheat the oven to 220ºC. Line a baking sheet with silpat and place a 20cm ring on top.

Sift together almond meal and millet flour, set aside.

Combine pistachio paste, egg yolks and butter and mix till homogenous.

Beat egg whites and sugar until stiff and glossy peaks, then fold in yolk-pistachio mixture. At last fold in the flour mixture. Scoop into the ring and make it even using a spatula.

Bake for approximately 5 -6 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. When cool, use a 4,5cm ring and cut out 6 rounds.

Sugar Syrup:

• 30 gr sugar;
• 30 ml water;
• 10 ml rum.

Bring water and sugar to a simmer to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and add the rum.


Blackberry Mousse:

• 110 gr blackberry puree;
• 1,5 gr agar agar powder, mixed with 5 gr sugar;
• 15 ml rum;
• 25 ml water;
• 40 gr sugar;
• 1 egg white;
• 120 gr whipping cream, whipped.

In a heavy bottom saucepan, bring the blackberry puree to a boil. Add the agar-sugar mixture(stir well to prevent lumps from forming) and bring to a boil again. Keep warm till needed.

Make Italian meringue – combine water and sugar and cook to 118ºC. Beat egg white to soft peaks, then pour the cooked sugar in a thin stream while beating all the time. Beat until stiff and glossy meringue forms.

Add the blackberry-agar mixture and the rum to the Italian meringue, then fold in the whipped cream. Work quickly. Pour into silicone moulds and freeze. I used a 12 cup silicone mould, dimensions of the cups – 4,5 x 2 cm.

Note: The recipe makes more mousse than needed but it's harder to work with smaller amounts.

Pistachio Mousse:

• 225 ml whole milk;
• 40 gr pistachio paste;
• 1 tsp vanilla extract;
• 40 gr egg yolks;
• 40 gr sugar;
• 5 gr agar agar powder, mixed with 10 gr sugar;
• 225 ml whipping cream, whipped.

Combine milk, vanilla and pistachio paste and bring to a boil. (Since my pistachio paste was home made, thus a bit more grainy I used the stick blender to incorporate it more homogenously into the milk.) When boiling stir in the agar-sugar mixture and cook till agar dissolves.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar till pale, then slowly pour in, while still whisking, the boiling milk mixture. Return to the heat and cook to 82ºC.

Fold the whipped cream into the above mixture. Work quickly.

Notes:

• Make the mousse when you have everything else prepared since it sets very quickly – because of the agar as soon as the temperature of the mousse drops bellow 45ºC it commence to set.

• On the photos it appears as though there are 2 different types of outer mousse. In fact, I divided the pistachio custard in two and mixed one of the halves with half of the whipped cream, in order to keep the other half of the custard warm, in a water bath, to prevent setting. I did all the divisions by eye and apparently they were not very correct – one of the pistachio custard halves got creamier than the other, although tastewise there wasn't a great difference. I don't recommend this step since it wasn't very useful, besides there is always a chance to end up with colour variations in the mousse.

Decoration:

Blackberries and pistachios.


Honey Glaze:

• 100 ml water;
• 1 tsp honey;
• 1gr agar agar powder, mixed with 5 gr sugar.

Bring water and honey to a boil. Add agar and bring to a boil again.


To Assemble:

Arrange six rings, Ø 5,5 cm, height 6 cm, on a tray. Place a pistachio sponge round at the bottom of each ring. Brush the sponge with some syrup, but don't be over exuberant because the sponge will absorb some moisture from the mousse too.

Fill the rings with pistachio mousse to ½ full, then place the frozen blackberry mousse in the middle of each ring, press it to almost sink into the pistachio mousse, then cover with the rest of the pistachio mousse. Place in the fridge to set.

Decorate with blackberries and pistachios, then glaze using a silicone pastry brush.