Tag: entremet

Recipe: Raspberry tart with apple chip

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Makes: 12 mini tarts  (~6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Most of the time my baking ideas come while walking through the supermarket to see which fruits are available. One of the (many) great things about Hong Kong is that we get fruit imported from all around the world which means that fruits like raspberries are available throughout the year and usually at a reasonable price. Given raspberries are super cheap at the moment, I decided to make a dessert bursting with raspberries. The elements of this tart are:

  • Sable base (my first time making a sable and it was super buttery and delicious that I was hoping some of the bases would crack so I could eat them straight from the oven)
  • raspberry cream
  • fresh raspberries
  • chocolate disc
  • apple chip

Ingredients:

Sable base:

  • 150g butter
  • 70g icing sugar
  • 70g almond meal
  • 100g plain flour
  • 10g salt

Raspberry cream:

  • 300g butter
  • 200g raspberries
  • 150g icing sugar

Chocolate disc:

  • 200g dark chocolate

Apple chip:

  • 1 green apple
  • 20ml lemon juice
  • 40+100g caster sugar
  • 1 gelatin leaf
  • 10g butter

Instructions:

Sable base:

  1. whisk together butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy
  2. sift in the flour, almond and salt and mix until well combined
  3. flatten into a disc on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hours
  4. roll out to ~1cm thick and return to the fridge for another 20 minutes
  5. cut out 12 circles around 6cm in diameter and bake  the circles inside the rings at 160C for 15 minutes, removing the rings after around 10mins in the oven

Raspberry cream:

  1. puree raspberries in a food processor and simmer over medium heat until slightly reduced
  2. whisk together butter and sugar then slowly add in the raspberry and whisk until well combined

Chocolate disc:

  1. temper chocolate over a double boiler
  2. spread onto a sheet of acetate
  3. when slightly set, cut out 12 circles, around 5cm in diameter

apple chip:

  1. place apple and lemon in a food processor
  2. bloom gelatin, then drain and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt the gelatin
  3. add the gelatin and 40g of sugar into the apple/lemon then process until well combined
  4. add the apple puree, remaining sugar and butter to a pan over medium-high heat and simmer until slightly reduced
  5. spread the puree over a baking sheet (in different shapes) and baking at 150C for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden

Assemble:

  1. for each sable base: place raspberries around the edges and fill the hole in the middle with some of the raspberry cream
  2. place the chocolate disc on top of each tart then pipe another dallop of raspberry cream
  3. top with an apple chip (or any other decorations) … i also tried decorating it with a chocolate leaf
raspberry tart - apple chips
shaping the apple chips before placing into the oven
raspberry tart 1
Assembling the raspberry tarts
The finished raspberries tart, decorated with a chocolate leaf
The finished raspberries tart, decorated with a chocolate leaf

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Tarts with blueberry gelee

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Finished: lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee

Makes: 16 small round cakes (~5cm in diameter)

Time required: 2 hours over 2 sessions (~2 hour at a time)

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

One of the things I love about entremets is that you can take different desserts, flavours and textures and layer them into a small delicate cake. For this cake, I wanted to “recreate” a lemon meringue pie – have all the elements of a normal lemon meringue pie (buttery crust, lemon curd, meringue) but create it in a different form. To add a twist … I included a bluberry gelee which oozes out when you cut into the cake – the sweetness (but also subtle flavour) of the blueberry is a great contrast to the sour lemon curd.

Elements of this cake:

  • buttery biscuit base
  • lemon curd mousse
  • blueberry gelee
  • meringue
  • blueberries and chocolate leaf to decorate

Ingredients:

Tart base:

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 70g pure icing sugar
  • 120g butter, cold

blueberry gelee:

  • 125g blueberries
  • 30ml water
  • 70g caster sugar

Lemon curd:

  • 200g caster sugar
  • juice from 3 lemons
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 whole eggs
  • pinch of salt
  • 50g butter

Lemon mousse:

  • lemon curd made above
  • 2 gelatin sheets
  • 450ml whipping cream
  • juice from 1 lemon

Meringue:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 40ml water

To decorate:

