Apricot and Pistachio cream

Steps

before starting

• Place a metal bowl into the freezer

for the fruits puree

• Wash the apricots and slice them in half, remove their stones
• Place the apricots into a bowl and sprinkle the sugar on top
• Use a stick blender to mix apricots and sugar and thus create a puree
• Put aside

for the « diplomate » cream with fruits

• Place the gelatin leaves into a dish with cold water
• Add milk, vanilla seeds and vanilla pods into a small casserole
• Add the egg yolks into a bowl
• Start beating the eggs in an omelet using an electric hand mixer
• Add slowly and by batches the sugar and keep beating after each addition until you no long hear the crunching sound of the sugar
• Add slowly and by batches as well, the corn flour, and keep beating after each addition
• Heat-up the milk, and keep whisking it with a whisk until it starts to boil then remove it from heat
• Remove the vanilla pods
• Start beating the eggs again if the mix is too stiff
• Add some hot milk and keep beating with the electric hand mixer
• Put the casserole back to heat and pour on top of it the mix of eggs, corn flour, milk and sugar
• Start stirring the mix constantly with the whisk
• Quickly enough, a cream will start to form (the pastry cream)
• Remove from heat
• Add the cream into a bowl
• Add the butter cut in pieces, one at a time, and keep stirring energetically with the whisk, if you see some lamps, don’t worry, the cream will still be good
• Drain the gelatin within your hands and add it to the cream
• Start whisking again in order to for the gelatin to melt
• Place some plastic wrap directly on the cream to cover it completely and place it in the freezer for 10’
• Place the whisks of the electric hand mixer into the metal bowl in the freezer
• Slice the pistachios in fine rounds
• Slice the two small apricots in small dices but not very thin
• Get the cream out of the refrigerator and start whisking it with the whisk to make it as velvety as possible
• Add the pistachio paste into the cream and keep beating with the whisk
• Add the fruits puree into the cream, slowly and by batches, and stir well with the whisk after each addition
• Get the metal bowl out of the freezer
• Pour the heavy cream in it, be sure that she is extra cold
• Start beating the cream with the electric hand mixer
• At some point, a whipped cream is going to form, it’s not going to be very stiff but maybe it’s better
• Get some whipped cream into the pastry cream (the other cream)
• Stir gently with a rubber spatula until the whipped cream is absorbed completely
• Add the rest of the cream in batches and stir gently until all cream is absorbed
• At the end, add the pieces of apricots and stir them in gently with the rubber spatula
• Use a teaspoon to fill the cream in the verrines (small glass vertical pots) but clean up the mess on the verrines borders, if you create some ;) I know I did ;) (***)
• Sprinkle on top the pistachios and place the verrines in the refrigerator for 1h at least
• Enjoy them extra cold, but try to be reasonable if you are a bit heavy as I am
• Really nice!

Inspiration

I created this recipe because I wanted to eat an apricot cream as a dessert (or any other apricot dessert - another one is coming soon) along with the tournedos with vigneronne sauce and the green salad with melon, apricots and pistachios ! To do so, I consulted some recipes from the Great French Pastry Chef Christophe Felder (who is a great Chef and has created great books) and one of my recipes that uses “diplomate” cream! And it worked!

(*) If you wish to have a more subtle apricot taste in the cream, you can use 150gr of apricots instead of 220gr, it’s still very good and might be a bit more delicate! Your choice! 

(**) If you use ¾ of a vanilla pod, le goût est beaucoup plus vanillé au début, mais après plusieurs jours au réfrigérateur, il est très bon !

(***) If you want to prevent some “accidents” to happen when you are filling the creaminto the pots and splitting it all around their borders, you can use a pipping bag with a plain pastry tip big enough to let the small pieces of apricots to pass through ;) but you are not obliged to use a pipping bag, if you don’t know how or if you are afraid of it ;) Look at the photographs, do you see something strange? A teaspoon works also very well as long as you are not afraid of accidents and you are cleaning up the mess!