Raspberry and Blueberry Blanc Manger (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy: Raspberry Blanc-Manger. I've been wanting to try this dessert since I got Baking bcause there is a stunning photo of it in the book. It's a dessert made with milk, cream and sugar, thickened with gelatin, and flavored with ground almonds. Dorie describes it as a sister to panna cotta. While I've never had this dessert before, I do know that I like panna cotta, so I was eager to taste it.

Click Bi-Colour Submission

This was essentially a no bake dessert, which was nice since it is so hot right now! It's a simple recipe - just mix some milk, sugar, and ground almonds and bring it to a boil. Add the gelatin to the hot almond milk mixture, then cool it in an ice bath. Once it is cool, you simply fold in some whipped cream and berries and pour it into a mold. I actually did not even heat the almond milk mixture on the stove, I used the microwave!

You are supposed to pour this into an 8 x 2 inch round pan, but my 8 inch round pan isn't quite 2 inches high so I poured most of it into the pan, and then put the rest in two little mini tart pans. It ended up working out well because I sent the large one with work with my husband and then still had the two mini servings for myself :)


I made mine with a combination of blueberries and raspberries. The raspberries were fresh, but the blueberries were frozen. To avoid a blue streaky dessert, I simply defrosted the blueberries ahead of time, and drained all excess liquids. I decorated garnished the top with fresh raspberries and some blueberry coulis.

I had no problems unmolding this dessert. After dunking the round pan in some hot water, it easily unmolded onto a plate. The tartlets I had to get creative with. I simply warmed the edges of my mini tart pans with towel soaked in some hot water (they have a removable bottom so I didn't want to dunk them in hot water and have it leak in). With the removable bottom made it easy to invert and unmold it onto a plate.


This was a really good dessert. It would be great for entertaining because it's so simple to make, yet would impress most guests. It was creamy without being too heavy. The texture wasn't completely smooth due to the ground almonds that flavored it, but that did not bother me. I have to say that I prefer the completely smooth texture of panna cotta over the blanc manger, however.


Thanks Susan, for picking this recipe. If you would like the recipe, you can find it here. If you visit the TWD Blogroll, you'll see how much everyone else enjoyed this creamy treat!

(I'm also submitting this to the Click Bi-Colour July Event hosted by Jugalbandi.)

* Recipes notes:
- I used whole almonds and ground them in my food processor. It didn't affect the color of my dessert too much, but if you want it as white as possible then I would recommend blanching and peeling your almonds first. Just toss them in boiling water until they start floating to the top, then rinse with cold water. The peels should come right off if you do that.
- You can use whatever molds you would like for this dessert. For individual servings, consider using small ramekins or small tart pans.
- For more tips, click here.