  • blueberries
  • tempered chocolate leaves

Instructions:

Tart base:

  1. whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla and set aside
  2. in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and icing sugar
  3. cut the cold butter into 1cm cubes and beat into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse sand. Careful not to overmix
  4. mix the egg into the flour/butter mixture until just combined
  5. roll into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least an hour
  6. once all the other elements of the cake have been prepared roll the dough to 0.5cm thickness and cut out 16 circles just slightly larger than the round moulds
  7. bake at 170C for 12 minutes until the edges of the biscuit base is golden

Blueberry gelee:

  1. bring all ingredients to a boil and then simmer for ~5 minutes until the mixture thickens
  2. place into a piping bag and then set aside in the fridge to cool as you prepare the lemon mousse

Lemon curd:

  1. whisk together all ingredients except for the butter
  2. place all ingredients (including the butter) into a saucepan over medium heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens into a curd
  3. place three quarters of the curd into the fridge to cool while leaving the remaining quarter at room temperature

Lemon mousse:

  1. bloom gelatin sheets in iced water for 10 minutes
  2. bring the lemon juice to boil then melt in the bloomed gelatin sheets
  3. mix in the room temperature lemon curd and set aside while preparing the rest of the mousse
  4. in a separate bowl, whisk the cream to medium peaks
  5. whisk together the room temperature lemon curd with the cold lemon curd until light and airy
  6. gently fold into the whipped cream to form the mousse

Meringue:

  1. place sugar and water over low-medium heat to create a sugar syrup
  2. meanwhile, begin whisking the egg whites in a large bowl
  3. when the sugar syrup is ready, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking the egg whites at maximum speed
  4. continue whisking until stiff peaks

To assemble:

  1. pipe the lemon mousse into the round moulds 3/4 full
  2. pipe in a blob of the blueberry gelee then top the remaining of the mould with more lemon mousse
  3. Freeze the moulds for at least 3 hours, until they can be smoothly removed from the moulds
  4. remove the mousse from the moulds then place each lemon mousse piece over a biscuit base
  5. pipe on the meringue, torch the meringue then decorate with blueberries and chocolate
Tart dough - mixing the butter into the flour. Be careful not to overmix
Tart dough – mixing the butter into the flour. Be careful not to overmix
tart dough - pressed into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
tart dough – pressed into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
tart dough - rolled out and cut into round discs
tart dough – rolled out and cut into round discs
circle moulds with lemon mousse and blueberry gelee
circle moulds with lemon mousse and blueberry gelee
lemon meringue tart - decorated with blueberry and chocolate
lemon meringue tart – decorated with blueberry and chocolate
lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee
Finished: lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee

 

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Recipe: Lime Coconut Mousse

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Nutting to see here - loving my squirrel bookend

Makes: 1 dome/half-sphere (~8inch in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours in total over 4 sessions

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

Reading through Olivier Dupon’s book “The New Patissiers” (my current favourite book) I came across one page which had a really interesting flavour combination – it was a recipe for a chocolate mousse entremet with a lime panna cotta, coconut dacqouise … coated in milk chocolate mousse. I wanted to give the elements of this recipe a try, liking the idea of the tangy-ness of the lime mixed with creaminess of the coconut and the sweetness of the chocolate.

Elements of this cake from centre to outside:

  • lime panna cotta
  • coconut cream
  • dark chocolate mousse
  • coconut dacquoise base
  • coated in dark chocolate velvet spray

Although every element of this cake is very easy and quick to make, it does require preparation to make and freeze each of the layers before moving onto the next

Ingredients:

Lime panna cotta:

  • juice of 2 limes
  • 90ml milk
  • 90ml cream
  • 45g caster sugar
  • 2 gelatin sheets

Coconut mousse:

  • 100ml coconut milk
  • 150ml milk
  • 150ml cream, whipped
  • 1 sheet gelatin

Coconut Dacqouise:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 60g caster sugar
  • 30g coconut flakes
  • 30g almond meal
  • 60g pure icing sugar

Dark Chocolate Mousse:

  • 94g caster sugar
  • 94ml water
  • 1 egg
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 150ml cream
  • 3 gelatin sheets
  • 250g dark chocolate
  • 300ml cream, whipped

