Still thinking about dragons, Dungeon Meshi Maniacs? I can't say I blame you! Just make sure you haven't developed Dragon Madness and not the kind that causes to you lust for gold. Do you know a good cure for an overactive mind? A relaxing sit with a light dessert and calming tea! Lucky for you I have just the thing for that albeit from an unspecified source. Take a seat by the fire while I serve up some Mysterious Bavarois and Some Kind of Tea!
See! It's really called that! I've not gone off my nut like so many of you have claimed over the past few years. Who wouldn't want a dessert they weren't sure of the ingredients, however? Everyone loves a mystery. Trust me, you'll want to eat this unknown dessert. Before we get to that we have to talk about something unexpected. Visitors!
The Canaries! They have finally tracked the Gang down to Thistle's home and they are looking for answers. Answers to questions like, "Where's Thistle?" and "What have you done to Thistle?" Remember, DMMs, these are sort of Dungeon Cops. They are here to put the dungeon down if it gets out of control. So they have sort of a reputation.
Geez, looks like we can add racist to the growing list of terrible things we can label Chilchuck. Just because they can throw you into a jail dungeon and not a fun dungeon doesn't mean you can freak out when they come to your home! Well, home you and your Gang are squatting in. Lucky for us, Senshi and Laios have manners.
You should always be prepared for unexpected guest, DMMs. This means having tea or coffee on hand that you can bust out at a moments notice. The tea I get. It's quick and easy. The other part of this week's recipe isn't something you can just whip up in ten minutes. I guess Senshi is just that good but a Bavarois is serious work and touchy! Before we get to what is a Bavarois I'd like to point out that we totally know what Senshi makes his Bavarois out of.
Just perfect, more cannibalism for this slime. Why do we taste so delicious, DMMs? It's the curse that comes with greatness. But what is a Bavarois? I know that I had never heard of it before this. Turns out Bavarois is actually Bavarian Cream! Just not the Bavarian Cream that you get in a donut. No, no. That is a Diplomat Cream which is stiff enough to pipe into a donut. We'll be using a lot of the same ingredients and it will tates similar just it'll be very different! Confused? Don't worry, we will get into the major Cream differences this week. Just know that the Bavarian Cream we are making is a stand alone dessert. No donut required! Don't give me that look!
The Bavarois is a recipe that started at the very top. According to some historians it was created by the personal chef of Marie Antoinette! I can't think of anything negative about that off the top of my head. What exactly is a Bavarois, however? Basically, we are going to be making a custard then mixing in some whipped cream. Pretty straight forward. I will warn you, this is a difficult dessert to make and takes a bit of trial and error. Trust me, it's worth the effort. What do you need? Pretty standard stuff.
The basic farmers pack! Milk, heavy whipping cream, four eggs, vanilla and some gelatin. Don't let simple ingredients fool you, DMMs. Don't turn your back on this recipe! It's cunning but it's brutal. To start, put a metal bowl into the refrigerator. You'll need that for the whipped cream and the best whipped cream is made with a cold bowl! After that go ahead and bloom your gelatin. No, not like a flower. Take one and a half teaspoon of gelatin and add a tablespoon of cold water. Stir these together and set it aside. This creates a very unflavored Jello!
Just leave it alone while you work on the custard. Pour a cup of milk into a pan along with two teaspoons of vanilla. You'll want to set the oven to Low and slowly bring the milk to a simmer. This is the first speedbump, DMMs! Do not scorch the milk. Just take it low and slow.
Like with earlier recipes I tend to wait until I see steam coming off the milk. That's pretty close to simmering and I don't want to push it any further. Now for the easy part, take the pot off the heat, cover and let the milk sit for about ten minutes. This gives the vanilla a chances to really mix with the heated milk.
Pretty top notch food photography, right there! Now the for the fun part, Egg Beating! Crack your four eggs into a bowl along with a fourth cup of sugar. Give this a good mix'n.
Comes together pretty easily! By now that ten minutes should have passed so you want to combine the hotish milk with the eggs. Now for the second speed bump. You have to TEMPUR the eggs. That means slowly bringing them up to the temperature of the milk without cooking the eggs. Which means slowly pouring the milk in a little at a time while stirring the eggs quickly. I like to pour the milk down the side of the bowl just to cool it off just even a little bit.
Slow and steady, DMMs! You aren't making scrambled eggs here. Once all of the milk has been stirred in move this to a pot and get ready for the final and biggest speedbump. We are going to cook the custard but the same issue with the eggs remains. We have to go low and slow stirring all the time. It is so easy to mess this part up, DMMs, so don't get discouraged if you break your custard a few times. You'll see what I mean in a second. First, get to stirring!
