went to the farmers market and of course they had some insanely good strawberries so i decided to revisit an idea of something i made earlier when i was in rhode island. i still have some tweaking to do but heres an almond cake with candied almond gravel white chocolate straweberry macerated with lavender and black pepper and basil. i also used a little gelatin to set the liquid the strawberries had steeped in.
almond cake. quick recipe.
13 oz raw almonds that have been made into flour
1.5 c sugar (1/2 for whites that will be whipped 1/2 for other almond flour)
7 eggs (4 whites saved for whipping)
fleur de sel. pinch
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
aerate flour through tamis, put sugar flour and salt in bowl. add 7 egg yolks and 3 whites vanilla paste. mix and let hydrate for a bit. whip the 4 egg whites to stiff peaks and add sugar. fold in 1/3 of the whites into your almond batter, another third folded in the last 1/3 folded in gently, line a pan with parchment, bake at 350f for 20-28 min (check of course on time because your oven may cook different than mine) check with a skewer if done. take out and let cool, it will fall and become more lightly chewy as opposed to super airy. once cool i unmold and just kind of rip it apart to get different sizes (if you wanted to you could also put it back in the oven again the develop a light crust on the cakes jagged edges)
strawberry infusion.
2 pints strawberries sliced into circles.
pinch of lavender
simple syrup
black pepper
take your simple syrup equal parts sugar water and heat to get sugar dissolved once dissolved add into black pepper and lavender let infuse and pour over strawberries while still warm but not hot. let come to room temp then place in fridge and let infuse.
infusion gelee.
150 grams infusion liquid
tt minus 8 vinegar
1/2 envelope of gelatin
gently heat infusion. bloom gelatin. add minus 8. mix and pour onto a half sheet pan lined with acetate or plastic wrap. let come to room temp then freeze. once ready you will be breaking off solid pieces to let thaw over you plate up.
almond gravel.
almond that have been pulverized but not into a powder. sift through tamis and keep the bigger of the little pieces, mix with powdered sugar. heat in a pan while constantly moving as not to burn once it starts to caramelize take off heat and pour onto silpat while keeping the gravel texture add fleur de sel once cooled set aside.
white chocolate.
take white chocolate and grate on microplane.
basil.
you can also take some of the leftover infusion and thicken with ultratex 3 as well, it would make a good addition. all in all i like the dessert and want to tweak it as well as adding maybe a sorbet of strawberry and white chocolate. hope you enjoy the dessert. over and out.
