Name: Apricot blancmange
Prep time: 2 h 59 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 3 h 14 min
Yield: 8 people
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 250 ml milk; 100 g caster sugar; 30 g ground almonds; 2 sheets gelatin; 300 g stewed apricots; 2 g agar-agar; 150 ml liquid cream; 15 g vanilla sugar; 6 fresh mint leaves; 4 drops bitter almond essence

For 8 people, you will need:

1 250 ml milk
2 100 g caster sugar
3 30 g ground almonds
4 2 sheets gelatin
5 300 g stewed apricots
6 2 g agar-agar
7 150 ml liquid cream
8 15 g vanilla sugar
9 6 fresh mint leaves
10 4 drops bitter almond essence (optional)
Total weight: 860 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation

40 min.

Resting

2 hours 20 min.

Cooking

15 min.

All in all

3 hours 15 min.

Preparation 40 min.

Resting 2 hours 20 min.

Cooking 15 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 1 min.

Soak 2 sheets gelatin in a big bowl of cold water.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 2 min.

Pour 250 ml milk, 100 g caster sugar and 30 g ground almonds into a pan.

Mix well.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 5 min.

Bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Take off the heat, cover and leave to infuse for at least one hour.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 2 min.

Pour 300 g stewed apricots through a fine strainer into a pan.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 5 min.

Bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring fequently, then add 2 g agar-agar, and bring back to the boil beating vigourously.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 10 min.

Put the pan into cold water to cool, stirring occasionally.

Agar-agar will thicken apricot coulis and set on cooling.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 5 min.

To return to the almond milk: pour almond milk (now a thick purée) through a fine strainer into a pan, pushing it through with a soft spatula.

Stage 8

You will then have almond milk.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 5 min.

Heat almond milk on medium heat, stirring constantly, but do not boil.

When hot, remove from heat and add the drained and dried sheets of gelatin, while stirring.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 10 min.

Put pan to cool in cold water, stirring from time to time.

Stage 11 - ⌛ 1 min.

When almond milk is cold, add 4 drops bitter almond essence if desired.

Stage 12 - ⌛ 5 min.

Whip 150 ml liquid cream with 15 g vanilla sugar to chantilly.

Stage 13 - ⌛ 1 min.

Pour ¼ of cold almond milk into whipped cream.

Stage 14 - ⌛ 3 min.

Mix thoroughly with a maryse or spatula.

Stage 15 - ⌛ 1 min.

Pour this into the rest of the almond milk...

Stage 16 - ⌛ 5 min.

...and fold in gently.

Stage 17 - ⌛ 10 min.

Pour the blancmange into silicone moulds or small glasses, with alternate layers of almonds milk and apricot coulis.

For small glasses finish with a drop of coulis on top.

Put in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Stage 18 - ⌛ 2 hours

Blancmange in glasses is served as it is.

Stage 19 - ⌛ 3 min.

Blancmange in a mould should be turned out onto serving plate, and can be surrounded with red fruit coulis or crème anglaise and decorated with a mint leaf on top.

Remarks

You can make the same recipe with fruits other than apricots.

Blancmange is a recipe appearing in the "Viandier" of Guillaume TIREL, also called Taillevent, master cook to king Charles VI of France in the XII^th century. The "Viandier" is the first cook book written in French rather than Latin, it is said that the blancmange recipe is the only one which can be made today without modifications.

Nutritional information

	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats	Calories	Energy
Per 100 g	6 g RDI=10 %	162 g RDI=61 %	8 g RDI=12 %	192 kcal RDI=10 %	805 kJ RDI=10 %
Per person	6 g RDI=10 %	174 g RDI=66 %	9 g RDI=13 %	205 kcal RDI=10 %	862 kJ RDI=10 %
Whole recipe	54 g RDI=84 %	1,395 g RDI=527 %	74 g RDI=101 %	1,647 kcal RDI=82 %	6,899 kJ RDI=82 %