Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (190 page)

Arrange the reserved cherry halves in the bottom of the mold, cut-side up. Spoon the rice into the mold, which will be almost filled. Cover with waxed paper or plastic, and chill for several hours, or until set.

4)
Serving

A chilled serving plate

Either
3 cups
crème anglaise
(
custard sauce
) flavored with orange liqueur;

Or crème Chantilly
(
lightly whipped cream
) flavored with orange liqueur and sweetened with confectioner’s sugar

Run a thin knife around edge of dessert, turn serving platter upside down over it, and reverse the two to unmold dessert onto plate. Surround with a little of the custard sauce or
crème Chantilly,
and pass the rest separately.

LE PÉLERIN EN TIMBALE

[Molded Almond Cream]

This is a cross between the rich
charlotte Malakoff
and the classic Bavarian cream: a custard sauce bound with gelatin and butter, flavored with toasted almonds, kirsch, and apricot, and molded in a cake-lined dish. It gets its name from the pilgrims who, in the days before modern processing, stuffed their pockets with nonperishables like dried fruits and nuts. We assume that this particular
pélerin
paid his host for the night in almonds, which his hostess put to use in the following manner. (Note that this dessert improves in flavor if made a day or two in advance of serving.)

For a 6-cup mold, serving 8 to 10

1)
Preliminaries

7 ounces (about 1½ cups) blanched whole almonds

A roasting pan or pizza tray

A kitchen timer

An electric blender

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread almonds in pan and toast for 5 minutes in middle level of oven; stir them up and toast another 5 to 6 minutes, stirring every 2 to 3 minutes to be sure they do not burn. They should be deep golden brown. When cool, pulverize ½ cup at a time in electric blender; set aside.

A 6-cup cylindrical charlotte mold or baking dish about 3½ inches deep

A round of waxed paper

A long, thin knife

A butter sponge cake,
génoise,
“shortcake,” or other cake of that type (can be store-bought), such as a round one at least 8 by 1½ inches

2 heavily buttered pastry sheets

3 Tb melted butter

2 to 3 Tb sugar

1 Tb kirsch

Meanwhile, line bottom of mold with the waxed paper. Then slice cake into horizontal layers each no more than ⅓ inch thick. Cut a round out of the top-of-cake layer to fit bottom of mold and place round inside-side up on a baking sheet. Cut rest of cake layers into strips 1¼ inches wide and arrange on the baking sheets. Paint with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. When almonds are done, raise thermostat to 400 degrees. Set baking sheets in middle and upper-third levels of oven and bake the cake strips for about 10 minutes, until they are lightly golden brown. Remove from oven, sprinkle with drops of kirsch, and set aside.

2)
The custard sauce—crème anglaise—and almond cream

1½ Tb (1½ packages) unflavored powdered gelatin

⅓ cup kirsch in a measure

¾ cup sugar

6 egg yolks in a heavy-bottomed
2-quart stainless or enameled saucepan

A hand-held electric beater or a wire whip

2½ cups hot milk in a small saucepan

A wooden spoon

8 ounces (2 sticks) butter cut into ¼-inch slices

The toasted almonds

1 tsp vanilla extract

If needed: a pinch of salt; a few drops of almond extract

Sprinkle the gelatin over the kirsch and set aside. Beat the sugar gradually into the egg yolks and continue beating for several minutes until mixture is thick, pale yellow, and forms a ribbon for a few seconds when a bit falls back on the surface. Gradually beat in the hot milk, adding it in a thin stream. Set mixture over moderate heat and stir slowly with wooden spoon, reaching all over bottom of pan, for 4 to 5 minutes until sauce thickens enough to film spoon with a creamy layer. (Be careful sauce does not come to the simmer and curdle the egg yolks, but you must heat it to the point where it thickens.) Immediately remove from heat and stir vigorously for 1 minute to cool slightly, then scrape the gelatin and kirsch mixture into the hot sauce, beating thoroughly for 2 minutes, to be sure gelatin dissolves completely. (A hand-held electric beater is useful here, and from now on.) Beat in the butter, 4 pieces
at a time, then the almonds and vanilla. Taste carefully: add a little salt and drops of almond extract if you feel them necessary. Set aside; you will have about 5 cups of sauce, which should still be slightly warm or at least tepid when used in next step.

3)
Filling the mold

Line the mold with the toasted cake, sugared sides against mold, as follows. Place circle in the bottom; cut strips to fit upright and close together side by side, trimming one or two into wedges if necessary to fill in gaps.

A ladle

The tepid almond cream

Leftover cake strips

About ⅓ cup apricot jam

Plastic wrap

Ladle ⅓ of the almond cream into the mold. Paint several cake strips with apricot jam and arrange in a layer over the cream. Ladle more cream into mold to fill to ⅔ and cover with additional apricot-painted cake strips. Finally fill the mold with the remaining almond cream, pouring some down between cake strips and side of mold if necessary. Top with additional cake strips if any remain; cover with plastic wrap and chill several hours until set.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: Finished dessert will keep 4 to 5 days under refrigeration or may be frozen.