Feijoa and sauvignon blanc bavarois

Photographer: Adam
enough for 8-12 moulds

 

Bavarois or Bavarian cream is a dessert that owes its origins to Switzerland according to the French. It is a crème anglaise (or English custard) thickened with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream.

I had already thought of doing a bavarois before Emma and Sara came for their visit. Then on our first day of the visit Lauren ordered a bavarois for dessert. I felt even more set in my decision to blog one. I had inspirations of doing one topped by a jelly as I had seen this done in a restaurant I had worked in several years back.

Whilst we were buying ingredients purely by chance I saw some feijoas and thought feijoa coupled with a delicious white wine would make a great bavarois and jelly flavouring. I didn’t feel quite as passionate about my first result though.

When I turned out the bavarois it strangely resembled part of the female anatomy (I’ll let you guess which part). I hadn’t sieved the feijoa puree so the bavarois had an intense grainy texture due to feijoa seeds. And the jelly, sigh, the jelly had an acrid taste of concentrated wine. It was alright but it wasn’t fabulous. A little embarrassing for our first ever blog get together I must say!

One must persevere though, adding fruit juice to the jelly along with the wine helped to lighten the flavour whilst retaining the tart alcoholic bite. Sieving the puree removed the grainy texture and left the bavarois with the smooth aerated texture that it should have. I still couldn’t think of how to remedy the appearance though, as a woman I’ll just put it down to feminist choice perhaps. Any suggestions?

INGREDIENTS

Jelly
1 cup of white wine (a nice sauvignon blanc or Riesling)
1 cup apple juice
1/3 cup of caster sugar
1/3 cup of muscavado sugar
5 strands of saffron (optional)
25g powdered gelatine

Bavarois
7-8 ripe feijoas peeled and diced
3 Tbsp muscavado sugar
2 cups of water
2 Tbsp feijoa vodka
500 ml of milk
1 vanilla pod split lengthways and scraped
5 eggs (separated)
125 g caster sugar
25 g powdered gelatine
200 ml of cream

METHOD

Jelly
1. Spray canola spray into either 12 timbale moulds or 8 small coffee cups.
2. Bring all of the ingredients to a steady simmer, stir until all of the gelatine and sugar are dissolved.
3. Remove from heat and pour into greased moulds.
4. Place 1-2 pieces of the cooked feijoa from the bavarois mix into each mould so they sit nicely into the still hot jelly.
5. Let cool in the refrigerator so the jelly is set when the bavarois mix is poured on top.

Bavarois
1. Bring the feijoas to the boil with the water and muscavado sugar. Once boiling reduce to a simmer, let simmer for 20 minutes or until the fruit is soft.
2. Remove from the heat and place into a blender, puree the fruit. Strain the mixture and let cool, then add in the vodka. Set aside and begin to make the bavarois mixture.
3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, working quickly as the sugar can burn the egg yolks and make them coagulate.
4. Bring the milk with the vanilla pod and vanilla pod scrapings to just before boiling and then gradually mix into the egg mixture whisking continuously.
5. Cook the milk and egg mixture (cream anglaise) over a medium-low heat stirring continuously until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon in a thick layer.
6. Completely dissolve the gelatine in 100 ml of boiling water, add to the hot cream anglaise ensuring all of the gelatine (mix) makes it into the cream anglaise.
7. Place the saucepan into an ice bath and let cool to room temperature, it is important to remove the saucepan from the ice bath once it has reached room temperature, if it is too cold it will be difficult to fold into the cream and egg whites.
8. Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold into the cream anglaise mix followed by the egg whites also whipped to soft peak. Finally fold through feijoa puree.
9. Pour over jelly into the greased moulds, place on a tray and cover. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours and serve with fresh fruit and a biscuit, if so desired.