Smoked Tonka Bean Mousse...Smoked Tonka Bean Mousse with Roasted Fig Leaf Oil & Buckwheat Sablé

An avant-garde dessert harmonizing the complex almond-vanilla notes of cold-smoked tonka bean mousse with bright caramelized fig gel, a golden buckwheat sablé, and vibrant fig leaf oil.

Ingredients

Cooking Instructions

1. 01

   Warm 150 ml heavy cream with grated tonka bean in a small saucepan to 70°C. Cold-smoke the cream mixture using applewood chips with a handheld smoking gun, cover tightly, and infuse for 30 minutes. Strain through a super-fine chinois.

2. 02

   Whisk egg yolks and 40g caster sugar over a double boiler until thick and pale ribbon stage (sabayon). Dissolve squeezed soft gelatin into the warm smoked tonka cream, then fold gently into the sabayon.

3. 03

   Whip the remaining 150 ml heavy cream to soft peaks and fold into the tonka sabayon. Pipe into dome silicone molds and freeze for at least 4 hours to set completely.

4. 04

   For the fig leaf oil, blanch fig leaves in boiling water for 10 seconds, shock in ice water, squeezing dry. Blend on high speed with grapeseed oil at 60°C for 3 minutes, then strain through a muslin cloth over ice to catch a vivid green oil.

5. 05

   Combine buckwheat flour, almond flour, 20g sugar, and sea salt. Cut cold butter into the flour until coarse crumbs form. Bake on a parchment-lined tray at 160°C for 14 minutes until deep golden brown. Let cool into crisp sablé shards.

6. 06

   Puree 2 fresh figs, yuzu juice, remaining 20g sugar, and 50ml water. Bring to a boil with agar-agar for 1 minute. Chill in an ice bath until set firm, then blend at high speed into a glossy, fluid gel.

7. 07

   To assemble, unmold a tonka bean mousse dome onto the center of each chilled plate. Surround with delicate buckwheat sablé shards and freshly sliced fig wedges. Dot fluid fig-yuzu gel around the plate, and finish with a split drizzle of emerald fig leaf oil.