envy™ apple taco by Kirsten Tibballs

INGREDIENTS

• Almond sable pastry
• 310g unsalted butter
• 190g pure icing sugar, sieved
• 60g almond meal
• 2 large eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla bean paste
• 5g salt
• 500g plain flour
• plain flour, for dusting
• Sautéed apples
• 150g envy™ apples, peeled and diced
• 15g unsalted butter
• 20g caster sugar
• Caramel Mousse
• 210g fresh cream 35% fat (A)
• 3g gold gelatine sheets, or 1 ½ individual sheets of gelatine
• 60g full cream milk
• 40g liquid glucose
• 2 vanilla beans, cut and scraped
• 80g caster sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 40g fresh cream 35% fat (B)
• sauteed apples, from above
• Yoghurt Mousse
• 120g fresh cream 35% fat
• 4g gold gelatine sheets, or 2 individual sheets of gelatine
• 20g envy™ Apples, juiced (A)
• 65g caster sugar
• 110g egg yolks
• 35g envy™ Apples, juiced (B)
• 65g natural yoghurt (A)
• 95g natural yoghurt (B)
• Granola
• 25g coconut oil
• 50g honey
• 40g brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 160g rolled oats
• 50g almonds, skin on
• 55g pistachios
• 60g flaked coconut
• Vanilla Chantilly Cream
• 3g gold gelatine sheets
• 175g fresh cream 35% fat (A)
• 3g Heilala Vanilla Bean Paste
• 35g caster sugar
• 235g fresh cream 35% fat (B)
• Chocolate Garnish
• 250g good-quality white chocolate
• 5g cocoa butter
• 2g titanium dioxide
• Glazed Apple Garnish
• 3 envy™ Apple
• 100g neutral glaze

METHOD

Almond sable pastry

• Place the butter, icing sugar, and almond meal into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix to combine.
• Once there are no lumps of butter remaining, add the eggs, vanilla, and salt and continue to mix.
• Lastly, add the flour and mix until the ingredients just come together as a dough.
• Press the dough into an even, flat square and wrap in plastic wrap. Place into the refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour to firm.
• Heat the oven to 150°C, fan forced.
• On a lightly floured workbench, roll the chilled dough to approximately 3mm in thickness.
• Use a round cutter, 120mm in diameter, to cut out 12 discs.
• Reroll the remaining dough to 3mm in thickness and cut rectangles, 120mm x 20mm in size. These will serve as the base for each taco.
• Place the rounds and rectangles onto a lined baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden in colour.
• Allow to cool slightly before cutting the discs in half with a serrated edged knife. Once cut, you can stack them on top of each other and, if required, trim the flat edge slightly so they are even in size.

Sauteed apples

• Melt the butter in a pan, then add the diced apples and saute until they are just cooked through but still hold their shape.
• Add the sugar and stir, then immediately remove the pan from the heat.
• Strain the apples to remove any excess liquids.
• Transfer the apple into a bowl and chill in the refrigerator until required.

Caramel Mousse

• Semi-whip the cream (A) until it has some body but still collapses, then set aside in the refrigerator until required.
• Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water. Once soft and pliable, gently squeeze to remove any excess water, then set aside until required.
• Place the milk, glucose and vanilla in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then set aside and keep warm.
• In a separate saucepan, heat the sugar until completely dissolved and caramelised.
• Remove from the heat and deglaze the caramel with the warm milk mixture.
• Pour the caramel over the egg yolks while whisking by hand to combine.
• Return the combined mixture into the saucepan and stir continuously while heating.
• Once it reaches 85°C, strain the mixture into a bowl.
• Add the presoaked gelatine and mix until dissolved and incorporated, then allow to cool to 34°C before gently folding in the semi-whipped cream.
• Pipe the mousse into 12 cavities of the Flexipan 1441 80mm disc silicon mould.
• Scatter the sauteed apples over the mousse and gently press down so they are level with the surface of the mousse.
• Place into the freezer for a minimum of 4 hours. Once completely frozen, unmould and return to the freezer until required.
• Note: Ensure the caramel mousse is completely frozen prior to preparing the yoghurt mousse.

