I came up with this recipe because I was drinking coffee on day, and added French vanilla creamer to it. And then it dawned on me, what exactly made this creamer French vanilla-flavored as opposed to just vanilla? After looking at several articles online, the general idea was that French vanilla refers to the French preparation of vanilla ice cream, i.e. using a creme anglaise or a loose custard base. So basically French vanilla is a vanilla flavor that is almost yellow in color from the inclusion of egg yolks. Some of the sources I read up on said otherwise, but this is what I am going with, since it does make the most sense to me, anyways. And it was reading up on that which is what caused me to want to make this recipe. A lot of my entremet or mousse cakes require egg yolks in the mousse base as a thickener and stabilizer anyways, so I figured, why not go that route, and use vanilla beans in it as well to really bump up the flavor? A mousse is the perfect alternative way to capture French vanilla, or at least the spirit of it, outside of an ice cream! And that was how the French Vanilla entremet was born!

For the components, I went with the French vanilla mousse as the main star of the cake. However, instead of going the route of a vanilla cake, I went with a chocolate cake that has a vanilla soak. I know it sounds super contrarian, but the idea here is that normally, you add vanilla to chocolate to bring out the chocolate flavor. But because of how the ratios in this recipe are, you are basically adding a little bit of chocolate to bring out the vanilla flavor. Especially since the cake is being soaked with a vanilla-infused almond milk. I also did a lightly-chocolate flavored shortbread to act as the base for the cake. The shortbread has vanilla and egg yolks in it as well, so there is just as much of an homage to French vanilla too! The other components include a caramelized almond layer, just to add some crunch, and white chocolate garnishes on top to add a little movement and flow to the final dessert. In terms of technical difficulty, as far as an entremet or mousse cake goes, I would give it a 7/10. Unlike a large amount of my mousse cakes, I didn’t even glaze this one(mostly because I felt like a glaze would cover up the gorgeous yellow color that the French vanilla entremet takes on!). A majority of these components aren’t terribly hard to execute, but there is a bit of a waiting period, since you have to rest the shortbread, freeze the mousse, etc. The only truly difficult component, for me anyways, was the caramelized almonds, since you don’t want to burn them by accident. Just take your time and be careful with that component, and the rest of the layers should really just fall into place!

With the French vanilla mousse, I scraped in fresh vanilla beans and even infused the pod into a milk, which was used in the mousse, the soak, and even the shortbread. However, I get that fresh vanilla beans are extremely expensive(depending on where you buy them, they can even be $20 for just one). So unless you manage to snag them at a discount somewhere(Costco is a great place to look), it’s totally fine to use vanilla bean paste, or even just the extract. I just wanted to use the vanilla beans in this recipe as a way to really embrace the fresh vanilla flavor, but again, it is not something that everyone can get easily or would want to fork money out on, and I totally get it. That all being said, I do love the yellow color that the mousse takes on from having so many egg yolks in it! Hilariously enough, the recipe for the mousse and the recipe for my gelato creme anglaise have the same proportion of heavy cream to egg yolk, with the only differences being the gelato base having more sugar, and the mousse base having the gelatin on top of everything else. But it was doing that which guaranteed that gorgeous French vanilla color that makes this recipe a great homage to the original inspiration!

For the vanilla milk:
1 fresh vanilla bean, split open and scraped
1 cup whole milk
a pinch of salt

Bring the scraped vanilla beans, the bean pod husk, milk, and salt to a simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Then let the bean husk steep into the milk, cooled down in an airtight container, for at least 1 hour.

For the cocoa shortbread:
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cocoa powder
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp vanilla milk
1 egg yolk

Mix everything together to form a dough. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes, then roll out the dough on a floured surface into a flat and even layer that is big enough to cut a 6-inch round out of. Bake the round at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes before storing in the freezer for at least 1 hour.

For the chocolate cake:
1 egg white
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp melted dark chocolate
1/2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tbsp vanilla milk, plus 1 tbsp for soaking
1 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp black cacao powder

In a bowl, whip the egg white with sugar to stiff peaks. In another bowl, mix the melted dark chocolate, canola oil, and 1/2 tbsp vanilla milk until combined. Sift into the chocolate the flour and cacao powder, then fold into that the egg white to form your batter. Pour the batter into a lined 5-inch round baking tin and bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes. Allow the cake to cool before attempting to use in the assembly process. Brush with 1 tbsp of the vanilla milk and transfer the cake into the freezer.

For the caramelized almond layer:
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup flaked almonds

In a pan, heat up the sugar until it turns a light amber color. Then add in the butter and salt. Then stir into that the almonds. Pour everything into a 5-inch ring mold that is placed onto a lined sheet tray and bake at 300 degrees F for 3 minutes. Allow the mixture to fully cool down before pressing onto the round of chocolate cake.

For the French vanilla ousse:
2 tsp gelatin powder + 2 tbsp cold water
1/3 cup vanilla milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
8oz heavy cream, whipped stiff

In a pot, dissolve the gelatin into the vanilla milk with the sugar and salt. Pour that mixture into the egg yolks and whisk until combined. Fold into that the heavy cream to form your mousse base.

For initial assembly:
Line a 6-inch ring mold with cooking spray and pull cling wrap against one side of mold. Pour half of the mousse base into the mold, and then press into that the cake. Then add in the rest of the mousse base, and then press in the shortbread crust. Freeze the cake solid, at least 2 hours, before attempting to unmold.

For the white chocolate curls:
3 tbsp white chocolate chips

Over a double boiler, melt 2/3 of the white chocolate completely. Take the melted chocolate off heat and stir in the rest of the white chocolate until that is melted in as well. Pour the chocolate onto acetate and using a ridged bench scraper(I got mine from the paint supplies section in Blik!), scrape the chocolate to form thin rows. Curl the acetate and refrigerate it until it solidifies and can be removed from the sheet. Garnish the tops of the cake with the curls.