Beautiful Christmas dessert in the form of a decorative bauble filled with flavours that will remind you of the festive holidays. This dessert will delight you with the perfect ensemble of mulled wine, cranberries, pecans, oranges and almonds. These baubles are too tasty to hang on a tree.
Special material requirements
Silicone semi-sphere mould 3cm diameter
Silicone sphere/truffle mould 5cm diameter
Round cookie cutter 3cm diameter
Small cake tin (I used a square 15x15cm)
Spray gun and compressor (or ready velvet spray from a can)
Additional material from the tutorial How to: Christmas Bauble details
Recipe
Yield: 8 pastries | Difficulty: hard
Ingredients
Mulled wine spiced cranberry compote
100g cranberries
90g red wine
1/2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 big cinnamon stick (or 2 small ones)
zest of 1/2 orange
1/4 tsp clove powder
Orange syrup
1 tbsp + 1 tsp fresh orange juice
1 tbsp brown sugar
Almond and orange financier
23g almond flour
22g butter
1 medium egg white
1 1/2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp + 1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp flour
zest of 1/2 orange
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Pecan praline paste
60g pecans
55g sugar
1 tbsp water
1/4 tsp salt
Pecan and orange whipped ganache
265g heavy cream
105g white chocolate
pecan praline paste (whole recipe from above)
zest of 1/2 orange
1 gelatine sheet
1 tsp vanilla extract
White chocolate galze
200g white chocolate
26g neutral oil
Decoration
60g white chocolate
60g red coloured cocoa butter
extra white chocolate
Directions
Mulled wine spiced cranberry compote
Place all ingredients in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil.
Cook on medium heat until most of the liquid has evaporated and you have a jam like consistency of the compote.
Remove the cinnamon stick and fill 8 cavities of the 3cm semi-sphere mould. Cover with cling film and freeze until firm. In the meantime keep the other half of the compote in the fridge.
When the 8 semi-spheres are frozen, remove them from the mould and fill another 8 cavities with the cranberry compote and place the frozen semi-spheres on top of the others. Freeze until firm.
Orange syrup
Place all ingredients in a small bowl and microwave on a low setting in impulses until all of the sugar has dissolved.
Set aside and let it cool down.
Almond and orange financier
Preheat the oven to 170°C fan.
Melt the butter on low to medium heat in a small saucepan and let it turn brown while constantly whisking. Set aside.
Add all other ingredients in a bowl and mix with a spatula until you get a paste like consistency.
Then, while whisking, slowly add the butter to the dough.
Grease the cake tin and evenly spread the batter in the tin.
Bake for 8 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.
After the financier has cooled down a bit and is still in the cake tin, brush the orange syrup on top.
Place the financier in the fridge overnight or at least for 2 hours.
Remove the financier from the cake tin and cut out 8 circles with the 3cm round cookie cutter.
Cover the cut-outs with cling film and place in the freezer until firm.
Pecan praline paste
Roast the pecans in a preheated oven of 170°C fan for 12 minutes and let them cool down after.
Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat it up on medium heat until all sugar has dissolved and has a nice golden brown colour.
Pour the hot caramel on a silicone mat or parchment paper and let it cool down.
Break the caramel in small pieces and place it in a blender along with the pecans and salt. Blend in impulses, scraping down the sides in between, until you get a runny paste like consistency.
Pecan and orange whipped ganache
Place the gelatine sheet in bowl filled with cold water and let it soak.
Place the chocolate and the pecan praline paste in a tall container and set aside.
In a small saucepan combine the heavy cream, orange zest and vanilla extract. Heat it up on low to medium heat while constantly whisking. Shortly before it starts to boil remove from heat.
Squeeze out the excess water from the gelatine sheet and add it to the heavy cream. Whisk until all of the gelatine has dissolved.
Pour the heavy cream through a fine sieve onto the chocolate and praline paste.
Emulsify the ganache with an immersion blender.
Transfer the ganache into a flatter container or bowl and cover with cling film to touch. Let it cool down to room temperature and then place it into the fridge overnight.
White chocolate glaze
Prepare the glaze when you are ready to decorate the assembled baubles.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave in impulses.
Add the oil and whisk until homogenous.
Assembly
Whip the ganache until you get stiff peaks.
Fill a bit more than half of the 5cm sphere/truffle mould with the whipped ganache and spread it around the walls of the cavities with a spoon or spatula.
Gently press a cranberry compote ball into the centre of the mould.
Cover the top and fill the gaps with more of the whipped ganache if needed.
Gently press the almond financier cut-outs into the mould until its level. Make sure the side with the syrup faces the inside. Remove any access ganache from the mould.
Cover the cavities with cling film to touch and place in the freezer overnight.
Remove the frozen baubles from the silicone mould, insert a fork into the bottom of the bauble and dip it into the white chocolate glaze, without covering the bottom of the pastry. Let excess chocolate drip down and place the pastries on a plate and in the freezer until your decoration is ready.
Decoration
Prepare the velvet spray: combine your white chocolate and cocoa butter and heat it up to 50°C. You can either do this in a chocolate melting machine or in the microwave in impulses.
Add the chocolate-cocoa butter mixture to your spray gun, take the pastries out of the freezer and spray them until they are fully covered. I would spray half of the pastries at the time while the others are still in the freezer.
Prepare the chocolate hangers and snow flakes by following the tutorial: How to: Christmas Bauble details.
Melt some white chocolate and gently attach the chocolate hanger on top of the pastry while still frozen.
Attach the snowflake in the same way on the top half of the bauble.
Let the pastries defrost in the fridge overnight.
Notes
Almond and orange financier: with the recipe you could cut out more than 8 pieces. I haven't checked precisely but I would say you could cut out almost double the amount. Thus, if you increase the recipe, the financier does not need to be adjusted proportionally.
Decoration: while you prepare the velvet spray mixture, place the spray gun in the oven at 40°C. This will prevent the velvet mixture to crystallise in the spray gun too soon.