Recipe: Curry cream coulant, frozen yogurt and Meyer lemon

Every year, Sébastien Bras has fun reinterpreting this classic dessert invented by his father

This spicy version of a coulant was the pretext for an Indian escape – a souvenir from crossing Rajasthan. From Bras: The Tastes of Aubrac by Sébastien Bras

Cores

• 26g white chocolate
• 52g cocoa butter
• 15g milk powder
• 2.5g curry powder
• 160g whipping cream
• 82g milk
• 28g caster sugar
• 10g butter
• 8g cornflour

The day before, in a mixing bowl, combine the white chocolate, cocoa butter, milk powder and curry powder. In a saucepan, bring the cream, milk, sugar, butter and 68g water to the boil. Add the cornflour (cornstarch), stir in and boil for a few more seconds. Pour the hot mixture into the bowl with the chocolate mixture and stir in.

Pour the mixture into four circular moulds 4cm in diameter and 3.5cm tall and freeze at -20°C for at least 3 hours.

Shortcrust pastry

• 400g flour
• 80g ground almonds
• 6g salt
• 320g butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Sift the flour, ground almonds and salt into a mixing bowl and stir together. Add the butter in small pieces and mix in. On a sheet of parchment paper, roll the dough out to 7mm thick. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until evenly coloured. Leave to cool, then press through a sieve to obtain a powder with evenly sized grains. Set aside 300g.

Italian meringue

• 200g caster sugar
• 100g egg white

In a saucepan, combine the sugar with 70g water and heat to 121°C. Whisk the egg whites until they form peaks, then pour the hot syrup over the whites, taking care not to pour it over the whisk. Leave to cool then whisk continuously for 10 minutes. Set aside 200g.

Preparing the biscuit and assembling the coulant

Mix the 200g of Italian meringue with the 300g of reserved shortcrust pastry crumbs to make a biscuit dough.

Line four rings, 4cm high and 5cm in diameter, with parchment paper, then fill with the Italian meringue and shortcrust pastry mixture to two-thirds of the way up. Push a frozen core into the centre of each ring using the tip of a knife, making sure to leave 5mm of biscuit dough in the bottom of each ring. Cover the core with more of the biscuit dough, filling to the top of ring. Smooth the surface and set aside in the freezer for 24 hours.

Coulis

• 1 Meyer lemon
• 20g caster sugar
• 2g cornflour

Zest and juice the lemon. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and lemon zest and juice with 80g water. Bring to the boil for a few seconds, then add the cornflour. Boil again for a few seconds, then remove from the heat and leave to cool. Refrigerate.

Ice-cream

• 150g whipping cream (35% fat)
• 130g caster sugar
• 30g liquid glucose
• 50g milk powder
• 500g yogurt

In a saucepan, heat the cream, sugar and glucose and boil for a few seconds. Remove from the heat and blend, adding the milk powder. Leave to cool, then stir in the yogurt. Churn in an ice-cream maker, then set aside at -15°C.

Lemon

• 300g caster sugar
• 1 Meyer lemon

In a saucepan, heat the sugar with 150g water to 121°C. Cut the lemon into thin slices using a slicer. Pour the boiling syrup over the lemon slices and leave to cool.

Just before serving

Preheat the oven to 180°C . Bake the coulants on a baking sheet for 20 minutes. Check the doneness using a sharp knife, which should come out slightly warm. Leave to cool for 1-2 minutes, then carefully turn them out.

Arrange the different elements on the plate, finishing with a scoop of yogurt ice-cream on the hot coulant. Enjoy immediately.

Notes

The difference in diameter between the core and the outer mould is important. It is this that will determine not only the ratio of biscuit to liquid centre, but also how fragile it is to unmould. Ideally, this difference should be 1.5cm. To make things easier, you could make the cores slightly smaller.