STRAWBERRY FINANCIERS, A MARATHON IN BAKING

Posted in Cake, Desserts, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

First of all, let me clarify that I cannot share this recipe. It is copyrighted and available exclusively for members of Savour, the online cooking community hosted by the amazing Kirsten Kibballs (click here for details). This can only be described as a baking marathon, one of the most involved projects I’ve ever attempted. However I am beyond thrilled with the way they turned out!

Although I cannot share the recipe, I will walk you through all the steps, so you will have some idea of all that is involved.

Starting with the Financier component, you can conceivably use a muffin tin to make them, but if at all possible, get this silicone pan that allows you to bake cute strawberry-shaped cakes.

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Kirsten’s recipe includes coconut and it is really delicious on its own. Once the cakes are baked, they go straight into the freezer (still in the pan) to facilitate removal. From that point, the cakes are hollowed and filled with the other components.

Starting with a Strawberry jelly made from fresh strawberry puree, agar-agar, allowed to set, and then emulsified in a blender to make a cream. That is finally mixed with fresh strawberries, diced very small, and used to fill the cakes.

The second component of the filling is a fantastic white chocolate chantilly cream, that must be made at least 6 hours before use. First the strawberry jelly/fruit is added, then the chantilly. The cakes go into the freezer to set for a while, and then white chocolate is used to seal the bottom.

At this point, all goes back to the fridge, or for a short stay in the freezer. Tempered chocolate dyed red mixed with neutral oil is used to coat each mini-cake. It will be messy! Best way to deal with it is using two big wooden skewers to manipulate them.

Marathon is in its final stages now… For the strawberry leaves, I spray-painted wafer paper and cut shapes using the template provided by Savour. Kirsten used tempered green chocolate and a very elaborate system to cut and shape them, but I had to simplify it.

The only way they stayed glued was using Edible glue from Wilton. Melted chocolate and Royal icing were no good.

Finally, they get brushed with a little oil (I used grapeseed) and white sesame seeds are sprinkled all over!

And with that step, we just crossed the finish line!

I made 9 of these babies, and Phil and I shared one, as I really needed to know how they tasted.

One of the best things I’ve ever baked, for sure! I messed up when I cut it, they were too cold from the fridge, but I can tell you everything worked great together. The cake is moist and tender, the strawberry cream intensely flavored, and the chocolate whipped cream completes the symphony…

I was quite exhausted at the end, but so glad I decided to face this challenge. If you are interested in expanding your horizons in baking, consider joining Savour online school. I’ve been a member from their very beginning, and although I don’t bake often from their recipes, I watch most of their videos when they are published and learn a lot with each and every one.

ONE YEAR AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2024

TWO YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, Spring 2023

THREE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2022

FOUR YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2021

FIVE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2020

SIX YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2019

SEVEN YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2018

EIGHT YEARS AGO: First Monday Favorite

NINE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2016

TEN YEARS AGO: Spring has Sprung with Suzanne Goin

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Chai Brownies

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Pomegranate-Molasses Glazed Carrots

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Braised Brisket with Bourbon-Peach Glaze

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: The Real Vodka Sauce

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Spring Rolls on a Spring Day

28Jul2024

CAKE PUCKS, MY NEW ADVENTURE!

Posted in Cake by sallybr

My first time making these, after flirting for a long time with the concept, while staring at my molds in a state of paralysis. In a way, they are not too different from Chocolate-Covered Oreos – that I make often – but the level of complexity goes up a bit. With cake pucks, you can use all flavors and kinds of cakes, as well as cookie dough, rice crisps, as long as you adjust the consistency to make…. the PUCK component. I see many of those in my future… For my first time, I chose Red Velvet with a thin Oreo inside. Check them out!

RED VELVET CAKE PUCKS WITH THIN OREOS
(adapted from this recipe)

molds used: BENTYCAKES SET

1 red velvet cake mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla
Oreo thins
1/2 cup buttercream
Ghirardelli melting wafers, dark chocolate

Combine cake mix, eggs, water, oil and vanilla until fully mixed. Pour mixture in a greased 9×13 baking pan and bake at 350 F until done, with toothpick coming out clean as tested in the center of the cake (about 25 minutes).

Allow cake to cool, then crumble and mix in buttercream. Add about a tablespoon of cake mix to your small cake puck mold. Place one Oreo thin on top of the mix and then continue to fill the mold with cake mix. Use bottom of a measuring cup to gently pat the top of the cake puck centers down so they are level with the mold. Scrape off any excess mix.

