Laura the Gastronaut > Julia Child > Desserts > Bavarois Praline

Almond Bavarian Cream

January 10, 2020 | Updated March 9, 2023 | Laura

✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽

Julia Child Recipes 53-56 | 472 recipes to go!

✽ Créme Anglaise [Light Custard Sauce], p. 588
✽ Pralin [Caramelized Almonds], p. 583
✽ Caramel, p. 583

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✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)

The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.

Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.

I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!

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✽ Butter Count: +0 TB

✽ Cost: $9.25 [~$1.03 per serving]

Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!

→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!

Almond Bavarian Cream- my third Bavarian cream. I’m getting excited because now I have begun to actually learn these amazing cooking techniques. No longer am I frantically reading the fine details in the middle of cooking. I KNOW HOW.

It’s such an accomplishment for me as this is why I began this journey in the first place. To learn how to cook, and boy am I ever? All thanks to this wonderful cookbook.

I would never be that person that recommends somebody make one of Julia’s Bavarian Creams. The process is long. Like REALLY long. Your entire kitchen will look like a wreck at the end of it, and you are left with a gelatinized dessert. Which, for the record, I really enjoy eating (and my husband claims he does too), but other people- ehh not so much.

A lot of Americans today want their triple chocolate brownies and the five-layered Red Velvet cake. They don’t want to eat a fluffy gelatin dessert which I understand.

If you are going to make a Bavarian cream, do it for how many wonderful techniques you learn along the way.

Disclaimer: The paragraph above was written before I made the Almond Bavarian Cream. And despite everything I just said above- make this recipe.

Almond Bavarian Cream. There really are no words to describe how this dessert tastes because I have never tasted anything like it before. It’s wonderful. The praline offsets the strange texture beautifully. It’s definitely my favorite Julia dessert so far.

Looking for more Julia Child dessert recipes to read about?

→ Check out all of the dessert recipes that I've completed so far!

*Find these facts plus lots more on Wikipedia and Food Confidence.*

✽ How do almonds grow?

Almonds grow on deciduous trees inside outer fuzzy hulls.

✽ What genus does the almond belong to?

Almonds fall into the genus Prunus and the subgenus Amygdalus. Peaches also belong to this subgenus!

✽ Bees & Almonds

Almond trees are 100% reliant on bees for pollination. Without bees, there are no almonds. If there are not enough wild bees, almond growers will rent bees.

✽ Step 1: Make Pralin

The pralin was fun to make. Note to self- don’t overcook the almonds next time. I ended up still using them because I didn’t have any more on hand. It still tastes great inside the cream, but on its own, it tasted a little strange.

To make praline, you will actually make caramel first which is just boiled sugar and water.

First, simmer to make sure the sugar has dissolved. Then put lid on the pan and boil for several minutes. Afterwards, once you take the lid off, the mixture will turn from clear to caramel-colored in no time. SCIENCE.

You’ll mix in you slivered toasted almonds, pour on a baking sheet, and let cool. Then pulverize. There you got it- praline!

✽ Step 2: Make Bavarian Cream

This Bavarian cream is made almost exactly the same way as the orange one so I will not go into all those details again. The steps include- Make the custard, beat in the gelatin mixture, fold in the egg whites, fold in the whipping cream + flavoring, and then place in fridge to set.

Wow, writing it out like that makes it sound really easy… The differences: 1) coffee replaces the orange juice (YUM), 2) praline is folded into the custard and used as a topping as well, 3) vanilla + almond extract replaces the orange liquor.

✽ Step 3: Top and Serve

The homemade pralin is sprinkled on top of the set Bavarian cream right before serving. I also made the light custard sauce (creme anglaise) to top the Bavarian cream which was a brilliant idea.

*This blog, Laura the Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.

Category: Julia Child, Desserts Cuisine: French
Keywords: almond bavarian cream recipe, french bavarian cream, bavarois praline recipe, julia child bavarian cream, julia child praline

✽ Did you make this recipe too?
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More Dessert Recipes:

✽ Charlotte Malakoff aux Fraises (an almond cream combined with homemade ladyfingers and fresh strawberries)
✽ Charlotte Basque (homemade almond custard mixed with rum and chocolate)
✽ Caramel Almond Cream (super delicious cream made with homemade custard and praline)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child dessert recipes!

✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link).
→ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

Bon appétit!

January 10, 2020 by Laura Ehlers

*This Almond Bavarian Cream blog post may contain some Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.