Strawberry bavarois
There are two options for the bottom of the bavarois. One is an almond financier and the other is a lemon shortcrust.
The cake ring is optional, if you want, you can make this straight into the springform. Do note that the result will not be as well finished, as the spring form is uneven.
I do suggest you use the acetate foil either way, it allows you to remove the bavarois from the ring (or spring form) without damaging it. The foil can be removed right before serving.
- 24-26 cm spring form
- 22 cm cake ring
- acetate foil
Pick one of the options below.
- 110 g butter
- 80 g almond flour (amandelmeel)
- 150 g powdered sugar
- 40 g flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Note that the recipe calls for almond flour, and not almond powder. Almond flour is ground almonds before the almond oil is extracted, so it is still a bit moist and is an excellent ingredient in cakes.
Experience has shown that you can be a tad liberal with the amount of almond extract, but that probably also depends on the brand used.
- melt the butter in a small pan, medium heat until lightly brown (noisette)
- pour the butter in a small recipient, leaving the sediments in the pan
- let cool a little bit
- mix the almond flour, powder sugar, flour and salt
- add in the egg whites (not whipped!) and almond extract
- lastly, add in the cooled butter
- rest in the fridge for 1 hour
- preheat the oven to 180 °C
- grease the springform walls with butter, baking paper on the bottom
- pour the cooled mixture in, spread evenly
- bake for 23 to 28 minutes
- let cool down
- 100 g butter
- 80 g salted butter
- 80 g brown sugar
- 90 g granulated sugar
- 260 g flour (self-rising)
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 lime (zest)
- vanilla flavouring
- 1/4 lemon grass (optional)
- ensure the butter (salted and unsalted) is soft
- put the butter in a stand mixer and mix gently
- add the sugars, lime zest, egg yolk, flour, lemon grass and vanilla flavouring
- knead for a few minutes and continue by hand
- preheat the oven to 180°C
- dust a surface with flour
- roll out the dough to a thickness of ~5mm
- press out the desired shape using a cake ring
- put the dough with the ring on baking paper and bake for 20-25min
Do note that you can be quite liberal with the amount of lemon zest. This recipe easily takes all of the zest of one lemon.
- 300 g strawberries
- 1/4 or 1/2 lemon (juice)
- 300 ml cream
- 75 g sugar
- 4 gelatine leaves (6.7 g total)
Hint: blend all of the strawberries at once and keep ~175-200 ml in the fridge for the mirror finish later.
For the lemon juice, it’s perfectly fine to use one of those lemon juice squeeze bottles.
- clean the strawberries
- blend the strawberries with the lemon juice to a smooth puree
- soak the gelatine leaves in water for ~5 minutes (see package)
- whip the cream with the sugar until it has the consistency of yoghurt
- pour 3-4 tablespoons of the strawberry puree in a small pan and heat while stirring
- when it is hot but not boiling, remove it from the heat
- squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves and add them to the warm puree
- stir until dissolved
- if they don’t dissolve well, put it back on the heat a little longer
- mix this with the rest of the puree
- gently mix (spatula) half of the whipped cream into the puree
- now gently mix in the other half (make sure to preserve the airiness!)
- if you used the financier bottom, use the cake ring to press out a 22 cm ring
- cut (or re-use) some baking paper to use as an underlay
- put your bottom in the cake ring on a plate using the baking paper as underlay
- line the ring with acetate foil, make sure it reaches all the way down
- scoop in the bavarois
- put in the fridge for 2 hours (more if you feel it has not solidified enough)
- 175 g strawberries
- 1/4 lemon (juice)
- 30 g sugar
- 2 gelatine leaves (3.3 g total)
- few drops of red food colouring (optional)
If you already blended all of the strawberries when making the bavarois, skip the first two steps.
- clean the strawberries
- blend the strawberries with the lemon juice to a smooth puree
- soak the gelatine leaves in water for ~5 minutes (see package)
- put 1/3rd of the puree in a pan
- add the sugar and a few drops of red food colouring (optional)
- heat until hot (not boiling)
- squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves and add them to the warm puree
- mix this with the rest of the puree
- pour on top of the bavarois
- put in the fridge for 2 hours
- when the finish has solidified, you can decorate the bavarois with some sliced strawberries