Yoghurt Mousse

• Semi-whip the cream until it has some body but still collapses, then set aside in the refrigerator until required.
• Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water. Once soft and pliable, gently squeeze to remove any excess water, then set aside until required.
• Place the apple juice (A) and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
• Meanwhile, place the egg yolks into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whip on high speed.
• Once the apple syrup reaches 119°C, pour it over the egg yolks while continuing to whip until pale and fluffy, creating a pate bombe.
• Transfer the pate bombe into a bowl, then weigh out 50g back into the stand mixer bowl to use in the mousse.
• Place the apple juice (B), pre-soaked gelatine, and yogurt (A) in a clean saucepan and gently heat, bringing it to 60-70°C.
• Add the yoghurt (B) to the semi-whipped cream and whisk by hand to combine.
• Add the warm yoghurt mixture to the 50g of pate bombe and combine on low speed then remove from the mixer.
• Add a small amount of the cream mixture to the pate bombe and fold through by hand.
• Gently fold half of the pate bombe mixture through the cream mixture, before folding in the remaining pate bombe mixture.
• Pipe the yogurt mousse into 12 cavities of the Flexipan 1441 80mm disc mould.
• Gently place the frozen caramel mousse, apple-side down, on top of the yoghurt mousse.
• Place into the freezer for a minimum of 4 hours to set.
• Once frozen, unmould the inserts and use a hot knife to cut each in half, forming two semicircles.
• Return to the freezer until required.
• Note: You will create more than 12 inserts. The extra inserts can be frozen for up to 2 months and used for future applications.

Granola

• Heat the oven to 145°C, fan forced.
• In a saucepan, heat the coconut oil, honey, and brown sugar until the sugar dissolves. Take care not to bring the mixture to the boil.
• Pour the liquids into a bowl, add the cinnamon and vanilla, and mix to combine.
• Add the rolled oats, almonds, and pistachios, and mix to combine.
• Allow to cool slightly before scattering the mixture over a lined baking tray.
• Scatter the flaked coconut over a separate lined tray.
• Place both trays in the preheated oven. Toast the coconut for approximately 8 minutes, and bake the granola for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden-brown.
• Allow to cool completely before mixing the coconut through the granola.

Vanilla Chantilly Cream

• Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water. Once soft and pliable, gently squeeze to remove any excess water, then set aside until required.
• Heat the cream (A), vanilla, and sugar in a saucepan.
• Once the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture comes to the boil, remove from the heat, add the pre-soaked gelatine, and whisk by hand to incorporate.
• Transfer the mixture into a large bowl, add the cream (B), and whisk to combine.
• Cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the cream and chill in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours.

Chocolate Garnish

• Temper the white chocolate by placing it in a microwave-safe plastic bowl and heating in 30-second increments, stirring in between. Once you have 50% solids and 50% liquid, stir vigorously until completely melted.
• Melt the cocoa butter then allow it to cool to 29°C before stirring it through the tempered chocolate.
• Sieve in the titanium dioxide and emulsify with a stick blender.
• Spread the chocolate into a thin layer over a guitar sheet.
• Once the chocolate is set to touch, use a 70mm round cutter to stamp out 12 discs, cut each disc in half, then use a small tear-shaped cutter to stamp out the apple seed design.
• Place a sheet of baking paper on top of the chocolate and allow the chocolate to fully crystallise in between two chopping boards.

Glazed Apple Garnish

• Cut the envy™ Apples into small, thin segments.
• Gently heat the neutral glaze in saucepan until fluid.
• Using food tweezers, dip the apple segments into the neutral glaze to coat.

Assembly

• Create 12 tacos by sandwiching the frozen semicircle mousse inserts in between two semicircles of shortbread, and placing a shortbread rectangle underneath to create the base of the taco.
• Allow the inserts to defrost for 20 minutes so the mousse becomes tacky.
• While waiting for the inserts to defrost, transfer the prepared Chantilly cream into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whip to a piping consistency. Transfer the whipped Chantilly into a piping bag fitted with a petal piping tip.
• Once the insert has defrosted, sprinkle the granola to coat the exposed surface of the mousse.
• Pipe the Chantilly cream on top of the granola to form a wavy pattern.
• Use a small amount of the Chantilly cream to adhere the chocolate garnish to the outside of the pastry taco shells.
• Lastly, garnish the top of the tacos with glazed apple segments.