No. 3133

Bavarois with Meringues

Bavarois aux Meringues

Prepare a vanilla bavarois, the same as for No. 3135; pour it into a dozen oval ballotine molds and set them in the ice-box to have their contents get quite hard. When ready to serve unmold the bavarois, and range them in a circle on a dish, keeping them a slight distance apart. On either side of each one place two small meringue shells (No.116) well scooped out and very dry.

← No. 3132 Bavarois in Surprise Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3134 Raspberry Bavarois →

For the Modern Kitchen

An assembly rather than a formula: the work is in the vanilla bavarois it points to, and in getting twelve small moulds to turn out cleanly. Everything hinges on the gelatin being set firm enough to hold an oval shape at room temperature for the length of a service.

What a bavarois isA creme anglaise stiffened with gelatin and lightened with whipped cream — Bavarian cream. The base is a vanilla custard set with gelatin, cooked gently and never boiled, then folded with whipped cream as it begins to thicken over ice. The quantities are in No. 3135, which this entry simply points to.
Ballotine moldsSmall deep oval moulds, on the order of an egg's volume. Individual oval dariole moulds or small silicone ovals stand in. A dozen of them will take somewhere between a quart and a quart and a half of finished cream.
Ice-box, not freezerA period ice-box ran warmer and less evenly than a modern refrigerator. Refrigerate at 38-40F for four hours or overnight; do not freeze, which ruptures the cream and leaves it grainy on thawing.
UnmoldingDip each mould in warm — not hot — water for three or four seconds, wipe it, and invert onto the chilled dish. Chill the serving dish first so the ovals do not slump while the rest are turned out.
Gelatin strengthNineteenth-century sheet gelatin was probably weaker and certainly less consistent than modern 200-bloom sheets or powder, so a period quantity may set too firm. Cut the gelatin back somewhat and test one mould before committing the batch, or the creams risk being rubbery.
The meringue shellsNo. 116 is a meringue piped in small shells and dried rather than baked, in a very slow oven; the book gives no temperature, so dry them as low as your oven will go and leave them in as it cools. "Well scooped out and very dry" is the point: they must be hollow and crisp, otherwise they weep against the cream.
Assemble at the last minuteMeringue in contact with a wet gelatin cream softens quickly. Set the shells around the bavarois as the dish leaves the kitchen.
YieldTwelve moulds, and twenty-four meringue shells at two per bavarois, ranged as one composed dish.

A Little History

Bavarian cream reached the French repertoire in the early nineteenth century — Carême codified the fromage bavarois, and the Bavarian connection is traditional rather than documented, generally traced to French cooks working in German courts. By the time Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894, after decades running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, the bavarois had become a workhorse of the cold entremets course: one base cream, endlessly varied by flavour and by presentation. This entry is a presentation variation and nothing else, which is why it runs to four lines and cross-references two other numbers. Ranhofer's book is built that way throughout — a modular system in which a chef with a brigade and a standing repertoire could be handed a number and produce a dish. The ring of small unmoulded creams with meringue shells set between them belongs to the service à la russe era, when dishes came to the table already composed for effect and were then portioned by servants.