Recipes
Use a Microplane grater to grate the Cantal cheese, then mix the ingredients on a tabletop and knead with the palm of your hand until you have a homogenous pastry. Leave to chill for about 2 hours then press to a thickness of 2.5 mm in a rolling machine. Leave to chill overnight. The next morning, cut into shape using a 45 mm cutter and make a hole in the centre of each disc using a single stainless steel n°6 nozzle. Place the circle of pastry in the centre of the wrong side of the half-sphere silicone mould. Bake the pastry at 150°C (150°F) for 10 mn then turn the baking tray around and bake for a further 10 mn. Let the pastry cool before removing the half-spheres from their moulds. Store in a hermetically sealed box with some sodium chloride.
Make the pastry the night before.
Heat the pulp and sugar, add the Morello cherries and leave them to slowly become candied for about 1 hour beside the oven. If the pulp is reduced too far during cooking, deglaze it with a splash of water. The mixture is cooked once the juices are syrupy and will set when cool.
Grate the Ossau Iraty using a microplane grater. Heat the cream then add the cheese. Soften the gelatine in cold water, then incorporate it in the cheese and cream. Place your first layer of cream in the silicone mould, add some Morello cherries and some of its juices, then cover with a second layer of cream. The base of the filling should be smooth and totally covered with cherries. The filling must sit at 1.5 mm beneath the edges of the mould. Freeze, take out of the mould and store in the freezer.
* If the mould is too full, this piece will not work: the filling will stick to the mould rather than the shortbread.
Transport the filling in isothermic boxes so they stay frozen. This will make assembling the piece easier.
Strip the rosemary and candy its leaves very gently in the warm syrup beside the oven. Add a drop of green food colouring to the syrup (to give it a pine tree colour). An hour later, drain the rosemary leaves and roll them in the sugar. Dry in a steriliser for 2 to 3 hours until the leaves are crispy.
Use a blowtorch to lightly melt the round part of the filling, pick it up using a small spatula and then lay it beneath the shortcrust pastry. Turn the cocktail piece around and stick two crystallised rosemary leaves in the little hole you made.