While this is fun this is alway where I messed up just a little bit. This time I focused too much on the temperature of the custard and not my gut. You see, the common rule is the custard has to hit 180 degrees to be cooked. Anything over that can break the custard. And long time DMMs will know that I own a pretty good termometer.
Here's the problem, for whatever reason the custard was getting thick but was nowhere near 180. So rather than saying, "DONE" I kept going. I thankfully caught my error before too much damage was done but my custard is lumpy as a result. Boo. Let this be a lesson, DMMs. Trust your gut when cooking. Spend enough time in the kitchen and you'll know when something is done from sight and touch rather than what your equipment says. Regardless, once your custard feels thick or has actually reached 180 pull it off the heat and add the gelatine you pulled aside earlier.
Give this a good mix and set it aside. Now it's time to whip some cream! Take out your cold bowl and pour in one cup of heavy cream. Why a cold bowl? Whipping the cream introduced oxygen to the fat molecules of the cream. The colder the cream, the quicker this happens which makes the whipped cream more stable. SCIENCE! It's not just a class I got C's in. Were you expecting yet another speedbump, DMMs? Because we have one! Normally with whipped cream you want stiff peaks. You beat it until the whipped cream can stand up on its own. Perfect for a topping! But that's not what we want here. No, we are shooting for Soft Peaks, when the cream has beat just enough oxygen in to stop being runny. This doesn't take long so keep an eye on the machine as it beats the cream on high!
WHIRRRR! I love making whipped cream. It's one of my favorite foods..if you can call whipped cream a food. You'll notice that this is just the heavy cream without anything else. Good eye, DMMs! The sugar and vanilla are already in the custard. You can add some here but that will increase the sweetness. This is a light dish but enjoy it the way want. After a minute or two you'll be close to soft peaks.
Nice and soft but no longer runny. Simply fold this into the custard a fourth a cup at a time. Folding is just how it sounds. Put some whipped cream on top of the custard, take a rubber spatula and just fold the custard over the whipped cream. Keep folding until you no longer see any white streaks.
*sigh* Just a little lumpy is still lumpy, DMMs. This will taste great, just not look right. But we do not judge a dessert by its outer appearance, do we? It's what's on the inside that counts! The great thing about a Bavarois is it will take the shape of what you put it into just like a gelatine! I wanted to keep it simple so I used cupcake molds but if you wanted to really fancy it up any shape would do.
These go into the refrigerator for 12 hours to 24. This is why I say Senshi is a wizard since he put this together in maybe twenty minutes. He was under the gun, however, while we can take our time! When you're ready to serve just carefully take them out of the mold and plate!
Not pretty but very delicious! The great thing about Bavarois is the taste and texture is very mild so it goes great with any topping you can think of. I enjoyed mine with a bit of peach jam which was such a treat! This would go great on a warm evening. Speaking of warm, don't think I forgot about the tea, DMMs!
"Surely you aren't going to talk about how to make tea, you goofy goo?" I can hear you shout at your car radio. Ah, there's nothing more important than tea, DMMs. I'm not joking! Tea is serious business. It's a simple routine but you have to be careful with what you are doing. I believe that's what I love most about tea. It slows you down. To create a good cup you have to take it slow, think about what you are doing and just be present in the moment. Making the tea is simple enough. A teaspoon of loose tea per cup. And there are so many to choose from! Black, green, white, herbal. Yes, yes. I know herbal isn't actually a tea. It's not made from the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant so it isn't tea. Yup, all real tea comes from the same plant just harvested and roasted differently! It's a wonderful magical plant. So my sleepytime tea isn't "tea" but I love it just the same. What goes into the pot isn't the entire story. The secret to good tea? Heat. Luckily most modern tea kettles have a built in thermometer.
You see, different teas have different boiling temperatures. Black teas and herbals? 200 degrees. Green? 170. White? 165. Trust me, DMMs. This isn't me being a persnickety chef. These temperatures do affect the taste. Nobody likes scorched tea! So heat your water to fit the tea you are enjoying.
Steeping time is going to vary based on the type of water you have. Here in my part of the dungeon we have naturally very hard water. It's got a lot of rocks in it! So you have the steep the tea for about five minutes. If you have softer water you could probably get away with three to four. The longer you steep, the stronger the tea. You can over-steep, DMMs, so play around with it to find your prefered strength. And there you have it! A perfect evening dessert!
Not a bad way to relax, DMMs. Give a Bavarois a try and don't get discouraged if it isn't perfect on your first try. This is a serious recipe created for royalty after all. Be sure to stop by next week while we talk about the main ingredient of so many desserts. Cream!
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