Preparation for 6 people:
Cantucci biscuits
300 g soft flour
250 g sugar
250 g Almonds with the skins
100 g pine nuts
2 + 1 eggs
1 egg yolk
40 g honey
1/2 teaspoonful salt
2 spoonfuls milk
Lightly toast the almonds in the oven and leave them to cool.
Put the flour into the food processor bowl, along with the two eggs, egg yolk, sugar, salt and honey, which has been slightly heated in the microwave to make it runnier. Mix using the paddle attachment, blending all the ingredients well.
Add the almonds and pine nuts and distribute them evenly into the mixture.
On the lightly-floured pastry board, roll out the dough, making a rectangle and, with the aid of a metal spatula, cut out some little loaves and place them on the dripping-pan, lined with oven paper. Beat the remaining egg with the milk and brush the little loaves. Bake in the oven at 200 °C for 15 minutes.
Cantucci biscuits custard (basic recipe here)
125 g cantucci biscuits
45 g cane sugar syrup
63 g full-cream milk
43 g sweet almonds
50 g white chocolate
Heat the cantucci biscuits in the oven at 150 °C for 10 minutes. Pour the milk and sugar syrup into a saucepan and heat them over a medium flame. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie. Put the biscuits into the mixer and blend to a powder. Add the milk with the added syrup and the melted chocolate and stir. With the mixer still running, very slowly add the oil, until you have obtained a smooth cream. Pour the custard into little semi-spherical moulds, with a 4 cm diameter, and put them into the freezer.
Bavarian cream with Vin Santo
190 ml milk
2 egg yolks
60 g sugar
50 ml Vin Santo dessert wine
200 ml single cream
6 g gelatin
1/2 vanilla bean
Mix the milk, egg yolks, seeds from the half of a vanilla bean and the sugar, using a whisk, and stirring all the while, cook the custard until it reaches a temperature of 82 °C. Put the sheets of gelatin to soak in cold water and once they are softened, squeeze them well, dry them with kitchen paper, add them to the warmed custard and stir well. Add the moscato wine. Partially whip the cream and gently add it to the cold custard.
Chocolate icing (here)
100 g water
100 g sugar
100 g glucose syrup
70 g condensed milk
6.5 g gelatin sheets
100 g dark chocolate
Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water. Pour the water and glucose syrup into a small saucepan and heat to a temperature of 105 °C. Drain, squeeze and dry the gelatin sheets with kitchen paper and add them to the mixture in the saucepan. Also add the condensed milk and stir. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie and add it to the rest a little at a time, stirring well to form a smooth cream. Use the icing at a temperature of 32-33 °C.
Assembling the dessert
Fill one third of each semi-spherical silicon mould with the Bavarian cream.
Take the moulds containing the cantucci custard out of the freezer and warm them slightly with a hairdryer, to make it easier to extract them.
Put the half spheres of cantucci custard into the centre of the silicon semi-spheres and cover them with the remaining Bavarian cream. Put them in the freezer. Once the spheres are frozen, place them on a cooling rack and pour the icing over them, covering them evenly. Leave the dessert to thaw in the fridge.
When ready to serve, sprinkle a corner of the dessert with some crushed almonds.
Take 6 almonds and stick a toothpick into each one; make some caramel and dip the almonds into it, so that they are covered in caramel.
Turn them over, so that the caramel becomes “stringy” and, once cold, take away the toothpicks and decorate the Bavarian custard desserts.