Mont Blanc Pain Perdu, Chestnut, Vanilla and Pine

This recipe combines two of Michelin star chef Clare Smyth's favourite desserts...Mont Blanc and Pain Perdu. It's a lovely festive recipe with caramelised brioche, chestnut purée, Earl Grey-soaked prunes, and pine-scented gel. Topped with vanilla rum ice cream and gold leaf!

Ingredients

For the pain perdu custard

375g Soya or Whole milk
42g Golden caster sugar
180g Pasteurised egg white
90g Pasteurised egg yolks
14g Dried yeast
2 Vanilla pods, split
60ml Rum
Brioche

For the chestnut puree

1 tin of chestnut puree
1 tin of chestnut past

For the pine gel

300g Nappage
8-10 drops Fur Pine essence

For the soaked prunes

500g Water
2 Earl Grey tea bags
150g Caster sugar
lkg Prunes

For the vanilla rum ice cream

2It Whole milk
650g Double cream
540g Egg yolks
312g Caster sugar
4 Vanilla pods
240g Doorlys dark rum
4g Xanthan gum

To garnish

6 Olive oil cress
1 Sheet gold leaf

Method

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For the pain perdu custard

Heat and dissolve the sugar in 75g of milk.
Infuse the vanilla and cardamom in to this.
Mix all the rest of the ingredients together and add the infused milk.
Pour the mix in a container and store in the fridge.
Allow to infuse for at least 6 hours

For the chestnut puree

Place all the ingredients in a Thermomix and blitz until smooth.
Divide the chestnut purée into piping bags and reserve until needed.

For the pine gel

Place all the ingredients in a Thermomix and blitz. Store the mix in pipping bags until needed.

For the soaked prunes

In a medium pan, add the sugar and water and bring to the boil.
Add the Earl Grey tea bags and infuse for 2 minutes. Discard the tea bags.
When the infusion is still hot. add the prunes.
Place the soaked prunes into a container and reserve in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours.

For the vanilla rum ice cream

In a medium saucepan, pour the whole milk and double cream and add the split and scraped vanilla pod.
Bring the mix to the boil.
In a mixing bowl mix the egg yolks, sugar and rum.
Temper the eggs mixture with the infused milk and pour back in the saucepan on a medium heat stirring constantly until the mix reaches 84°C.
Pour the mixture through a chinois into a bowl over an ice bath to cool down as soon as possible.Once the mix is cool. add the Xanthan gum and blitz with a hand blender until smooth.
Divide the mix equally into Paco containers and freeze.

To dress

Trim the brioche into (8cm×2.5cm circle ring) and soak in the custard mix.
Place the brioche and liquid in a vac pac machine and compress several times as you turn the brioche around. The brioche should be soaked through completely and feel heavy.
Rest on a cooling rack to allow excess liquid to drip off.
Toast the brioche in a hot, non-stick pan using clarified butter.
Finish with golden caster sugar caramel.
To assemble, dust the caramelized brioche with icing sugar, garnish the bread with 3 Earl Grey prunes, 3 pieces of smoked chestnut, 6 pine gel dots all around the prunes and the chestnuts, 6 dots of chestnut cream and olive oil cress,
Place a rocher of vanilla and rum ice cream on the middle of the bread, 8 fresh chestnut slices and 4 pleces of gold leaf.