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Photo:
Bryan Gardner for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Eugene Jho, Prop Styling by Vanessa Vazquez
This is a winter-white classic. Known as blancmange in English, from the French blanc-manger (literally white-eat), it’s very similar to Italian panna cotta: a slightly wobbly, cool and soothing pudding of milk and cream. In the recipe below, I swap in almond milk, which lends subtle nutty flavor. You may also use coconut or dairy milk, so long as you stick to full-fat. Few of us have decorative pudding tins or Jell-O molds stashed in our cabinets; if you do, this is the moment to dust them off. Otherwise, individual porcelain ramekins will do the trick and will eliminate the need to unmold the dessert.
Blancmange makes a pretty base for a variety of toppings. Highlight the almond notes with a shower of crushed amaretti cookies. Add a sprinkling of citrus zest for color and liveliness, or juicy citrus sections—perhaps blood oranges, briefly soaked in a Grand Marnier-infused simple syrup or caramelized under the broiler. And toasted sliced almonds will counter the creamy texture of the pudding. With all the antioxidants and nut protein, this dessert could easily double as the breakfast of champions, so save some for the morning.
Blancmange
Active Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 4¼ hours (includes chilling) Serves: 4
- 4 cups cold almond milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1½ tablespoons unflavored powdered gelatin
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract or 1 tablespoon amaretto
- Zest of half an orange or 1 lemon
- ⅓ cup superfine sugar
- Toasted sliced almonds, more citrus zest or citrus slices, or crushed amaretti, cookies, for garnish
1. In a medium pot, warm 1 cup almond milk and all cream, but do not simmer. Remove from heat. Pour gelatin over warm milk mixture and let sit 5 minutes. Set a double boiler or a bowl placed on a pot of water over medium heat. Once water simmers, transfer milk-gelatin mixture to double boiler and stir until smooth. Add almond extract, zest and sugar. Cook until gelatin and sugar dissolve, 2-3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup almond milk to lower temperature, then add remaining almond milk.
2. Pour mixture through a sieve into a 4-cup mold or 4 ramekins. Chill, uncovered, in refrigerator until firm, 4-5 hours.
3. Unmold blancmange by inverting it directly onto a serving plate. Garnish with almonds, zest, citrus sections and/or crushed amaretti.
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