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Raspberry Blanc-Manger (“blah-mahn-jhay”) is another confection I served to guests at my dessert buffet party. It’s a cake of heavy cream, milk, ground almonds, sugar, vanilla, and fresh berries thickened with unflavored gelatin. It’s easy, light, and perfect for summer. I stuck with the original recipe and used raspberries but you could use any fresh berry.
You can find the recipe here at Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy or in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Blanc-manger was completely new to me and I loved it’s simplicity. I made mine in an 8 inch round cake pan. However, any pan or mold would work nicely here.
One thing I didn’t love was the texture of the ground almonds. I ground slivered almonds as finely as I could in my food processor. This addition left a slightly gritty texture to the otherwise light and fluffy dessert.
TWD bloggers have experimented with the almond addition. Some chose to use almond flour instead of finely ground almonds. Others purchased ground almonds. However, these are ground with their skins on which alters the dessert’s white color. Some have strained the almonds out after steeping them in the milk and sugar mixture. I would love a smoother texture for my next blanc-manger so I will definitely try one of these variations.
On a funny side-note, I had lined my cake pan with waxed paper to help unmold the dessert. In my rush of party preparations I garnished my blanc-manger with raspberries and took the above photo before removing the paper. Luckily I realized my mistake before serving it to my guests!
There are lots of beautiful ways to garnish a blanc-manger (though I am sure wax paper is not one of them!) As Dorie suggests in her book, I would like to try glazing the top with a thin gloss of jelly or drizzling a fresh berry syrup on top. I’ll be making this “white dish” again!