Apple Pie Bouchee

Grind almonds with powdered sugar in a coffee grinder.
Transfer to food processor.
Add butter & eggs. Make a creamy emulsion then incorporate flour & salt.
Process only until it comes together evenly.
Frasage the dough three times.
Wrap and keep in cooler for 2 hours.
Roll out, cut into 3.5cm circles, and bake at 315° F for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle apples with cinnamon, brown sugar, & butter.
Roast apples in oven at 400° F for 10 minutes.
In a pot, boil cream, butter, & sea salt.
In a different pot, make a dry caramel with sorbitol, glucose, & sugar.
Deglaze caramel with the hot cream mixture. Add the roasted apples.
Add rum & citric acid.
Melt chocolates and make an emulsion with the apple cream.
Pipe at 30° C.

Boil cream, condensed milk, cinnamon, & salt.
In another pot, melt sorbitol & glucose syrup then make a dry caramel with the sugar.
Deglaze with the hot cream.
Add butter & lecithin. Boil only until the butter is dissolved, which is about 30 seconds.
Take off heat, hand blend, and cool down.

Start with very clean molds.
Spray light green cocoa butter, tempered at 32° C, at an angle so you only cover one part of the half sphere.
Spray dark green cocoa butter, tempered at 32° C, all over the mold.
Place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Let the molds go back to 18° C and make shells with tempered Cacao Barry Lactée Barry Équilibre 36% milk chocolate.

This recipe, if made with the salty sable cookie, has a shelf life of 2 days because the cookie will get soggy after that. If you want the bonbon to have a longer shelf life, don’t include the cookie or stick it on the outside of the bonbon.

Pipe a little cinnamon caramel, then the roasted apple ganache, and finish with a disc of salty sable on top.
Close the molds with tempered Lactée Barry Équilibre 36% milk chocolate.

Being technically correct is important, but what about being creative? Isn’t it as important?

One of my favorite phrases to explain my creative thinking process is “learn the basics, then forget about them.” When you take chances, and do what you’re not supposed to do, real creativity blooms.

This “Apple Pie Bouchee” is a great example of what I have been working on for the past few years. The chocolate dessert bar is a concept where a plated dessert is in a bar or bonbon.

There is only one rule I have when making a new dessert bar: to recreate the original flavors of the “dessert” we are making. If it doesn’t remind us of the original, then it is not a successful creation, and we need to start over.