Ingredients
| 2½ teaspoons gelatine powder | |
| 1 tablespoon glucose syrup | |
| 2 egg yolks, size 6 | |
| 220ml full-fat cream | |
| 75ml milk | |
| 1 tablespoon dried hibiscus leaves (I use Tio Pablo brand) | |
| 160g white chocolate chips | |
| 300g cherries, stoned | |
| 270g caster sugar | |
| 4 puff pastry sheets, 24cm x 24cm |
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Instructions
| 1. | Put gelatine into a small bowl, cover with 2 tablespoons cold water and leave to bloom for 5 minutes. |
| 2. | Put glucose, egg yolks, 175ml cream, milk and hibiscus leaves into a large heatproof bowl. |
| 3. | Put the white chocolate into a separate heatproof bowl. |
| 4. | Put the cream mixture over a double boiler and stir continuously until it reaches 83°C. |
| 5. | Add the bloomed gelatine and stir to dissolve. |
| 6. | Strain the hot cream over the white chocolate and stir until the chocolate is fully dissolved, making a cremeux. |
| 7. | Discard hibiscus leaves. Pour the cremeux into a clean container and cover with plastic wrap. |
| 8. | Place in the fridge for 2 hours to set. |
| 9. | Put the cherries into a medium pot with the sugar and 2 tablespoons water. |
| 10. | Place over a medium heat and allow juices to issue, then simmer for 15 minutes. |
| 11. | Remove from heat when the cherries begin to collapse. Cool. |
| 12. | Heat the oven to 180°C. |
| 13. | Cut each puff pastry square into four equal squares. |
| 14. | Lay the squares to look like diamonds and fold them in half to form triangles with the point facing away from you. |
| 15. | Using a butter knife, cut from the long edge facing you to the point (about 1cm from the diagonal edge), leaving a 1cm gap at the top. |
| 16. | Now repeat on the other side, creating a smaller triangle, but do not cut all the way through the pastry at the top. |
| 17. | Unfold the pastry back into squares and fold the left-hand side over to the inner right point and fold the right-hand side over the inner left, to form a twist at the top and bottom. Repeat for all pastry squares. |
| 18. | Place pastries onto a lined baking tray and bake for 18 minutes until puffed up. |
| 19. | Remove from the oven and brush with remaining the cream to glaze. |
| 20. | Return to the oven with the door ajar and turn off the heat. Leave until cool to touch. |
| 21. | Remove chocolate cremeux and beat with a fork until smooth. |
| 22. | Using a small knife, remove centres from vol-au-vents. |
| 23. | To assemble, pipe cremeux into the vol- au-vents and top with cherry compote. |
Food styling, recipes & photography David Neville