Recipe: Hermé's Vanilla Tart

On one of the foodie forums someone was obsessing over PH's Vanilla Tart and trying to get the recipe. The recipe was found and I made these ultra vanilla tarts. I've modified the recipe to account for errors and clarifications in the original author's posting. Note that in this picture, the biscuit on the bottom is too thick. I have adjusted that in the recipe. I also suggest making this as miniatures - 2" tarts since they are so rich.

English Vanilla Cream
500 g Cream
1 Vanilla bean, Mexican
1 Vanilla bean, Madagascar
1 Vanilla bean, Tahitian
100 g Egg yolks
125 g Sucrose
7 g Gelatin leaves, gold (10 g Silver)

Hydrate the gelatin. Combine yolks and sucrose. Bring cream to a boil and temper the yolk/sucrose, returning mixture to remaining cream. Cook til coats the back of a spoon. Pour onto gelatin and whisk until dissolved. Cover and and bring to room temp.

Vanilla Mascarpone Cream
375 g English vanilla cream (above)
250 g Mascarpone, room temp

Place the English vanilla cream in a mixer bowl. Whip being careful not too whip too firmly. Add the mascarpone a hearty dollop at a time until it is all combined. Immediately pipe into a mold slightly smaller than your tart shell will be. Fill your mold then smooth the tops since this will be your finished look. Cover and freeze.

Sugar Dough
150 g Butter, softened
30 g Almond Powder
95 g Powdered Sugar
0.5 g Vanilla Powder
60 g Eggs
1 g Sea salt
250 g AP Flour

In mixer with paddle attachment beat butter til creamy. Add each ingredient in one-by-one until they just become incorporated. Don't overwork. Form into a disc, wrap with plastic and chill until firm.

Roll the dough between two silpats until 2 mm thick and cut to fit your mold. Dock the dough with a fork, freeze and then bake at 335ºF for 20-30 minutes until browned.

Biscuit Cuillere
360 g Egg white
5 g Egg white powder
225 g Sugar
200 g Egg yolk
20 g Invert sugar
125 g AP Flour
125 g Potato starch

Combine and sift the flour and starch. Whip whites until just about firm, add the egg white powder and sugar and take to firm peaks. Fold in the yolks and trimoline and finally the flour mixture, stopping just as they are combined. Pour onto sheet pan lined with silpat and spread evenly to about 1/4". Bake at 445ºF for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove and cool.

Titanium Dioxide Paste
25 g Titanium dioxide powder
15 g Water

Mix well and set aside.

Syrup 30B
50 g Sucrose
45 g Water

Bring to a boil and set aside

Neutral Glaze
500 g Water
2 Spent vanilla beans
200 g Sucrose
20 g NH Pectin
10 g Lemon juice

Combine the sucrose and pectin. Add the water and vanilla and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes, strain and bring to room temp. You can also keep this for future projects in your fridge, simply microwave for 30 seconds until fluid.

Vanilla Glaze
480 g White chocolate couverture
180 g Cream
10 g Glucose
25 g Syrup 30b (see above)
360 g Neutral glaze (see above)
0.5 g Vanilla bean Madagascar
12.5 g Titanium dioxide paste (see above)

Soften chocolate in microwave - you don't need to fully melt it. Bring cream and scraped vanilla to a boil and pour over chocolate and whisk. Bring neutral glaze to a boil along with syrup and glucose. Pour the hot sugar mixture into the ganache and add the titanium paste. Whisk or use an immersion blender to obtain a smooth texture, but do not incorporate air.

Vanilla Ganache
225 g Cream
1 Vanilla bean, Mexican
1 Vanilla bean, Madagascar
1 Vanilla bean, Tahitian
4 g Vanilla extract – non alcoholic
2 g Vanilla powder
250 g White chocolate couverture

Remove seed from vanilla and add to cream. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 20 minutes. Soften the chocolate in microwave. Strain pods out of cream and add the extract and vanilla powder. Bring to a boil and pour over chocolate to finish melting. Whisk until smooth.

Vanilla Syrup
500 g Bottled water
0.5 g Vanilla bean, Mexican
0.5 g Vanilla bean, Madagascar
0.5 g Vanilla bean, Tahitian
10 g Vanilla extract
250 g Sucrose
25 g Brown rum

Boil the water, sugar and beans, remove from heat, cover and rest for 30 minutes. Add the extract and rum.

Assembly
Fill the tart shell with a bit of the ganache. Place the biscuit inside and spoon just enough vanilla syrup on top to soak but not saturate and ooze. Fill the gaps with more ganache. Cool in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up.

Remove the mascarpone discs from the freezer and coat in vanilla glaze. It worked best for me to pour the glaze over the disc while holding the disk with a fork. Place disc on top of tart.