White Chocolate, Raspberries, Rose

Ingredients for 12 macaroons

Hazelnut macaroon

120g egg whites

20g caster sugar

125g ground hazelnuts

225g icing sugar

 

White chocolate and vanilla mousse

100g white chocolate pistoles

1 gelatine leaf, soften in cold water and pressed

200g fresh double cream

2 vanilla pods, split and seeds scraped

300g fresh double cream, softly whipped

 

Raspberry sorbet

1 kg raspberry purée

200g caster sugar

80g water

 

Rose opaline

110g white fondant

75g glucose syrup

5 drops rose extract

1 drop of red food colouring

 

600g fresh raspberries

 

For the hazelnut macaroons

Whisk the egg white and the sugar to get a firm meringue.

Sieve the ground hazelnuts and icing sugar into a bowl. Pour the meringue on the top of the powder and mix from the bottom upwards with a plastic spatula. Combine until the mix becomes shiny and elastic but not runny (this happen if you overwork it). Fill up a piping bag fitted with a medium size nozzle.

Pipe the macarons (4.5 cm) onto greaseproof paper and leave at room temperature to dry for 15 to 20 minutes before cooking. They will form a skin.

Cook at 150°C for 10 minutes and turn the tray for 6. The macaroons must be evenly coloured, soft and chewy inside and crispy on the outside. Cool onto the tray.

 

For the vanilla and white chocolate mousse

Place the white chocolate pistoles and the pressed gelatine leaf in a large bowl. Bring to the boil the fresh double cream with the vanilla. Pour the vanilla cream over the white chocolate and gelatine leaf through a sieve. Stir with a spatula until the chocolate is melted.

Leave it cool to 35-37°C, (it mustn’t feel hot) and fold in the softly whipped fresh double cream. The mix must be runny. Set 4 hours in the fridge before use.

For the rose opaline           

Cook slowly the glucose syrup with the fondant in a pan until it reaches 155ºC and out of the heat, add 5 drops of rose extract and 1 drop of red food colouring. Pour onto greaseproof paper and cool completely before blitzing in a blender to get a powder.

With a sieve, sprinkle the powder onto a silicon sheet to cover it, and bake for 4 minutes at 180ºC. Once cooled, break into pieces.

 

For the raspberry sorbet

Combine the water and caster sugar in a pan, bring to the boil and cool down. Measure 150ml of sorbet syrup and mix it with the raspberry purée using a hand blender. Pass it through a very fine sieve (chinois) and churn it in an ice cream maker. Keep in the freezer.

 

Presentation of the dish

Choose 2 macarons of the same size. Position one, curve side down on top of some coulis and put a tablespoon of vanilla cream in its middle. Cover with fresh raspberries and position the other macaron shell on top, in a 45ºC angle. Serve with a quenelle of raspberry sorbet and 2 pieces of rose opaline on the top of it.