Salted caramel snow egg with pickled apple & vanilla creme anglaise

Salted caramel snow egg with pickled apple & vanilla creme anglaise

Created for Mette Ravn Vanilje

Serves 6

Creme anglaise

250ml heavy cream
250ml whole milk
1 tahiti vanilla bean, seeds of
50g sugar 
5 egg yolks
Generous pinch of salt, to taste

Add heavy cream, whole milk and the vanilla seeds to a heavy bottom saucepan and warm up to just below boiling. Remove from heat and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and very airy in a heatproof bowl. Remove vanilla bean from the milk mixture and set aside, warm back up to just below boiling and pour 1/2 of the warm milk into the egg mixture while whisking rapidly. Return egg mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat while stirring constantly, until custard reaches 85C on an instant read thermometer. Remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl, add the vanilla bean and cover with cling film. Leave to cool completely in the fridge.

Pickled apple

3 apples, peeled, cored and diced
200ml water
100g sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 empty tahiti vanilla bean

Bring water, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla bean to a boil. Remove from heat, add the apple dices and leave to quick pickle for 5 minutes. Remove the apple dices from the pickling liquid and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Salted caramel meringue

165g sugar
5 egg whites
Generous pinch of salt

Caramelise the sugar until a deep amber color and pour onto a silicone mat or piece of baking paper to set. When the caramel is completely hardened, grind it to a fine powder in a food processor. Sieve off any large pieces of caramel.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then add the caramel powder 1 Tbsp. at a time until it is fully incorporated. Then beat to a stiff, glossy meringue. Season with salt to taste.

Bring a wide shallow pan of water to a rolling boil, then turn off the heat. Quenelle 6 meringue eggs into the warm water and poach for 2 minutes, before gently turning them over and poaching a minute or two on the other side. Using a slotted spoon, remove the poached meringue from the water and drain on a kitchen towel.

To serve, divide the apple dices in the centre of six bowls and pour over the chilled creme anglaise. Place a poached meringue on top of the apples and serve immediately.