At the Peninsula Hotel Beiing, French executive pastry chef Frederic Moreau offers an interesting version of a sweet from his home country, le nougat. The most famous is that of the city of Montélimar, made with egg white, honey, and almond, and has a look and taste similar to Spanish turron, more so than the Italian torroncino.
Moreau incorporates ingredients such as chocolate that, as he explains in his interview, are very successful in China, in addition to lime sauce, vanilla pastry cream, or coffee ice cream, among other components. The result is a spongy-textured dessert in which an 11 cm diameter ring strip of tempered dark chocolate stands out.
Le Nougat
coffee ice cream
- 80 g coffee bean
- 620 g milk
- 150 g cream
- 24 g trimoline
- 50 g glucose powder
- 120 g sugar
- 80 g milk powder 26%
- 10 g ice cream stabilizer
- 5 g coffee powder
Bring everything to a boil, burr mix, strain. Let it rest overnight in cooler. Next day burr mix, spin. Keep in freezer.
nougat
- 345 g honey acacia
- 145 g water
- 435 g sugar
- 90 g glucose
- 72 g egg whites
- 15 g sugar
- 90 g mycryo
- 200 g almond
- 200 g hazelnut
- 70 g pistachio
Toast almond and hazelnut at 150c until golden brown. Toast green pistachios at 150c for 5 min. Start cooking sugar, water and glucose until 152c. At 110c start cooking honey until 130c. Pour honey first, then sugar mixture. Add mycryo, then nuts. Sheet out between 2 sheets.
vanilla cream pastry
- 162 g milk
- 108 g cream
- 4 g vanilla bean
- 56 g sugar
- 54 g egg yolks
- 13 g ap flour
- 8 g cornstarch
- 3 g gelatin
- 15 g water for gelatin
- 85 g butter
Bring to a boil milk, cream, bean and sugar. Temper into yolks, flour and cornstarch. Cook for a minute, add gelatin. Robot coupe with butter. Keep in fridge.
nougat mousse 1 frame
- 480 g pastry cream vanilla
- 11 g gelatin
- 56 g water for gelatin
- 290 g nougat
- 550 g cream
Warm up pastry cream to 50c, add gelatin. Add nougat, robot coupe until small pieces at 35c fold soft whipped cream pour into 40x60cm frame. Freeze. Cut strips 8.5cm x 3cm.
dark chocolate mousse
- 95 g milk
- 113 g cream
- 113 g glucose
- 226 g dark chocolate 70%
- 5 g gelatin
- 25 g water for gelatin
- 285 g cream
Bring milk, cream and glucose to 40c, add gelatin and chocolate, burr mix, at 35-40c combine with soft whipped cream, cast in tube moulds. Freeze.
lime sauce for 12 ppl
- 137 g cream
- 137 g milk
- 19 g sugar
- 2 g algin
- 5 g lime zest
Bring cream, milk and zest to a boil strain, add sugar and algin, burr mix until thick, place in cooler, once cold burr mix again, adjust with milk if necessary
place in squeeze bottle.
croustillant green
- 225 g fondant
- 150 g glucose
- 150 g white chocolate zephyr
- 4 g green colour
Bring fondant and glucose to 150c, add green colour and melted chocolate. Spread on baking paper. Once cool, ground it to powder, sift over leaf stencil and silpat, bake at 150c until lightly melted while still hot give a curve keep in airtight container.
caramelized hazelnuts
- 25 g water
- 87 g sugar
- 1 g sea salt
- 250 g hazelnuts
- 12 g cocoa butter
Toast hazelnuts at 150c until golden brown cook to 120c water, sugar. Add toasted nuts, mix until sandy. Add cocoa butter and sea salt cool down. Keep in airtight container.
glaze dark chocolate
- 150 g cream
- 150 g water
- 350 g neutral glaze
- 75 g milk chocolate 40%
- 200 g dark chocolate 70%
- 8 g gelatin
- 40 g water for gelatin
Bring to a boil cream, water. Add gelatin. Add melted chocolate, add neutral glaze. Keep in cooler. Next day melt down to 25-30ºc. Mix glaze.
pecan streusel
- 100 g pecan chopped
- 100 g cake flour
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g butter
- 1 g sea salt
Bring to a boil cream, water. Add gelatin. Add melted chocolate, add neutral glaze. Keep in cooler. Next day melt down to 25-30ºc. Mix glaze.
Assembly
Cut strips of nougat mousse 9 x 3 cm. Spray with mix of chocolate and cocoa butter. Cut chocolate mousse tube at 8 cm long. Melt down dark chocolate glaze at 30ºc and dip chocolate mousse in it. Place it on top of a nougat mousse dipped in hazelnut oil. Place a ring of chocolate on the plate. Add the nougat mousse bar. Add green leaf over. Add caramelized nuts. Pipe dots of lime sauce. Place streussel and quenelle coffee ice cream over.
