I have been watching a lot of new shows on Netflix lately. One of them in particular that I adore is a singing anime called “Carole and Tuesday” which features a ton of catchy tracks of varying genres. One song that stood out to me in particular was “Move Mountains”, mostly because of the message it conveyed: when you set yourself up with the right mentality, you can do anything. I wanted to take the mountain motif and translate that into a dessert, and I wanted to do a gluten-free and naturally colored one too, just to illustrate a similar point that if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish it.

The star of this dessert would be the Okinawan purple sweet potato. All of the color in this dessert comes strictly from that. I wanted to do a mont blanc as the dessert itself, since that would be the easiest dessert to convey the “mountain” theme. So for the dessert, we have a purple sweet potato financier, bavarois, puree, chips, and veil, all made and colored with the purple sweet potato. Everything except the bavarois retained the purple coloring, with the bavarois itself turning gray. Honestly, I’m fine with that because it adds color contrast, plus, I expected it to turn brown just because yellow and purple would make that, so gray was a pleasant surprise.

For the puree:
1 purple sweet potato, peeled
water
cream
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt

Bring diced purple sweet potato and salted water to a simmer. Once the potatoes are cooked, strain out the liquid, reserving it to make the veil, and continue to let that liquid reduce in another pot until it is about 1 cup. Of the remaining potatoes, pass them through a ricer. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the riced potato for the financier.

For the remaining potato mixture, start by adding butter and sugar into it and whipping it. Slowly add in cream, little by little, just to thin the mixture slightly. You want it to have the consistency of thin mashed potatoes. Transfer to a piping bag.

For the financier:
1 egg white
2 tablespoons brown butter
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pitaya powder
1/4 cup riced purple sweet potato
2 tablespoons almond flour
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Whip egg white with sugar to stiff peaks. Combine all of the other ingredients together. Fold egg whites through that and pour into three silicone 3 inch half dome molds. Bake at 350 degrees F for 17 minutes.

For the chips:
1 small purple sweet potato
brown butter
granulated sugar
a pinch of salt

Shave potato on a mandolin and toss with other ingredients. Spread on a sheet tray and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, flipping them halfway through to guarantee even baking on both sides.

For the bavarois:
1/4 cup reduced purple potato water
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon goat milk powder
1/4 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks
1/2 teaspoon gelatin powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Whip egg yolk, goat milk powder, and sugar together. Bloom gelatin in cold water and then simmer in the potato water until dissolved. Temper together with the egg yolk mixture. Cool down then fold in the whipped cream. Pipe into 1 inch silicone half dome molds and freeze solid.  Reserve some of the mixture for plating.

For the veil:
3/4 cups reduced purple potato water
2 tablespoons agar agar

Melt together and reduce by about half. Pour onto a lined surface and cool down until set. Cut out desired shapes.

For assemble:
Place bavarois on top of the cooled financier. Pipe the puree around the bavarois, and then garnish with the chips and veil. On a plate, start with some bavarois then garnish with the mont blanc itself.