Chocolate Velvet spray (I used a pre-made can)

Lime coconut mousse cake 4
Plastic moulds I used to create the dome shape

Instructions:

Lime Panna Cotta:

  1. bring lime, cream and sugar to simmer for 10 minutes
  2. remove from heat and mix in gelatin
  3. pour into dome mould (~3inch in diameter) and freeze for several hours or overnight

Coconut Mousse:

  1. bring coconut milk and milk to simmer
  2. remove from heat and stir in the gelatin
  3. once cool, gently fold in the whipped cream
  4.  pour into a dome mould (~3.5inch in diameter) and then push the lime panna cotta dome into the centre
  5. place into the freezer for several hours or overnight

Coconut Dacquoise:

  1. preheat oven to 180C and line a 8inch baking tin with baking paper
  2. sift together coconut flakes, almond meal and icing sugar
  3. in a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and caster sugar to firm peaks
  4. gently fold the dry ingredients into the meringue
  5. spread onto baking tin and bake for 15-20mins

Dark Chocolate Mousse:

  1. whisk water, sugar, eggs and egg yolks together in a bain-marie
  2. remove form heat and continue to whisk until airy
  3. in a separate pot, bring cream (150ml portion) to boil and stir in the gelatin
  4. pour hot cream over chocolate and stir to combine
  5. gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture
  6. whisk the 300ml portion of cream, then gently fold into the chocolate/egg mixture
  7. pour the mousse into the 8inch dome to around two-thirds full and drop the panna cotta/coconut mousse into the centre
  8. fill the rest of the dome to almost to top, leaving a little space to place the coconut dacquoise on top
  9. place in freezer for several hours or overnight until the dome is frozen

Chocolate velvet coating:

  1. once the dome is frozen, unmould and coat the cake in a chocolate velvet spray
chocolate mousse dome
chocolate mousse dome
Lime coconut mousse cake 2
pre-made chocolate velvet spray
All finished and ready to eat
All finished and ready to eat
Lime coconut mousse cake
Nutting to see here – loving my squirrel bookend

 

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Recipe: Giant Ferrero Rocher Cakes

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Giant ferrero rocher dessert

Makes: 6 spheres (~8cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours over 3 sessions (~1 hour at a time)

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

Inspired by one of my favourite chocolates when I was young – the iconic Ferrero Rocher. It was something that would feature in almost every birthday party or Kris Kringle … a nicely packaged gift under $20. Since moving to Hong Kong, I’ve slowly been adjusting to the Hong Kong supermarkets, but I still get excited every time I see a product in the same packaging that we get back home in Australia – Ferrero Rocher chocolates being one of them!

Elements for the cake from centre to outside of the ball:

  • Inner dome: hazelnut vanilla mousse
  • Inner coating: Nutella and crushed wafer
  • Outer dome: chocolate mousse
  • coated in chocolate and hazelnuts

Although every element of this cake is very easy to make, it does require preparation to make and freeze each of the layers

Ingredients:

Hazelnut Vanilla centre:

  • 150m cream, whipped
  • 100ml milk
  • 1tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 100g hazelnuts, crushed
  • 1 gelating leaf
  • 2 egg yolks

Nutella and wafer coating:

  • 100g nutella
  • 100g wafers, crushed

Chocolate mousse:

  • 400ml cream, whipped
  • 100g dark chocolate, melted
  • 100ml milk
  • 2 gelatin leaves

Chocolate hazelnut shell:

  • 400g milk chocolate
  • 150g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Instructions:

Hazelnut Vanilla centre:

  1. whisk together egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale
  2. bring milk and vanilla to a boil
  3. pour half the milk into the egg mixture while whisking then return the egg and milk to the pot and bring to a simmer, while still whisking
  4. remove from heat and stir in the gelatin
  5. once cool, gently fold in the whipped cream and hazelnuts
  6. pour mousse into 12 small dome moulds (~2.5cm in diameter) and set aside in freezer

Nutella and wafer coating:

