Tonka honey mousse

The closest spice to vanilla, not by botany but by flavour, is tonka bean. These wrinkled dark seeds of South America’s cumaru trees hold a host of heady fragrances, making them a favourite of French pâtissiers – you might pick up notes of cherry, clove, cinnamon, tobacco, vanilla and marzipan. With such complexity, other flavours are best left simple, as in this light-as-a-whisper honey mousse.

Tonka beans have been illegal in the US since the 1950s as they can be toxic when eaten