To me, the beginning of the Fall season is always wonderful. Outdoor temperatures are simply amazing and fruits we have not seen for a while, suddenly appear in our markets. One fruit that always catches my attention are pomegranates. Their sweet tart flavor is something that I treasure very much and consequently I use pomegranates in countless desserts. The beautiful red arils can be striking on petit fours or fruit tarts containing other red fruits.
One of my favorite flavor combinations with pomegranate is violet (Violette). The essence of violet can be tricky to find in many places in the world, but luckily violet liqueur is much easier to come by. It adds a delicious floral taste to red fruits such as raspberries or strawberries without making these soapy. Since Bavarian cream is pretty much neutral in flavor it is an excellent candidate to be aromatized by violet and thus pair beautifully with pomegranate.
Assembly:
Prepare the Breton shortbread and set aside. Prepare the Bavarian cream and pour the cream half full into silicone domes. Sprinkle pomegranate arils in the center. Fill with additional Bavarian cream and top with a baked Breton shortbread. Freeze until firm. Unmold and allow to defrost. Serve with the raspberry violet coulis.
Breton shortbread | Sable Breton -Rose flavor
| 8 Tablespoons | (4 oz) | Butter, very soft | 120 g |
| 6 Tablespoons | (3 oz) | Extra fine granulated sugar | 90 g |
| ½ teaspoon | ( ½ tsp) | Salt | 2.5 g |
| 1 teaspoon | (1 tsp) | Vanilla bean paste | 5 ml |
| 2 | (2) | Egg yolk | 2 |
| 1 Cup + 3 Tbsp | (5 oz) | Pastry flour | 150 g |
| 2 teaspoon | (2 tsp) | Baking powder | 10 g |
| 2 | (2) | Contents of 2 rose flavored tea | 2 |
- Cream the butter with the sugar, salt and vanilla paste. Add the egg yolk.
- Sift together the flour and baking powder and add along with the rose flavored tea to the above. Mix until just combined.
- Either pipe the batter immediately into silicone pans or chill the dough, roll to ¼ inch thickness and cut into circles. Than place into silicone pans and bake at 375 (180C) until light golden.
Bavarian cream |Crème Bavaroise
| ½ Cup | (4 oz) | Heavy cream | 120 g |
| 1 ¼ Cups | (10 oz) | Milk | 300 g |
| 6 Tablespoons | (3 oz) | Extra fine granulated sugar | 90 g |
| 1 teaspoon | (1 tsp) | Vanilla bean paste | 5 ml |
| 3 | (3) | Egg yolk | 3 |
| 3 | (3) | Gelatin sheets | 3 |
| 2 Cups | (16 oz) | Soft whipped whipping cream | 480 g |
| 4 Tbsp | (2 oz) | Violet liquor | (60 g) |
- Place the gelatin sheets in ice cold water to bloom and set aside.
- In a saucepan bring the heavy cream, milk, approximately half of the sugar and vanilla bean paste to a boil.
- In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Add the remaining sugar and whisk rapidly until smooth, add approximately one fifth of the boiling milk and whisk smooth.
- Pour into the boiling milk and stir constantly using a rubber spatula until the temperature reaches 183 (81C). The mixture will curdle if it exceeds a just few degrees above these temperatures.
- Remove from heat and pour through a Chinois if necessary. Remove the gelatin from the water and squeeze out excess water. Add to the crème Anglaise and stir until dissolved.
- Place over an ice bath while constantly stirring. Cool to approximately 75F 24C and then fold in the whipped cream.
Raspberry Violet coulis with Pomegranate
| ½ Cup | (4 oz) | Raspberry puree | 120g |
| 1 Teaspoon | (1 tsp) | Extra fine granulated sugar | 5 g |
| 1 Tablespoon | (1 Tbsp) | Violet liquor | 15 ml |
| 1 | (1) | Arils from 1 pomegranate | 1 |
- Combine the ingredients and set aside in a refrigerator.
In this article:
Breton shortbread recipe
Bavarian cream recipe
Wow, as always.
Just made the Bavarian cream and it is very yummy!
Gorgeous! Chef Eddy you amaze me everytime! Great job!
This was so good! Like, melt in your mouth good!
I had never really done much with pomegranate before… this was really good! And it had a surprising freshness about it that I really enjoyed!
I had the pleasure of trying this out this summer. The bavarian cream was excellent. Here in North Idaho, we were known for our huckleberries, so I switched out the pomegranate for huckleberries. I also couldn’t find rose tea in my area so I switched that out for lemon tea and was the best shortbread cookies I have ever tried. The lemon also went together with the huckleberry. I made a simple huckleberry sauce to go with the dessert as well. Thanks for the great recipe!