« Finding Inspiration: Design Blog Picks | Main | Lola Finds: Bird Houses »

Treat of the Week: Mint Chocolate Vacherin

Branch Divider
Feb
17
...
2012

We have dedicated each Treat of the Week this month to chocolate.  The first week we gave you Chocolate Hazelnut Mille Crepe and last week, one of my all time favorites… truffles.  This week we lighten things up just a bit with a light and airy meringue base for our dessert.  It makes the perfect backdrop for fresh mint and of course, plenty of chocolate.

Mint Chocolate Vacerhin

The vacherin (vash-rahn) is a fairly common French dessert.  Ours is made with whipped cream, but you will see many of these made with ice cream, as well.  Beyond the fact that it is delicious, it is very pretty to serve and will make you look like a kitchen genius.  The best part of all, it’s really simple to make.

savour… luscious layers

Get the rest after the jump…

Mint Chocolate Vacherin

Before you start:

If you don’t have superfine sugar, simply put granulated sugar in your food processor for about 30 seconds.

Folding must be done gently and just enough to incorporate ingredients.  Too much folding will deflate your egg whites.

Be sure your lines of piped batter touch slightly to keep the meringue in one solid piece.

Try to keep your lines as consistent in terms of height by applying even pressure from start to finish.

Be gentle with finished meringues while assembling.  They are quite fragile.

Likewise, you must be cautious when serving.  For best results, cut with a very sharp knife.  Do not press, but use a sawing motion to slice.

Vacherin2

The ingredients:

For the meringues:

  • 3 egg whites
  • ¾ cup superfine sugar / 175g
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 ½ ounces grated semisweet chocolate

For the filling:

  • 8 ounces milk chocolate
  • 1 1/2cups heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint leaves
  • 2 tablespoons  superfine sugar

Garnish:

  • Semisweet chocolate
  • Fresh mint leaves

Vacherin3

The method:

For the meringues:

  1. Preheat oven to 275°.
  2. On a piece of parchment paper draw 3 rectangles approximately 4 inches wide and 10 inches long.  Place the parchment on baking sheet and set aside.
  3. Beat eggs in a clean mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment until soft peaks form.
  4. Add ½ cup of the superfine sugar and whisk until mixture is quite stiff and glossy.
  5. Fold in the remaining sugar, cornstarch, and grated chocolate.
  6. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a ½ inch plain tip.  Pipe lines of batter across the rectangles.
  7. Bake for 45 minutes.  Rotate tray.  Bake another 45 minutes. 
  8. Turn off oven and allow the meringues to cool completely inside the oven.

Vacherin4

For the filling:

  1. In a heat proof bowl over a simmering pot of water, melt the milk chocolate.
  2. Stir the chocolate until smooth.
  3. Spread the chocolate on two of the meringue layers while still warm.  Set aside.
  4. Muddle the chopped mint leaves with the sugar in a pestle and mortar. 
  5. Add sugared mint and cream to a chilled bowl and whip to soft peaks.
  6. Place one of the chocolate covered meringues on your serving dish.  Spread a third of the cream on top of the chocolate layer.  Add the other chocolate covered meringue and repeat the cream layer.
  7. Add the final meringue disk.  Add the remaining cream right down the center of the top disk.
  8. Grate just a bit of semisweet chocolate  over the top and place a mint leaf on alternating sides of the cream about every inch along the top.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a0120a8a2f331970b0163018b26e0970d

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Treat of the Week: Mint Chocolate Vacherin:

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

yep making this tonight! thx

oh...my...this looks AMAZING! I will definitely be making this :)

Wow, this is stunning! I can't wait for my fresh mint again this summer, I'll definitely be trying this. Gorgeous blog!

This looks amazing..... :)

This is so gourmet! Love the styling and chocolate with mint is my most recent fav combination!

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment