You may have heard of Mont Blanc for being the highest mountain in the Alps as well as Western Europe. Which rightly calls for a dessert to celebrate this great feat henceforth the Mont Blanc dessert. Being located on the French-Italian border, it does depend which side you are looking at it from as to whether it is called Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco (unsurprisingly both meaning white mountain). These individual desserts are small meringues topped with a chestnut puree and whipped cream that scream skiing in the Alps.
Recipe
Ingredients
Chestnut cream
180g Pre-Cooked Chestnut
90g Double Cream
210g Milk
125g Caster Sugar
Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
Meringue
1:1:1 ratio of:
70g Egg Whites
70g Caster Sugar
70g Icing Sugar
Double or Whipping Cream
Method
Chestnut Cream
Take your pre-cooked chestnuts and add them to a saucepan.
Add the cream, milk, caster sugar and vanilla extract.
Cook for an hour under a cartouche baking parchment lid (see video for guidance).
Once cooked, blend the chestnuts alone with a stick blender or a suitable alternative.
Begin adding the liquid to the blended chestnuts until the puree reaches a smooth consistency. You may not need to add all the liquid so don't worry if there is liquid left over.
Meringue
Start Whisking the egg whites on a high speed and slowly add the caster sugar until stiff peaks can be held.
Fold in the icing sugar gently until fully combined, the mixture should look silky.
Add your meringue mixture to a piping bag and pipe evenly spaced mounds of meringue.
Place into the over for an hour at 120°C.
Assembly
Once the meringue balls have cooled you can start your assembly.
Whisk your choice of cream until it is firm enough to spoon into a piping bag.
Pipe a mound of cream on top of the meringue.
Traditionally, a piping nozzle that produces vermicelli style threads is used for mont blancs but you can use whatever is on hand.
Pipe your chestnut cream around the mound of whipped cream until the cream is covered.
To add the finishing touch, recreate the snow of the Mont Blanc mountain by dusting some icing sugar on top.
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