  1. once the hazelnut and vanilla mousse is frozen, unmould the domes
  2. heat the nutella in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften it
  3. working quickly while the mousse is still frozen, spoon the nutella over each dome and dip it into the crushed wafers
  4. immediately return the domes to the freezer
coating the inner domes with nutella and crushed wafer
coating the inner domes with nutella and crushed wafer

Chocolate mousse:

  1. bring milk to a boil and pour over dark chocolate to melt
  2. stir in bloomed gelatin
  3. when slightly cool, fold in the whipped cream
  4. pour the chocolate mousse into large dome moulds (~8cm in diameter) around 3/4 full then place one of the smaller mousse domes in the centre of the larger dome
  5. place the domes in the freezer to set for 5-10mins and when the mousse as slightly set, join the moulds together to create a sphere/ball. Use some leftover mousse to help stick the domes together if needed
fill the outer domes 3/4 full with chocolate mousse
fill the outer domes 3/4 full with chocolate mousse
place the frozen hazelnut vanilla domes in the centre
place the frozen hazelnut vanilla domes in the centre

Chocolate hazelnut shell:

  1. melt the chocolate over a double boiler and stir in the chopped hazelnuts
  2. unmould the mousse balls and roll this in the melted chocolate, covering the whole sphere and return to the freezer immediately to harden the chocolate shell. After several minutes, take the balls out of the freezer and spoon more chocolate over any gaps in the shell
  3. set aside in the fridge for the mousse to thaw before serving
Giant ferrero rocher dessert
Giant ferrero rocher dessert

 

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Recipe: Mango Mousse Cheesecake Entremet

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Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie

Makes: 12 mini dome cakes (6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours in total, over 2 nights

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Inspired by another one of my favourite chocolates – the Mango & Vanilla chocolate from Koko Black back home in Melbourne. Every time I used to visit Koko Black I would buy at least five of these Mango & Vanilla chocolates in addition to several of the Passion flavour (I have also baked a cake inspired by this chocolate with recipe here!) and then try a range of other truffles and chocolates.

img_3460
Trying all the chocolates from Koko Black and Xocolatl in Melbourne

The elements of this cake include:

  • Vanilla cheesecake centre
  • Runny mango jam
  • Mango mousse dome
  • Mango mirror glaze
  • caramel biscuit base

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cheesecake centre:

  • 225g cream cheese
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 100ml thickened cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 lemon

Caramel Biscuit base:

  • 1 pack caramel flavoured biscuits (can use other flavours, e.g. Arnott’s Nice biscuits are a good alternative)
  • 150g melted butter

Mango jam:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 2 gelatin leaves

Mango Mousse:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 250ml cream, whipped
  • 200g sugar
  • 3 gelatin leaves

Mango glaze:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 200g sugar
  • 4 gelatin leaves
  • 200ml condensed milk
  • 150g white chocolate

Instructions:

Vanilla Cheesecake centre:

  1. Preheat over at 150C
  2. beat the cream cheese with sugar until smooth
  3. whisk in the egg until well combined
  4. fold in cream, vanilla and lemon until just combined
  5. pour into a 8 x 8 inch square tin (or any other baking tin of similar size)
  6. bake for 20 minutes
  7. once cool, cut out 12 circles, around 2-3cm in diameter

Caramel Biscuit base:

  1. blend the biscuits in a food processor until there are not big lumps
  2. stir in melted butter
  3. spread over a large flat tin (ensure this is spread evenly enough to be able to cut out 12 x 6cm circles for the cake base) and bake at 150C for 10mins
  4. while still warm, cut out the 12 circles and set aside to cool. The 12 circles will be used as the base of the mousse dome, however do not discard the rest of the cookie base as this can be used to decorate the dome

Mango jam:

  1. heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
  2. while the mixture is still hot, stir in bloomed gelatin and set aside
  3. once cool, place the mixture into a piping bag

Mango Mousse:

  1. heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
  2. stir in gelatin and set aside to cool
  3. once the mixture is at room temperature, fold in the whipped cream to form the mousse

To Assemble:

