Coffee Mousse with Recioto Zabaglione

To prepare the sugar grilles: Combine the sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a small, heavy saucepan. Insert a candy thermometer into the syrup and heat until the mixture reaches 310 F, or has just begun to turn an amber color. Turn off the heat and let the sugar cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, line a heavy baking sheet with a silicone liner or spray with vegetable oil spray and wipe off the excess. Working quickly, dip a fork in the syrup and drizzle in an 8-inch-by-6-inch rectangle. Repeat to make four rectangles. Let cool and harden completely; store in an airtight container until ready to use.

To prepare the chocolate tuiles: Preheat the oven to 325 F. Butter and lightly flour 2 baking sheets. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Gradually stir in the cake flour until smooth. Stir in the egg whites and vanilla. Put 1/4 cup of the vanilla batter in a squeeze bottle and set aside. Stir the cocoa powder into the remaining batter. Put the chocolate batter in a pastry bag fitted with a 1-inch flat tip and pipe 12-inch strips on the prepared baking sheets. Pipe a zig-zag of vanilla batter down each of the chocolate strips. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges just begin to brown and the centers are cooked through. Remove from the oven and lift one of the strips. Bring one end around to cross the strip about one third of the way down; press gently to hold and place on a clean work surface to cool. Repeat with remaining strips; if they become too cool to bend, put them back in the oven for 30 seconds or so until warm enough to bend. Set the cookies aside to cool. They can be stored 2 or 3 days if kept in an airtight container.

To prepare the chocolate lattice: Heat the chocolate to 110 F in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water. Stir to blend, remove from heat, and let cool to 90 F. Place on a heating pad set on low to maintain this temperature. Lay the acetate sheets flat on a baking sheet lined with a silicone liner or parchment paper. Put the chocolate in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip or in a cone made of parchment paper with the tip snipped to open. Pipe chocolate around all four edges of a plastic strip to create a rim. Pipe diagonally inside the borders, overlapping the edges. Then pipe diagonally in the other direction, creating a lattice. Place the baking sheet over a pan of ice cubes and let the chocolate harden until the sheen is gone. Lift a strip and wrap over into a teardrop shape, plastic-side out; hold together at the tip until it sets enough to bond. Repeat with all strips. Put in the refrigerator to harden.

To prepare the chocolate balls: In the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water, melt the white chocolate. Heat to 110 F, then remove from heat and cool to 87 F. Place on a warmed towel or heating pad set very low to maintain that temperature. Using a 24-count 1-1/4-inch half-sphere mold pan, fill half the molds with chocolate and set on a pan of ice; when the chocolate has set slightly, pour the still-liquid centers back into the warm pan of chocolate, leaving white chocolate shells. Save the melted chocolate and any chocolate “scraps” and set aside to be remelted later. Repeat with the remaining molds. Chill in the refrigerator until set. Take the molds out of the refrigerator and cut a dime-sized circle out of the bottom of twelve of the half-spheres with a small circular cutter. Reserve these circles of chocolate. Take the half-spheres with holes out of the molds and place to one side. Take the half spheres with no holes out of the mold and anchor them, open-side up, in a dish of sugar to hold them upright. Heat a broad spatula in very hot water, then dry with a towel and quickly place it flat over one of the hollow cups standing in the sugar to melt the edges. Put one of the half-spheres with a hole over it and seal in place, creating a hollow ball with a hole in the top. To make sure it is completely sealed around the joint, melt some of the left-over white chocolate and brush around the joint to seal. Repeat to make 12 of these hollow balls. Chill again for at least 1 hour.

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine the corn syrup, liqueur, and coffee. Warm together for 3 minutes, until well blended, but do not let the mixture boil. Pour into a heatproof bowl set in a larger bowl of ice and let cool, stirring occasionally. Take the hollow balls out of the refrigerator. Fill the chocolate balls three-fourths full with the coffee mixture; you can create a small funnel out of a paper cone to help fill them neatly. Melt a little of the left-over white chocolate over very warm water. Dip one of the dime-sized circles of chocolate in the melted chocolate and use to seal the hole in the top of one of the filled chocolate balls. Repeat to seal all 12 balls. Return to the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

To make the coffee cream: In the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water, melt the chocolate. Stir the egg yolks with a whisk to break them up, then stir them into the chocolate with a spatula. Stir in the coffee liqueur and espresso. Beat the cream to very soft peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.

To make the wine sauce: Combine the wine and corn starch in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cook until thickened; if the mixture boils, remove from heat after 30 seconds. Set aside to cool.

To make the zabaglione: Beat the eggs with the sugar, then stir in the flour and white wine. Strain the mixture, then place in a heavy saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring slowly, until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat and cool in the refrigerator.

To assemble: Place a chocolate lattice on edge on a work surface in a cool room. Press a small flat disc of cake into the large end of the lattice. Put the coffee cream in a pastry bag fitted with a medium plain tip and pipe coffee cream around the cake to hold it. Anchor a white chocolate ball in a little coffee cream on top of the cake. Continue filling the lattice to the top; smooth the top with a spatula. Press chopped glazed nuts into the surface. Repeat with the remaining lattices; chill for at least 1 hour.

To serve: Melt the dark chocolate and put in a squeeze bottle. Pipe a large ring of chocolate in the center of each chilled dessert plate; draw an “S” curve through the center of the ring, like the Chinese yin-yang symbol. Chill for a few minutes to set. Put the zabaglione and the wine sauce in separate squeeze bottles to make filling easy. Fill one half of each chocolate design with zabaglione; fill the other half with wine sauce. Gently pull the plastic strip off a chocolate-coffee lattice dessert and place on the zabaglione on one of the plates; repeat with remaining desserts. Put the raspberry puree in a squeeze bottle. On each pool of wine sauce, make a curved line of 4 nickel-sized dots of zabaglione. Put a small dot of raspberry puree in each of the zabaglione dots. Make 4 more dots of raspberry puree in a curved line in the zabaglione next to the chocolate-coffee desserts. With a toothpick or the tip of a sharp knife, pull through the zabaglione-raspberry dots on each plate, creating a string of heart-like designs. Do the same through the raspberry dots on the other side of each plate. Lean a sugar grille across the wine sauce against the dessert. Slice the strawberries vertically almost to the tops and fan out; place one, points-up, in each chocolate-coffee dessert and anchor 2 mint leaves beside it. Stand a chocolate tuile in each dessert. Sprinkle the edges of the plates with more chopped glazed nuts.

*Note: The egg will not be cooked in this preparation. Be sure of your purveyor and use only fresh eggs from poultry raised in conditions which make the spread of salmonella unlikely.