Read Paris Pastry Club: A collection of cakes, tarts, pastries and other indulgent recipes Online
Authors: Fanny Zanotti
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Paris Pastry Club: A collection of cakes, tarts, pastries and other indulgent recipes (13 page)
Make the milk chocolate mousse, as above, then pour into the ring and freeze for 30 minutes. Finally, make the white chocolate mousse, pour into the ring and freeze for at least 2 hours or up to a month.
A few hours before you wish to serve, remove the cake from the freezer.
Gently lift off the metal ring and carefully peel away the rhodoid (or baking paper). Transfer to a serving plate and leave in the fridge to thaw for at least 4 hours. (If made ahead of time, you will need to thaw in the fridge overnight.)
Before serving, sprinkle with grated chocolate.
These are my favourite flavours for this cake. With a hint of cinnamon in the white chocolate mousse it really is the perfect combination. It also works well with many other summer fruits. Try peaches or apricots or even a combination of berries.
The base cake is a dacquois. Egg whites are whipped with a little sugar, then almonds and icing sugar are folded in just so.
Serves 10
FOR THE WHITE CHOCOLATE
AND CINNAMON MOUSSE
2 gelatine leaves
150 g (5 oz) whole milk
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar
230 g (8 oz) white chocolate, melted
200 g (7 oz) whipping cream,
whipped to soft peaks
FOR THE PISTACHIO DACQUOIS
6 egg whites
200 g (7 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
240 g (9 oz) ground almonds
190 g (6 oz) icing (confectioner’s) sugar, sieved
4 tablespoons plain (all-purpose) flour
90 g (3 oz) unsalted roasted pistachios,
roughly chopped
FOR THE TOPPING
icing (confectioner’s) sugar, for dusting
400 g (14 oz) cherries, pitted
40 g (1½ oz) blanched pistachios, chopped
Soak the gelatine leaves in ice-cold water.
Make a crème anglaise: bring the milk and cinnamon to the boil in a small pan over a medium heat.
Mix the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl. When the milk has boiled, slowly pour onto the eggs, whisking as you do so. Return to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring with a spatula, until the anglaise reaches 80°C (175°F) or coats the back of a metal spoon.
Squeeze out the gelatine leaves, add to the anglaise and stir to combine.
Pour onto the melted white chocolate and whisk well. Leave to cool to 30°C (85°F), it should feel barely warm to the touch.
Stir a third of the whipped cream into the crème to loosen the mixture. Then gently fold in the rest of the cream, first using a whisk and switching to a spatula at the end. Transfer the mousse to a plastic piping bag, seal the end and chill for at least 3 hours.
In the meantime, make the pistachio dacquois. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter and line a 24 cm (10 in) metal ring with a strip of baking parchment and set on a lined baking tray.
Whisk the egg whites until they hold soft peaks, then add the sugar, a third at a time, whisking well after each addition. Keep on whisking for 5 minutes, until the meringue is stiff and the sugar has dissolved.
Mix the ground almonds, icing sugar and flour in a separate bowl, then tip the dry ingredients onto the meringue and fold very gently until just combined.
Scrape the batter into a plastic piping bag fitted with a 15 mm (½ in) nozzle.
Pipe the dacquois into the prepared metal ring starting from the centre and spiralling out until you reach the edges. Now pipe a circle of 14–16 golf ball-sized around the edge of the dacquois.
Sprinkle generously with the chopped pistachios, then bake for 30 minutes, or until evenly golden-brown.
Leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Lift off the ring, then carefully peel the paper away from the sides and bottom. Transfer to a large plate and set aside.
To assemble the cake, dust the rim of the dacquois with icing sugar. Cut the tip off the chocolate mousse piping bag and fit inside another piping bag fitted with a 10 mm (½ in) nozzle.
Pipe a layer of mousse onto the dacquois. Arrange the cherries on top and scatter with pistachios. If you have any leftover mousse, you can always dollop or quenelle some on top of the cherries for an instant celebration effect.
Chill in the fridge for up to 6 hours and serve.
BROWN SUGAR
CHEESECAKE WITH
SUGARED NUTS
This cheesecake is perfect for those birthdays made of early nights and jokes by the fireplace. In fact, I made it for the very first time for my mum’s birthday, which falls at the end of October. We were in an old house in the north of Italy with nothing else to do other than pick chestnuts and hazelnuts that we’d roast on the fire at night and burn our fingers on the shells as we cracked them open.
I remember wrapping an old tin in plenty of layers of foil. And mixing eggs with cream cheese, wondering why the egg yolks always seem brighter in Italy. I remember roasting a handful of nuts and coating them in a crunchy sugar.
Serves 8 – 10
FOR THE BASE
30 g (1 oz) ground hazelnuts
150 g (5 oz) digestive biscuits
90 g (3 oz) butter, melted
FOR THE CHEESECAKE
450 g (1 lb) cream cheese
50 g (1¾ oz) caster (superfine) sugar
60 g (2 oz) dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
170 g (6 oz) double (thick) cream
FOR THE SUGARED NUTS
300 g (10½ oz) nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia, cashew)
200 g (7 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
40 g (1½ oz) water
a fat pinch of sea salt
Preheat the oven to 100°C (215°F). Line a 22 cm (9½ in) springform pan with baking parchment and wrap in 2 layers of foil.
Spread the hazelnuts in a single layer onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 8 minutes, giving them a good shake every now and then, until golden-brown and aromatic. Set aside.
Put the digestive biscuits into a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin until they turn into fine crumbs. Mix in a bowl with the melted butter. Add the ground hazelnuts to the crumbs, mixing until it forms a thick paste.
Scrape into the springform pan and spread out to form an even layer, smoothing the top with the back of a spoon. Chill while you get on with the cheesecake mix.
Work the cream cheese for a minute or two in a large bowl until it is smooth and no longer lumpy. Add the sugars and eggs and mix well. Gently fold in the double cream until just combined. Pour onto the biscuit base and sit the pan in a deep baking tray. Pour in hot water from a kettle
so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the pan.
Bake for 1 hour or until firm to the touch and the edges start to turn golden-brown. Turn off the oven, open the oven door and let the cheesecake to cool inside for another hour. Transfer to a wire rack and leave until it reaches room temperature. Then chill for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
On the day you’re planning to serve the cheesecake, make the sugared nuts.
Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F).
Line a baking tray with baking paper and sprinkle the nuts on. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden. Leave to cool slightly while you make the sugar syrup.
Place the sugar, water and salt in a large pan and cook over medium heat until it just starts to caramelize in the centre of the pan. Off the heat, stir in the nuts with a wooden spoon and keep stirring until the syrup forms a sugary crust around the nuts. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool completely.
Spoon the sugared nuts over the cold cheesecake and leave to set at room temperature. Do not refrigerate the cheesecake at this point as it will make the sugared nuts sticky.
