Baby ring seals are honestly some of the most adorable creatures I have ever seen. They remind of me Asian babies in that they start out super cute, but somewhere down the line, they just let their cuteness go as time goes on. That disturbingly true sentiment aside, I wanted to capture the cuteness of a baby ring seal into an actual dessert, which is why I came up with this concept.

Originally, I was going to go with an almond-lemon, coconut seal, but I wanted to test the waters (all fucking puns intended, bitches), with a flavor combination that I actually had in my pantry was more indicative of the summer, which is why I went with s’mores. Now, since I am making the seal out of a marshmallow, I used literally no sugar in the pastry or the ganache, since the ganache uses semi-sweet chocolate, and I did use a tablespoon of honey in the tart, but that was more to bind the pastry than it was to add more sweetness, because lord knows we need that when we are topping the dessert with a literal blob of whipped sugar.

For the vanilla-almond marshmallow:
1 packet gelatin powder + 2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
A pinch of salt
Potato starch for dusting
Cornstarch for dusting

Bloom gelatin. Melt down sugar and water and bring to a simmer. Pour into the gelatin, add in the extracts and salt, and whip for 10 minutes. Sift potato starch and cornstarch together (you will be using this to dust the marshmallows with) and generously coat the insides of a 3 inch silicone half dome mold. Pour the marshmallows into the mold and scrape with an offset spatula to remove the excess. Freeze solid.

For the almond pate sucre:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons water

Combine ingredients and form into a dough. Roll out on a lightly dusted surface (you can use the potato starch mixture on this as well) and cut out the dough using a 5 inch ring mold. Weigh down, and bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes, then another 10 minutes after removing the baking weights from the pastry.

For the miso ganache:
3/4 cups dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoon yellow miso paste
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Melt together and pour into the cooked and cooled tart shells. Refrigerate until solid.

To decorate:
Dark chocolate
White chocolate

Temper the dark chocolate and once the marshmallows are unmolded, pipe directly onto the marshmallows to create the faces.

For the white chocolate, temper as well, but pipe two swipes and dust with the starch mixture. Place the marshmallow onto these two swipes to mimic the effect of the seal’s two front flippers.

For assembly:
Place the marshmallow onto the filled tart. It ain’t rocket science.