This would be the third of my three princes who would have led me to my MasterChef Crown, had I been in the finale(cue sad violin music I guess?). Continuing with the sea, sky, and earth motif, this would be my earth-inspired dish and dessert! It is a buckwheat financier with brown butter bavarian cream, caramelized mirror glaze, brown butter-apple puree, shaved green apples, and cinnamon phyllo. I dubbed him the Prince of the Growing Land to allude not only the tree-inspired presentation, but also to the meaning behind the dessert for me. Using apples, brown butter, and phyllo ties in with my tarte tatin debacle, while the caramelized white chocolate, malted milk, and the whole “sprouting-branch-tree” thing is a nod to my original signature dessert, where I used both of those as well, but in different applications. This in a way, is a continuation of the beginning of my culinary dreams, showing that through this experience, they have grown to what they are now, and that they are still not done growing just quite yet. Yeah, I fucking had that all planned out LOL. Maybe if I put an iota of that thought into my steak dish…. just kidding. The past is the past. I can’t take back my undercooked steak, only just move on from it.

To tie in with the earthy aspect of the dessert, I wanted to use buckwheat in the financier, since it’ll add a nuttiness, and I really like how it plays off of the butter, caramel, and apple components. For the phyllo itself, it is homemade, because I can do that, and I cut it into branch/leaf-like shapes, just to add the height needed for the dish to look prettier. I shaved the green apple to add more motion and flow to the dessert, and color as well, since it would be a really brown dessert otherwise. Optionally, you can add edible flowers to this, but I was trying to show that the tree/dream is beyond the flowering stage, and coming into full fruition. Again, I HAD THIS ALL PLANNED OUT!!!! I do wonder how this full three course meal would have been perceived, but at the same time, who knows? Maybe at my dream bakery, the judges will visit and be able to try this dessert out on their own! Keeping my hopes and fingers crossed for that, anyways.

Brown butter Bavarian cream
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup heavy cream; stiff peaks
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon brown butter
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon gelatin powder + 1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons malted milk

Melt gelatin into milk. Whisk egg yolk with butter and sugar and temper with the milk mixture. Whisk over heat for 1-2 minutes, then pass through a sieve and allow to cool down to room temperature. Season with salt and vanilla. Fold in your heavy cream. Pipe into 2 petit gateau silicon mold divots, and then transfer the rest to a piping bag to use for garnish. Freeze solid the molded ones, while refrigerate the piping bag.

Cinnamon sugar phyllo
1/4 cup flour + more for rolling
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons brown butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine salt, cinnamon, and sugar in a bowl. In another bowl, combine flour, vanilla, and water into a dough. Divide into four balls and roll out on a floured surface. Brush and sprinkle brown butter and cinnamon sugar on three of the four disks. Layer them on top of one another so that the unbrushed piece is on top, then re-roll out to about 1/16th an inch thickness. Cut into strips, yielding about 8, and just quickly cut at the sides of the strips at a diagonal angle before pulling them slightly to form the small branches on each piece. Brush the tops with brown butter and sprinkle on more cinnamon sugar at this point. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, using the top rack.

Buckwheat financier
1 egg white
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon almond flour
2 tablespoons brown butter + 2 tablespoons for your crumble
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Whip egg white with sugar, salt, vanilla, and baking powder until stiff peaks. Fold together all of your ingredients and spread onto a silicon baking mat. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Cool completely before cutting out 2 2-inch rounds. Break apart the remaining pieces of cake and toss in 2 tablespoons of your brown butter. Re-bake the other scraps for another 10 minutes before transferring to a food processor and blitzing into a crumble.

Caramelized mirror glaze
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup malted milk
1 packet gelatin powder + 1/4 cup malted milk
a pinch of salt

Bloom gelatin in the first 1/4 cup of malted milk. Melt bloomed gelatin into your other 1/4 cup of malted milk. Spread white chocolate chips on a silpat and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, or until browned evenly. Cool completely before transferring into your malted milk mixture. Melt the chocolate into that completely before passing through a sieve. Keep the mixture at 90 degrees F when it is time to pour onto your frozen mousses.

Roasted apple puree:
1 green apple, peeled, cored, and diced
2 tablespoons brown butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cardamom
a pinch of cinnamon
malted milk, as needed

Toss apples in sugar, salt, butter, and spices. Roast in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Remove and puree with malted milk into it forms a smooth and creamy mixture. Pass through a sieve and transfer to a squeeze bottle.

Shaved green apple:
Green apples
Lemon juice
Salt

Season your lemon juice with a pinch of salt. Shave green apples on your thinnest setting on your mandolin and allow them to soak in the lemon juice for at least 2 minutes to help soften them. Wrap up into little “scrolls” for garnish.

For assembly:

Place your 2 inch round of financier underneath your completely frozen Bavarian cream. Pour the glaze onto that. On a plate, start with your crumble first. Garnish with dots of both your puree and your Bavarian cream in the piping bag. Place on your glazed cream and financier and garnish those with more dots as well. Place three shavings of green apple, rolled into scrolls, on the plate(I did mine over each dot of Bavarian, but you can do it wherever really). And then finish with three pieces of the phyllo branches. Optionally, you can also garnish with edible flowers, but you don’t have to.