For all the Swiss and German pastry lovers out there: if you think back to your childhood, what was your favourite breakfast pastry? I’m not speaking cake, but more of pastries such as filled croissants, chocolate buns, cinnamon or nut rolls, donuts, spitzbuebe, danishes. Have one in mind? Well, one of the top contenders on my list is the classic almond croissant. Not the kind you’ll find in an English bakery where a normal croissant is cut in half post baking and stuffed with an almond filling, but the Swiss kind where one fills the croissant before baking. I couldn’t (and still cannot) get enough of that rich almond filling. It’s like marzipan but better. When I came across the filling in a jar, I secretly wanted to run around in the supermarket 10 times screaming my head off to express my joy. Luckily my inner sensible self stopped me before I had a chance to embarrass myself.

Now I have the filling.. what next? I wasn’t in the mood for actual croissants, but desperately wanted to use the filling for something….. what to make for grown ups which isn’t breakfast….. hmm….. and what do I do best….. DESSERT! After googling (haha I cannot believe this is an actual word..) for inspiration I found a recipe to use as a guideline. Of course I decided to add some cardamom, because, why not, let’s face it, cardamom for the win. Let me know what you think!

Almond Cardamom Mousse with an Apricot/Passionfruit Sauce

adapted from wildeisen

serves 6-8

You’ll need
For the mousse
150g almond-paste (not marzipan…. almond paste has more almonds and less sugar in comparison, hence a stronger almond flavour. I used a swiss version from the brand nectaflor®)
3 egg yolks
4 leaves of gelatine
2 tbsp orange juice
200g low fat quark
2dl cream
2 egg whites
1 pinch of salt
50g caster sugar
1-1.5tsp ground cardamom
Sauce
75g dried apricots
3.5 dl orange juice
2 passion fruits

1. Blend your almond paste and egg yolks for about 5 minutes, until airy and incorporated.
2. Meanwhile, soak your gelatine leaves in cold water.
3. Heat the orange juice in the a small pan and dissolve the gelatine leaves in it whilst stirring. Add 1-2 tbsp of your almond-eggyolk mixture and mix well. Now transfer the gelatine-orange juice-almond mixture into your original bowl and combine. Finally, add the quark and ground cardamom and mix thoroughly.
4. Whisk the cream until stiff peaks form, set aside. Whisk the egg whites with the pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. Gradually add your sugar while whisking.
5. Gently fold in your whipped cream and egg whites into the almond mixture. Taste and adjust the amount of cardamom if desired. Pour into a pretty serving bowl, cover with cling film and let it set over night.
6. On the day of serving: for your sauce roughly chop the apricots and simmer in a small pan, covered, with the orange juice, for about 15 minutes.  Once finished cooking, puree until you have a fine sauce. Halve the passion fruits and add the juice/seeds to your sauce. Set aside to cool.
7. To serve: 2 generous scoops of mousse and an equally generous helping of sauce –> en guete!

Rating: 9.5/10