Bite-Sized Mont Blancs

These may not strike you as a typical Japanese dessert, but if you’ve been to Japan, you know that not a single bakery fails to have their own version of this cold weather classic. The combination of a buttery, crunchy base with fluffy whipped cream and sweet—but not too sweet—chestnut puree makes this an enduring favorite.

The only problem is, they’re usually the size of a tennis ball and so rich that eating a whole one is a challenge, even for me. That’s why I make mine bite-sized! (And making them the size of a cookie allows guests who have never tried them before get a taste first, before committing to an entire plateful. Which they will.)

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Bite-Sized Mont Blancs

Makes 24

Shortbread base:

1/2 cup (115g) butter

1/2 cup (60g) powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon (2.5ml) vanilla

1 cup (125g) flour

1/4 teaspoon (1.5g) salt

Turbinado sugar

Directions:
Preheat over to 325°F. Cream the butter, salt and sugar in a mixer until fluffy and light (about 5 minutes). Add vanilla and beat well. Add flour and mix until dough just holds together. Form into a disc and roll out on flour-covered pastry cloth until about 1/4″ thick. Cover top of dough with turbinado sugar and roll until sugar is stuck to the top of the dough. With a small round or scalloped cookie cutter, cut into circles and place on ungreased (or parchment covered) cookie sheet. Bake 16 minutes. Let cool.

Chestnut squiggles:

6 ounces (170g) boiled or roasted chestnuts, hulled

1 cup (237ml) milk

1/4 cup (50g) sugar

1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla

Directions:
Heat sugar and milk in a small saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Stir in vanilla and add chestnuts. Bring to a low simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, until liquid is reduced by half. Transfer to a food processor or deep bowl with an immersion blender and puree until very smooth. If puree is too stiff, thin little by little with cream until it’s like spreadable cake frosting. Let cool to room temperature.

Whipped cream filling:

1/2 cup (119ml) heavy cream (45%)

1 tablespoon (8g) powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon (2.5ml) vanilla

Directions:
Whip cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until slightly beyond stiff peaks. It should look like this:

Cut a tiny bit off the corner of a plastic baggie and spoon the whipped cream into the corner.

Twist the baggie above the cream so you can squeeze it out, and pipe it onto the center of the cookie bases, leaving cookie showing around the edges.

Then spoon the chestnut cream into a pastry bag with a spaghetti-size tip (or use another baggie with a really tiny hole in the corner) and squeeze squiggles of the chestnut cream over each mound. As you can see below, whether the lines are squiggly and messy or neat and parallel, they still look good! Top with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar for sparkle, and serve.