Blancmange

This recipe has a few “parts.” The first step takes about 20 minutes, then you refrigerate it for 4 hours. The second step takes about 30 minutes, then you refrigerate it for 2 more hours. Right before you serve it, you add the fruit coulis and a garnish…it’s a bit of a process but very worth it in the end. The recipe makes four individual, summery desserts.

Blancmange Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon whipped cream
• 2 gelatin sheets (200 bloom)
• 4 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 vanilla bean

Fruit Coulis Ingredients

• 8 strawberries
• 1/3 cup blueberries
• 1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)
• 8 slices of strawberry for a garnish (pictured also with a mint leaf garnish)

Step One: Make the Blancmange

Using a medium saucepan, pour the almond mild and heavy cream in and slowly heat it up. While that is heating, cut the vanilla bean lengthwise. Add the sugar and sliced vanilla bean to the milk/cream mixture and mix. While that mixture is coming to a boil, soak your gelatin sheets in cold water for 10 minutes. Let the milk/cream mixture simmer during that 10 minutes, then drain the gelatin sheets (into the sink) and pull the saucepan off the heat. Remove the pieces of vanilla bean from the saucepan and add your gelatin sheets to the hot milk/cream mixture. Stir it until they dissolve.

Pour the entire mixture into a shallow dish, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for four hours (at least…longer is okay).

Step Two: Finish the Blancmange and make the Fruit Coulis

Whip up your whipped cream with your electric mixer and remove your Blancmange mixture from the refrigerator. Add a Tablespoon or two of the whipped cream to the Blancmange and carefully mix it together with a fork. With a rubber spatula, pour the Blancmange into the whipped cream (make sure there’s just a cup of it) and fold it together until it isn’t lumpy anymore. It might take a while, but the lumps will dissipate, I promise.

Mix the fruits and sugar in a food processor until it is pretty runny. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve to get the Coulis just right. Cover and refrigerate while the Blancmange sets alongside (see the next step).

Transfer the Blancmange to a pastry bag and push it carefully into four small dessert dishes or glass jars. Refrigerate the four individual servings for 2 hours (alongside the Coulis).

Step Three: Assemble, Garnish, and Serve

Remove the Blancmange and Fruit Coulis from the refrigerator. Drizzle an even amount of the Fruit Coulis over each of the four servings of Blancmange. Garnish with strawberry slices (a garnish of a mint leaf is shown in the picture).

Click here to read about the inspiration behind “Blancmange”