Autumn delice/ The most delicious festive pumpkin entremet
- Eleni
- Oct 13, 2016
- 4 min read
Almost one month ago I have been hosted in a local market in Metz in order to demonstrate my personal pastry ideas. At the same time a special contest had taken place, where all participants should prepare a special sweet dish with a vegetable. I found it really challenging to participate with something different, having an original taste. Ι am generally not used to work along with vegetables.
I was looking at the social networks to find out how vegetables can be combined with sugar and which ones are proper for pastry. Of course we all know how carrot cake is popular and really tasty. I then thought about the beetroots but.. at the last moment my dear husband prevented me from starting any preparation with beetroots because he found out that the year before, the first price was awarded to a beetroot recipe.
So I ran out a long marathon to find out how to solve the puzzle and the vegetable that would finally challenge me. Then I thought about american traditions and pumpkins.
I have never tried before how you can cook a pumpkin. I made a long search about recipes and ways of baking or cooking or using the pumpkin.. So i concluded to the idea of a special mousse dessert with light flavors. A dessert that could "clean up" the mouth after a heavy lunch or dinner or would be an original dish to serve at the end of a festive meal. No chocolate included! Guess what! I won the first price!!!!! So happy! yay!
I have found the basic mousse recipe in lots of sites in the internet. But I changed it because I wished to prepare a dessert combining two to three different flavors and thought about making some of my own touches in it. So I grabbed my bag and quickly went to a Delhaize shop in Luxembourg to fully cover my preparation needs. Here we go:
FOR 6-8 PERSONS
Preparation 45'
Baking 20'
Waiting 6h
For the cake
120 grs of egg whites (or approx 4 egg whites) (try the Delhaize fresh eggs)
60 gr of Delhaize fine sugar
120 grs of coarsely chopped Delhaize walnuts mixed with
120 powder sugar
1 tbsp of orange flower extract syrup
Zest of one orange (Delhaize fruits and vegetables sector)
For the pumpkin mousse
400 grs of pumpkin flesh cut into small cubes (Delhaize fruits and vegetables sector)
10 grs of gelatine sheets
2 egg whites ((try the Delhaize fresh eggs)
120 Delhaize fine sugar
400 grs of Delhaize greek yogurt
2 tbsps of range flower extract syrup
Zest of one orange (Delhaize fruits and vegetables sector)
For the decoration
Optionally try to decorate with swiss meringue or with orange jelly and menthol leaves.
Prepare the cake
Use a 18cm diameter baking dish for baking.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Beat in a bowl the egg whites by adding the sugar in two times. The final mixture will be white and very fluffy. Add the walnuts with the powder sugar and mix gently with a spatula to well incorporate them. Add the zest and the extract and continue mixing gently.
Pour the mixture to a baking dish well buttered and floured (unless it's a silicon form). Bake it for 20'. The mixture will slightly turn to gold and it will be firm like a cake.
Leave it aside to cool.
Prepare the pumpkin mousse
Put the gelatine sheets in cold water to fully soften.
Put the cubes of the pumpkin in a pan with a little water (not too much water otherwise the final puree will be liquid). Put the pan in medium heat and cook the pumpkin until it is very soft and starts melting like a puree. Make sure that any remaining water is absorbed. But pay attention. This particular vegetable needs your attention while cooking it. It water is quickly absorbed but the pumpkin remains hard add a little bit more water otherwise it will start sticking in the bottom of your pan.
Use a handblender to make a puree of it. While being still hot add the gelatine sheets, mix well with a spatula and finalize the velvet puree with the handmixer one last time.
Add the greek yogurt. Mix well to fully incorporate it.
Prepare a swiss meringue. Put the eggs and the sugar in bain marie. Once the water starts boiling, start whisking the mixture. Don't stop mixing until the temperature reaches the 63-65 degrees C and the egg mixture looks like a white syrup. Then take it off the heat and pour it to the robot mixer. Beat the eggs until they become a fluffy white and tight meringue.
Incorporate little by little the meringue to the mixture by gently mixing with a spatula. Finally add the orange flower syrup and the zest.
Prepare the entremet.
Use a pastry circle in the same dimensions like the cake in the bottom. Put the cake at first and then pour on top the mousse. Put in the fridge for one night.
Decorate the next day as you like.
For this recipe I have used copyright Delhaize products, among others, that I have found in Delhaize Luxembourg super markets. Sponsored by Delhaize.
The recipe and the pictures have been prepared by L'atelier Sucre d'Eleni. Legal mention in France. All rights reserved.
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