Recipe by Hélène Kerloeguen: Pear, Grapefruit, and Bergamot Dessert

Make brown butter. Mix the almond powder, eggs, icing sugar and salt. Add the brown butter and bergamot zest. Beat the egg whites with the brown sugar, then fold into the first mixture while incorporating the sifted flour and baking powder. Roll out to 8 mm thick using a pastry ruler. Bake at 170°C for 12 to 14 minutes. Check for doneness. Remove from the pan immediately upon removal from the oven, slide onto a cooling rack, and cover the biscuit to retain all the moisture inside. Cut into 3.4 cm rounds.

Combine the ascorbic acid with the finely diced pear. Add the sugar-pectin mixture to the lemon juice, scraped vanilla seeds and bergamot zest in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add the finely diced pear and cook for a few minutes until the mixture simmers. Pour 12 g into each 4-cm-diameter Flexipan volcano mold. Freeze.

Zest the citrus fruits using a serrated peeler. Blanch the zest three times, starting with cold water and a pinch of salt. Squeeze the zested citrus fruits. Make a syrup with the juice and sugar. Add the blanched zest and reduce the syrup by one-third. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, reserving the juice. Blend the zest in a Thermomix, gradually adding the juice until the desired texture is achieved. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill.

Heat the milk with the vanilla. Let it steep for 10 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and add the melted gelatin mass. Heat the egg whites and sugar to 60°C in a bowl over a double boiler, then beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Meanwhile, whip the cream to soft peaks with an electric mixer. When ready to combine, pour the warm milk into the cream cheese and bitter almond. Gently fold the Swiss meringue with a spatula, incorporating a little whipped cream. Fold the meringue into the cream cheese. Finish with the remaining whipped cream.

Bring ¼ of the cream, the sugar, and the scraped vanilla seeds to a boil. Add the gelatin and pour over the mascarpone. Stir to combine. Add the remaining cold liquid cream and the Cointreau®. Blend until smooth.
Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly against the surface. The next day, whip until fluffy and thin out with a little milk if needed.

Cut the butter into cubes. Rub the butter into the
flour, almond powder, salt and sugar until the mixture
resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolks and mix
until a smooth dough forms. Stir in the toasted, chopped
almonds. Let rest for 12 hours at 3°C. Roll out to 3 mm
between two sheets of parchment paper. Cut into 4.3 cm
rounds. Bake between two Silpains at 160°C.

Pipe a spiral of grapefruit confit onto the bergamot sponge discs, then attach the pear marmalade inserts. Fill the hollow centers of the “volcano” inserts with grapefruit confit.

Pipe a small amount of cream cheese mousse into the 4 cm Ø pebble molds. Press the insert into the center. Freeze.

Unmold the assemblies, pipe swirls of Cointreau® vanilla mascarpone whipped cream all around the pebble using a 100-tip piping bag. Glaze with a spray gun. Freeze.

Place the entremets on an almond shortbread disc. Gently separate the grapefruit segments from the membrane. Add a few pieces of bergamot zest for flavor, then arrange them in the center of the entremets.