Nathaniel Reid so good #11 Strawberry Vanilla Recipes

Signature Strawberry Charlotte by Nathaniel Reid

Nathaniel Reid is running his own business in St Louis (Missouri), and is about to open a brand-new pastry establishment, a combination of bakery, pastry shop, and grab-and-go café. In the meantime he works as a pastry chef, consultant and educator working with domestic and international brands.

Graduated from the highly acclaimed Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with a Grand Diploma in Culinary and Pastry Arts, he was recognized in June 2012 by Dessert Professional Magazine as one of the Top 10 Pastry Chefs in America. Reid is a good example of a young man who has been able to take advantage of his chance to evolve – and he has, indeed.

Signature Strawberry Charlotte

Signature Strawbery Charlotte by Nathaniel Reid

I wanted to reimagine a traditional charlotte. We pastry chefs are familiar with making a design on the outside of a cake with a stencil and joconde, but I wanted to do this in a different way. I decided to make the cake ‘insideout’ by making the design on the outside with a jellified coulis and panna cotta, while keeping the traditional appearance of finishing the charlotte with strawberries on top.

almond biscuit

260 g powdered sugar
180 g egg yolk
290 geggs
600 g egg white
300 g sugar
270 g flour
340 g almond flour

Whip the powdered sugar and egg yolk until it is thick and airy. Make a soft meringue with the sugar and egg white. Fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture. Sift together the flour and almond flour and fold into the egg mixture. Divide biscuit between two sheets and bake at 190ºC.
Reserve one sheet for the strawberry coulis and cut 14 cm disks out of the other.

décor panna cotta

200 g cream, 36%
15 g invert sugar
1.5 g gelatin

Soak the gelatin in cold water. Warm half of cream and add invert sugar and soaked gelatin. Mix the two creams together. Pipe a design with the panna cotta on a silicon sheet and freeze.

strawberry coulis

1200 g strawberry puree
30 g invert sugar
50 g glucose
65 g sugar
24 g gelatin

Warm half of the strawberry puree with the glucose and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Soak the gelatin and then add it together with the invert sugar to the warm strawberry puree. Mix the warmed strawberry puree with the remaining strawberry puree. Pour over the décor panna cotta and place one of the almond biscuits on top. Freeze and cut into strips to line the inside of a 16-cm cake ring.

vanilla mousse

295 g whole milk
1 piece vanilla bean
50 g sugar
13 g gelatin
575 g whipped cream, 36%

Make a crème anglaise with the milk vanilla bean, sugar and egg yolk. Add the soaked gelatin to the anglaise and let cool to 26ºC. Fold the whipped cream into the anglaise.

Assembly

Line a 16-cm ring with the bands of almond biscuit and strawberry coulis.
Place a 14-cm round of almond biscuit on the bottom of the ring.
Fill the inside of the ring with the mousse.
Freeze and then unmold the cake.
Spray the border of the cake with a neutral glaze.
Decorate the top of the cake with strawberries.