  1. gather 12 circle dome moulds, each around 6cm in diameter
  2. fill half of each dome with the mango mousse mixture
  3. carefully pipe around 2 teaspoons of the mango jam on top of the mango mousse (be gentle as we don’t want to jam to sink to the bottom of the mould)
  4. push a piece of vanilla cheesecake into each of the domes on top of the mango jam. We want to push the cheesecake in just far enough that the edges of the cheesecake are surrounded by mango mousse. Add a bit more mousse into the dome if needed
  5. lastly, place a disc of the caramel biscuit onto each of the domes, sitting the biscuit base on top of the mousse
  6. set aside in the freeze for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight to harden

Glazing the cake:

Mango glaze: (make this the following day once the mousse domes are frozen)

  1. un-mould each of the mousse domes and place back in the freezer
  2. place mango and sugar over medium heat until the mixture thickens
  3. remove from heat and add the bloomed gelatin
  4. stir in the condensed milk
  5. while still hot, pour over white chocolate and stir to melt and incorporate the chocolate
  6. when the glaze cools to 35 degrees, pour over the mango mousse domes
  7. crumble the off-cuts from the caramel cookie base and coat around the base of each of the cakes
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie

 

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Recipe: Passionfruit & Chocolate Tart

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passionfruit chocolate meringue tart cake recipe

Makes: 12 mini dome cakes (6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours in total, over 2-3 nights

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

The flavours for this cake were inspired by Koko Black’s ‘Passion’ chocolate – bitter, sour and sweet all in one small chocolate. I first tried this passionfruit & chocolate blend four years ago in Melbourne and it is still my favourite flavour combination.

The inspiration for the meringue coating is from my favourite cocktail – the Lavendar Meringue pie from Hong Kong’s Quinary Bar. Although the cocktail itself is very lemon-y, the richness of the meringue with each sip of your cocktail provides a great balance of sweet & sour.

Ingredients:

Chocolate ganache:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 100ml cream
  • 10g butter

Passionfruit dome:

  • 200g passionfruit, seeds removed
  • 100g sugar
  • 1 gelatin leaf
  • 175ml cream, whipped

Shortbread crust:

  • 225g butter
  • 100g sugar
  • 350g flour

Meringue:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 180g caster sugar
  • 60ml water

Instructions:

Chocolate ganache:

  1. Bring cream to boil and pour over dark chocolate. Set aside for 2 minutes
  2. Mix in the melted chocolate with the cream
  3. stir in the butter, and set aside to cool while making the passionfruit dome

Passionfruit dome:

  1. Place sugar and passionfruit over low-medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved and the passionfruit slightly thickens
  2. stir in the bloomed gelatin sheet and set aside to cool
  3. once the mixture is at room temperature, gently fold in whipped cream
  4. pour the passionfruit mousse into dome moulds (around 6cm in diameter), leaving a little space for a the chocolate ganache
  5. pipe in around 2tsbp of chocolate ganache. Alternatively, if you have more time to make these cakes you could freeze the chocolate ganache the night before and cut out circles to place into the passionfruit mousse
  6. place the domes into a freezer for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight) to harden

Shortbread crust:

  1. Preheat oven to 160ºC fan forced
  2. cream the butter and sugar in a bowl
  3. add in the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon until a dough has formed
  4. roll out the dough and slice it into 8cm discs. We want the shortbread crust to be at least 1cm wider than the passionfruit dome to be able to hold the meringue
  5. bake for 8 minutes until golden

Meringue:

  1. whisk egg whites until foamy
  2. heat sugar and water over low-med heat until the syrup reaches 120ºC
  3. while whisking the eggs, pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream down the side of the whisking bowl
  4. continue to whisk the eggs until it form stiff peaks

Assembling the cake:

  1. remove the passionfruit mousse dome from the freezer and un-mould the domes
  2. place one dome over each disc of shortbread crust
  3. cover the dome in meringue using a spatula (you could also pipe the meringue in flowers or spikes) and torch until golden brown

I also topped off my cakes with mini candy flowers chocolate decorations

img_1638
the finished cake – showing the passionfruit and chocolate encased in meringue
img_1665
another photo of the finished passionfruit & chocolate tart

 

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