CTV Recipes
Search Recipes
Mont-Blanc tart
Unlike its annoyingly conspicuous Swiss Italian neighbor, the Matterhorn (aka Monte Cervino), Mont-Blanc’s stature reveals itself slowly, crowded as it is by the Dôme du Goûter, the Aiguille de Goûter, the Aiguille du Midi, Mont Maudit (“cursed mountain”!), and the aptly named Les Bosses (“the bumps”).
In my experience, the best view from which to appreciate the Mont-Blanc massif is from the Skyway, only a five-minute walk from Auberge de la Maison (see page 84). A system of cable cars, the Skyway starts off near the Mont-Blanc Tunnel (which takes cars from Italy to France, or in ski-speak, from Courmayeur to Chamonix). Not to sound like a brochure, but the Skyway truly is an incredible feat of engineering, ascending all the way up to Punta Helbronner at 3,466 meters (11,371 feet), from which you can really study each and every crevasse, bowl, and glacier of the Mont-Blanc massif. It’s like a puzzle of rock face.
Mont-Blanc the dessert, with its finely piped sky-high chestnut cream on a bed of meringue, is perhaps more easily recognizable than the mountain. Outside of Paris and the Instagrams of trendy pastry chefs such as Cédric Grolet, the local bakeries of the Grandes Jorasses mountain (on the border between Haute-Savoie and Aosta) do it best. Alpine pastry wizard Paolo Griffa from the Petit Royal restaurant in Courmayeur showed me how to make his version. This dessert—another feat of engineering!—may look ambitious, but it is totally possible for the home cook.
Ingredients
Equipment:
- 5 centimeter ring mold or cookie cutter
- 7.5 centimeter ring mold or cookie cutter
- 6.5 by 2 centimeter perforated tart rings
- Disposable piping bags
- 4 millimeter plain piping tip
- 1 centimeter plain piping tip
- Mont-Blanc (multi-opening) piping tip
- Pizza wheel (optional)
- Ruler
- Offset spatula
Chestnut cream:
- 1 cup (240 milliliters) heavy cream
- 1 cup (240 grams) mascarpone
- 5 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 400 grams chestnut purée
- 2-1/2 sheets leaf gelatin
Meringue caps:
- 4 egg whites, at room temperature
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
Pastry shells:
- 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (100 grams) all-purpose flour
- Scant 1/2 cup (50 grams) confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
- 7 tablespoons (100 grams) cold unsalted butter, diced
- 1 egg yolk
Mascarpone cream:
- 1/2 cup (120 milliliters) heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (120 grams) mascarpone, at room temperature
- 150 grams chestnut purée
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
- 220 grams chestnut purée
- 6 whole candied chestnuts (marrons glacés)
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Directions
Chestnut cream:
- The day before you want to serve the tart, in a saucepan over medium heat, combine the heavy cream and mascarpone and warm, stirring frequently, until just below the boiling point. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and granulated sugar. When the cream mixture is just about to boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and, whisking constantly, slowly add 1/2 cup (120 milliliters) of the hot liquid to the yolk-sugar mixture, until smooth.
- Return the egg-cream mixture to the saucepan over medium heat and cook, whisking nonstop, until the custard begins to thicken, four to five minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chestnut purée.
- Submerge the gelatin sheets in a bowl of cold water for ten minutes. Squeeze the excess water from the softened gelatin and whisk the gelatin into the chestnut mixture. Let cool to room temperature—stirring from time to time to stop a skin from forming, or laying plastic wrap directly on the surface. Refrigerate overnight.
Meringue caps:
- Preheat the oven to 200°F (95°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then mark the paper with twelve five centmeter circles, using a ring mold as your guide.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, at medium-low speed, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the salt, increase the speed to medium, and continue to whip until the egg whites form soft peaks—they should have the consistency of shaving cream. Add the granulated sugar one-third at a time and then beat at medium speed for one minute more. Increase the speed to medium-high, whisking until long stiff peaks form when you lift the whisk.
- Transfer this meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a four millimeter plain tip and pipe as many five centimeter rounds as you can onto the prepared baking sheet—once cooked, you’ll be picking the nicest six meringues.
- Bake until meringue is firm to the touch, 1-1/2 to two hours (if the meringues start to color during baking, lower the heat). Transfer the meringues to a rack and let cool completely.
Pastry shells:
- Sift the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt into a large bowl. Add the vanilla bean seeds. Add the butter and rub the mixture in with your fingertips until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the egg yolk and, using a spatula, stir it into the mixture until a firm dough forms (you may need to add a splash of cold water if the dough feels crumbly). Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of three millimeters. Using a sharp knife or a pizza wheel and a ruler, cut six strips each measuring about 2 by 21 centimeters. Arrange each strip around the inside of the perforated tart rings, applying gentle pressure where the dough overlaps to secure the seal. Place each lined ring onto the prepared baking sheet.
Note:
Canned chestnut purée and candied chestnuts can be purchased online or found in fine European-style delis.
Reprinted with permission from Alpine Cooking, by Meredith Erickson, copyright © 2019. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Photographs copyright © 2019 by Christina Holmes.
