How to lighten a praliné dessert using five technological ingredients according to Jordi Puigvert

One of Jordi Puigvert’s maxims, author of the successful book Evolution, is to simplify processes and lighten desserts through beneficial ingredients with numerous applications that are little known in pastry.

Proof of this is Indulgencia, an individual that has a clear protagonist: the praliné. It is a dessert made up of vegan praline sponge cake, vegan hazelnut sablé, hazelnut mousse, praliné pastry cream, hazelnut couverture, crunchy gianduja couverture, and black paint.

In this piece, the chef, with the help of technological ingredients, can lower the percentages of fat and sugar as well as present more airy textures so that the whole thing becomes lighter. And most importantly, it ensures that the praliné does not lose its intensity of flavor or texture.

Below we go over the five ingredients that he uses in Indulgencia and that help to give a contemporary air to classic recipes by reducing calories and without sacrificing flavor.

Potato protein

In making the cake, Puigvert replaces the egg whites of the classic meringue with R200 potato protein. The goal is to achieve a 100% vegan dough. The key to the texture achieved is due to the combination of potato protein with xanthan and inulin, which provide stability and texture without the need to use conventional sugars.

Rapeseed oil

Puigvert uses it in this individual to increase the fluffiness and obtain a lighter texture in the vegan praliné cake, which does not contain butter.

Rapeseed oil has always been highly valued in France and Germany. However, in Spain, the country where the chef is from, it was frowned upon decades ago because its commercialization in the domestic sphere was carried out with a denatured variety of this product and that it contained a toxic substance, aniline, which had serious consequences in the population. However, the one used by Puigvert has nothing to do with that variety, it offers full guarantees and does not pose a health risk.

Vegan Be Better Butter

It is a product with a neutral flavor (without artificial aromas or flavorings) and with a clean label. It is made up of sunflower oil, coconut butter, and proteins to give it stability, among other ingredients. It has the peculiarity that if it interacts with the baking powder, it provides a little more fluffiness in cakes.

In Indulgencia, it replaces it in the same amounts as dairy butter for the preparation of a hazelnut sablé and has a similar physical behavior at different working temperatures.

Polydextrose

It is a highly soluble vegetable fiber that acts as a bulking agent and retains less water than other similar ingredients such as inulin. It is applied to products in which we want to drastically reduce calories to replace conventional sugars. It has a neutral flavor, is highly resistant to highly variable ranges of temperatures and pH, and has a very low glycemic index. Due to all these characteristics, Puigvert uses it in the individual hazelnut mousse.

Maltitol

It belongs to the polyalcohol family and is an alternative sugar that is used in preparations that seek to lower calories.

In the hazelnut couverture, mix the maltitol with the sugar and pectin, and gradually add the mixture to the previous liquids, stirring with a whisk.