Antonio Bachour’s Lemon Almond DELICE

Yield: 20 servings

Almond Cake

• 180 g almond paste
• 180 g unsalted butter
• 180 g granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped
• 4 large eggs
• 140 g all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbs baking powder
•  Pinch of salt
• 170 g crème fraiche

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Beat almond paste, butter, sugar and vanilla bean until light and smooth. Add eggs slowly, mixing between each addition. Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt together over egg mixture. Add crème fraiche (don’t overmix).
2. Lightly grease a half sheet tray and line with parchment, then grease the parchment as well. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating halfway through. Cool on a wire rack, then trim edges and reserve. Cut two 20 cm-long x 10 cm-wide cakes.

Citrus Crumble

• 130 g all-purpose flour
• 100 g soft brown sugar
• 100 g ground almonds
• 100 g unsalted butter (84 % fat), chilled and cut into cubes
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• Finely grated zest 1 orange

1. Sift together the dry ingredients.
2. Process all the ingredients in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until the mixture comes together. Chill for a minimum of 30 minutes.
3. Push the dough through a 4mm grid or a candy rack to obtain small, evenly-sized pieces. Chill until ready to bake.
4. Bake at 160 °C (320 °F) until the streusel is an even golden color.

Lemon Whipped Ganache

• 30 g lemon zest
• 970 g heavy cream (35 % fat), divided
• 30 g invert sugar
• 30 g glucose
• 450 g Valrhona Ivoire white chocolate
• 2 tsp orange blossom water

1. Add the lemon zest to 720 g of the cream and leave to infuse overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Heat the remaining 250 g of cream with the invert sugar and the glucose, and then make a ganache by emulsifying with the Ivoire chocolate. Blend to perfect the emulsion. Strain the infused cream to remove the lemon zest and add to the ganache. Blend. Add the orange blossom water and blend. Leave to set overnight in the refrigerator before whipping.

Mango-Passion Fruit Jelly

• 80 g granulated sugar
• 10 g pectin NH
• 400 g mango puree
• 200 g passion fruit puree
• 15 g lemon juice
• 16 g gelatin (silver), bloomed

1. Combine sugar and pectin.
2. Heat the purees with the lemon juice to 30˚C (86˚F) and add the sugar mixture. Bring to boil. Add the drained gelatin and pour over ¼ frame. Keep in the freezer.
3. Cut the jelly into 1 cm cubes and then set aside in the freezer until ready to use.

Nappage Spray

• 500 g Valrhona Absolut Cristal Nappage
• 50 g water
• 1 vanilla bean seed

Mix everything together and bring to boil. Use at 70˚C (158˚F).

Plating

1. Pour the diced jelly on top the cake, covering it.
2. Whip the ganache to soft peaks. Fit a pastry bag with a 14 mm plain tip and fill it with whipped ganache. Pipe droplets of different shapes and sizes on the jelly cubes. Decorate with a few jelly cubes between the droplets of Whipped Ganache and then freeze. Spray with nappage. Cut in 2 cm-wide slices. Decorate with citrus crumble tossed with snow sugar and chocolate decoration.