Mirror desserts

Ingredients:

For the biscuit base:

150g shortbread biscuits (or speculoos)

60g melted butter

For the white chocolate mousse (or other flavor):

200g white chocolate

300ml whole liquid cream (35% fat)

4 sheets of gelatin (or 8g powdered gelatin)

100ml milk

For the mirror glaze:

150g sugar

150g glucose

75g water

150g white chocolate

100g sweetened condensed milk

10g gelatin sheets (or 20g powdered gelatin)

Food coloring (of your choice)

Instructions:

Preparation of the biscuit base:

Crush the shortbread biscuits into fine crumbs.

Mix the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter.

Press the mixture into the bottom of a springform pan or a pastry ring set on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Refrigerate to set the base for at least 30 minutes.

To make the white chocolate mousse:

Soften the gelatin sheets in a bowl of cold water for 5 to 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk until simmering, then remove from the heat.

Drain the gelatin and dissolve it in the hot milk.

Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie or in the microwave.

Add the milk and gelatin to the melted chocolate and mix well.

Whip the liquid cream until stiff.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled white chocolate mixture in three batches, using a spatula.

Pour the mousse onto the biscuit base and smooth the surface with a spatula. Freeze the dessert for at least 4 hours (ideally overnight) to make it easier to apply the mirror glaze.

Preparation of the mirror glaze:

Soak the gelatin in cold water to soften it.

In a saucepan, heat the water, sugar and glucose until it reaches 103°C.

Remove from the heat and add the white chocolate cut into small pieces. Mix until completely melted.

Then add the sweetened condensed milk and mix well.

Drain the gelatin and incorporate it into the mixture. Mix until it is completely dissolved.

Add the food coloring of your choice and mix well.

Let the glaze cool to about 35°C (this is the ideal temperature for pouring the glaze over the dessert).

Icing and finishing:

Once the dessert is completely frozen, unmold it and place it on a rack with a plate underneath to collect the excess glaze.

Pour the mirror glaze in one motion over the entremet, starting in the center and letting the glaze drip down the sides.

Let the glaze smooth itself out. Once the glaze has stopped dripping, move the entremet to a serving dish and let it defrost in the refrigerator for at least 3 to 4 hours before serving.

History of Mirror desserts:

In the Petit traicté and later editions of the book, including the Livre fort excellent, in a collection of menus at the end of the book, the meal is presented in four stages : the entree de table (entrance to the table), potaiges (foods boiled or simmered "in pots"), services de rost (meat or fowl "roasted" in dry heat), and issue de table (departure from the table). Between the mid-16th and mid-17th century, the stages of the meal underwent several significant changes. Notably, potage became the first stage of the meal, the entrée became the second stage, and dishes of entremets came to be served in their own distinct stage. By 1650, the term "entremets" had come to refer not just to the dishes, but also to the stage of the meal where they were served, after the potage, entrée, and roast, and before the dessert.

While cookbooks and dictionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries rarely discuss the type of dishes appropriate to each stage of the meal with any specificity, entremets and the dishes of the other stages can be distinguished from each other by certain characteristics, such as their ingredients, cooking methods, and serving temperatures. The distinct characteristics of the entremets were at first loosely observed, but by the early 18th century, certain ingredients and cooking methods were increasingly confined to the entremets stage of the meal.

In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, entremets on meat days included butchers' meats, suckling pig, fowl, furred and feathered game, and offal, all of which were also used for entrées. Entremets additionally included ham, eggs, cheese, vegetables, fruits, and sugar, ingredients that were used sparingly or not at all for entrées.

Over the course of the 19th century, vegetable entremets were increasingly served along with the roast rather than as a separate course. By the end of the century, the vegetable entremets listed on menus were generally intended as side dishes or garnishes for the roast or relevé. A distinct course of vegetable entremets after the roast did survive into the 20th century in the form of salads or certain vegetables like asparagus, but such dishes were no longer called entremets.

By the 20th century, entremets had come to refer only to sweet dishes served near the end of the meal.

The word "entremets" may also refer more narrowly to a multi-layer dessert composed of various elements. The dessert typically comprises a sponge cake base, mousse filling and layers of inserted set elements such as creams, jellies and compotes.  Each element is created in individual rings or molds before being assembled into layers in another mold to build the entremet; a mousse is added to surround these layers and form the body of the dessert. After setting in the freezer, a mirror glaze or coating is usually added to the exterior of the entremet.