Down to earth, vanilla panna cotta, grounded almonds & roasted hazelnut crumble with cocoa powder, bitter cocoa gel & beet sprouts

Preparation time: 75 min

Preheat your Oven at 425 °F

• Mise-en-place

  Using a pairing knife, cut the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds of the pod. Place the gelatine leaves in very cold water (valid for all recipes). Lightly butter the molds for the Panna Cotta. On a baking sheet, combine the hazelnuts and almonds powder, bake in the oven for 5 minutes, mix well and repeat the operation for 5 more minutes (roasting). Take the water and sugar in the recipe (cocoa gel), bring to a boil, reserve the obtained syrup at room temperature.

• Vanilla panna cotta

  Boil the cream, the sugar and the scraped vanilla bean together. Squeeze the gelatine between your fingers to extract as much water as possible, off the heat, add it to the hot cream and stir well. Add the yogurt, stir with a whisk. Strain the Panna Cotta mixture, then pour it in the molds. Keep them in the fridge overnight.

• Chocolate ganache

  In a saucepan, boil the milk and cream. In a bowl, (bleach) stir with a whisk yolks and sugar vigorously. When your dairy boil, pour it gradually into the mix of yolks, mix well, then pour it in a clean pot. On a light heat cook the obtained mixture (custard) mixing constantly until thickening but without boiling, when ready pour it through a strainer on the chocolate stir well with a whisk until the chocolate is entirely melted. Pour the Ganache into your desired molds and leave them overnight, ideally, in the fridge.

• Cocoa gel

  Pour the syrup (made before) in a pan, add the cocoa powder and the Agar. Pan on a high heat and stir gently with a whisk. Bring to boil for at least 1-2 minutes, then remove from the heat, add the well drained gelatine sheets. Let the mixture cool down and keep it in the fridge overnight. The next day, place your cocoa gel in a blender with 4 or 5 tablespoons of water to make it smooth and a proper gel consistency.

• Almonds and roasted hazelnut crumble

  In a saucepan, pour the water first, then add the sugar without touching the edges. Place the pan on high heat and let everything boil for 3 minutes. Off the heat, add your almond powder, roasted hazelnut powder and cocoa powder. Mix well with a wooden spoon. Make sure the mixture is well coated with sugar, break up the large pieces. Spread the powder on a plate to cool at room temperature.

• Plating

  In the bottom of a shallow dish, place your panna cotta and chocolate Ganache (removed from the mold) . Lightly cover with the creamy cocoa gel and cover it withe the crumble. Using a squeeze bottle, make here and there a couple cacao gel points, finalize gently by placing beet and chervil shoots.