Miroir aux Fruits

This dessert needs a few different components so try to make it when you have a little more time and you want a beautiful dessert that makes family and friends know they are worth it. There is one thing about this cake, it calls for gelatin and if you have not worked with gelatin before please make sure you read the directions. There are two types that I have worked with and I like the sheets better they don’t have an odor and they are very easy to work with. You may not be able to find these at your local store. You will need a silicon mat and food grade acetate. 

So we will start with the patterned Jaconde.

Patterned Jaconde

2.75 oz.           Butter, soft

2.75 oz.           Sugar

2.5 oz.             Egg whites

2.5 oz.             Pastry flour

Food color

**replace 1 oz. of the flour with cocoa if you want chocolate but don’t use food color

1. Cream the butter and sugar 
2. Add egg whites, gradually fold in the flour/cocoa or tint with color if not using cocoa
3. Spread a thin layer of approximately 1/16 of an inch onto the mat and then pattern. (This is when you can make your lines or waves or designs)
4. Put this in the freezer for about 30 minutes or until hard.

Biscuit Jaconde

3 oz.                Almond flour

.75 oz.             Cake flour

3 oz.                Sugar

2 ea.                 Eggs, extra large

1.75 oz.           Egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 420° in a regular oven, 400° in a convection oven. Prepare pans with parchment paper.
2. Make a soft meringue using the whites and .5 oz. sugar.
3. Beat eggs and the rest of the sugar until thick and pale. Fold in the flours.
4. Fold the meringue into the batter.
5. Take the patterned jaconde out of the freezer. Spread mixture over patterned jaconde and bake for 6 to 10 minutes until it springs back.

This will be the sides of your dessert, now let’s make the base. 

Genoise

6          eggs

5.5 oz. sugar

5.5 oz. cake flour

1. Preheat the oven to 395° in a regular oven and 375° in a convection. Parchment paper on the bottom of a small sheet pan.
2. Warm the eggs and sugar on a bain-marie to 110°. ( a bain-marie is a bowl on a pan with water in it, similar to a double boiler)
3. Then whip the eggs until they are pale and thick enough to write your name and it stays long enough to see it completed. This is also known as the ribbon stage.
4. Sift and fold in the flour, in 3 additions.
5. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes.

While this is baking we need to make the fruit mousse. 

Mousse aux Fruits

2 sheets Gelatin (2 T. granulated)

6 oz. Fruit puree

6 oz. Heavy Cream, chilled

2.5 oz. sugar

.13 oz. corn syrup or glucose syrup

1T 2 t. water

2.1 oz. egg whites

1. Soften gelatin. Heat ½ of the puree to just warm and add the gelatin. When the gelatin is dissolved add the remaining puree and set aside.
2. Beat the cream to soft peaks and refrigerate.
3. Place the sugar, syrup and water in a pan and bring to a boil.
4. Place the whites in a mixer bowl with a whip attachment and beat until soft peaks
5. When the syrup reaches 240° and drizzle into the egg whites while they are whipping.
6. Beat egg whites until stiff.
7. Fold the puree into the meringue
8. Fold the cream into the puree/meringue. Refrigerate.

Tomorrow we will learn how to assemble and how to make the Miroir Glaze.

As always, make life sweet and Enjoy!

Cookies, Candies and Cakes Oh my!

The 3 C’s, a pastry chef’s delight. When was the last time you walked into a bakery, not one that is in your grocery store, but an actual bakery? When I was growing up there was a bakery just around the corner, Adele’s Bakery it wasn’t very big but the aromas you could smell before you walked in the door were heavenly. It always looked like the shelves were full of cookies, candies both hard and soft and some of the most beautiful cakes. They weren’t wedding cakes, or mass produced birthday cakes, they were celebration cakes. You never saw a sheet cake in this bakery, I am not even sure if you could order one, but each cake was three layers and filled with some of the most wonderful fillings.

So today let’s make a celebration cake, we will celebrate life, we will make it simple yellow and white. Two different cakes and yet the only difference in ingredients are one uses the yolks and the other the egg whites. Let’s get our recipe ingredients together (that way we know we have the right amount of everything):

White Cake                                                    Yellow Cake

1.5 oz.   Egg Whites                                       1.25 oz. Yolks

2.75 oz. Milk                                                  2.75 oz.  Milk 

.11 oz.   Vanilla                                               .11 oz.    Vanilla

3.5 oz.    Cake flour                                        3.5 oz.    Cake flour

3.5 oz.    Sugar                                                3.5 oz.    Sugar

.26 oz.    Baking Powder                                .26 oz.    Baking Powder

.05 oz.    Salt                                                   .05 oz.    Salt

2 oz.       Butter, small pieces                          2 oz.       Butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

      1.      Put all the dry ingredients into the bowl with a paddle attachment turn mixer on low and let mix for about 3 minutes.

      2.      Add the butter, eggs, milk and vanilla mix on medium speed until no lumps appear. This may take a few minutes.

      3.      Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°, spray and parchment paper your pan or pans. One recipe will fill an 8 x 2 round pan.

      4.      Bake until middle springs back at touch or insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes and then let it cool completely on a rack.

The fillings for cakes can have anything you like, if you want a lemon custard filling or something with more texture maybe a fruit and nut filling. Make your favorite filling, cut the cake in half so you have approximately 1” of cake on the top and on the bottom. Fill and frost if you like, frostings are easy to make (just remember if you are using powdered sugar, ALWAYS sift the sugar). If you want to top your cake with whipped cream, make sure you top it right before serving because refrigeration speeds the staling process.

I hope you bake and celebrate and as always, Enjoy!