Place mold in the fridge for 3 hours or freezer (45 min) to chill.

Melt 17 ounces chocolate (or the amount compatible with the number of cakes you will make) with one tablespoon of refined coconut oil for 1 minute. Continue to microwave in increments of 20 seconds until chocolate is smooth and fully melted.

Fill cavities of larger mold with chocolate a little less than half-full. Place chilled center on melted chocolate. Gently apply even pressure as you slowly press the center down until chocolate comes up from the sides and covers the top of the center. Scrape off any excess chocolate. If there is not enough chocolate to cover the center. Add chocolate and scrape away excess. Tap the mold tray on the counter to eliminate air bubbles.

Place mold in freezer for 10 minutes, they should set quickly because the cake component is very cold. Un-mold and have fu decorating your little cake pucks!

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Before I started this new adventure, I joined this group on Facebook to see what others were doing and learn from their shared experiences. For the most part they use cake mixes for the “puck” component because home-made cakes can be overly moist. I decided to take that approach for my first time, as I was absolutely clueless about the whole thing. So I started from a boxed Duncan Hines Red Velvet, adapting the recipe as advised by the experts. Bake, let it cool, and crumble it. Mix with buttercream (I had some leftover from another project made with butter & cream cheese), add to the puck mold.

Then I used this set of molds from Bentycakes to make the pucks and later cover them with chocolate.

Once that part is done, marvel at how well they un-mold to reveal the smoothest little cake puck!

For the set covered with dark chocolate, I opted to decorate with Royal icing drizzle and molded fondant painted with luster powder gold + vodka.

Once you cut through, the little Oreo inside adds a lot of cute to the equation… and of course, a bit more contrast in texture.

The ones covered with white chocolate dyed pink, got a simpler decoration, just the white fondant sprayed with PME luster pearl.

That decoration also works well on a dark chocolate background…

Of course, the possibilities to make other types of cake pucks are endless, and I am just getting started. My next goal is to use warm cake crumbled without adding buttercream, as I heard it can work well, and of course opens the horizons to cakes made from scratch. Stay tuned for more “pucking” adventures!

ONE YEAR AGO: Rolled Buttercream

TWO YEARS AGO: Miso-Ginger Turkey Meatballs with Cabbage “Noodles”

THREE YEARS AGO: Smoked Shrimp Tacos with Roasted Jalapeño Salsa

FOUR YEARS AGO: Corn Fritters

FIVE YEARS AGO: Minnie Macarons

SIX YEARS AGO: Air-Fried Mexican Meatloaf

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Mimi’s Sticky Chicken, a Call from my Past

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Perfect Soy-Grilled Steak

NINE YEARS AGO: The Devil’s Bread

TEN YEARS AGO: Heart of Palm Salad Skewers

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Potluck Frittata and Lavoisier

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Home-made Corn Tortillas

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Peanut Sauce

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Brigadeiros: A Brazilian Party!

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Lemony Asparagus

16Jun2022

THE BEWITCHING KITCHEN TURNS 13!

Posted in Cake by sallybr

And this virtual spot is now officially a teenager! Thirteen years. One thousand, five hundred and forty-six posts published. Over twenty-nine thousand comments. But how do we measure all the joy I get from keeping this site alive? Impossible. For thirteen years I’ve been doing it with the exact same enthusiasm of the first week. I don’t think I could keep at it, if I was not fully in love with the whole process. To celebrate, I share a little entremet with mirror glaze, the kind of bake I adore, but with the limitations of the pandemics I’ve been unable to do. Since it was just the two of us, I went with individual portions, very small cakes with a combination of cherry, pistachio, and mascarpone. Plus the mandatory bling!

CHERRY AND PISTACHIO MINI-ENTREMET CAKE
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

for the cherry-pistachio centers:
20 g egg yolk
8 g caster sugar
3 g cornstarch
20 g milk
60 g whipping cream
10 g pistachio paste
4 Amarena cherries in syrup

Heat the oven to 200F (yes, very low temperature). In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the sugar and cornstarch. Put the milk, cream and pistachio paste in a saucepan and heat while whisking. As soon as it boils, pour it over the egg yolk mixture and whisk. Put one cherry in each of 4 holes of a small half-sphere mould (about 1 inch in diameter). Pour over the pistachio mixture. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the center is almost fully set. Cool to room temperature, then freeze for several hours to overnight, to be able to un-mold them.

for the sponge:
70 g icing sugar
70 g almond meal
100 g egg
10 g all-purpose flour
10 g pistachio paste
70g egg white
10g granulated sugar
melted white chocolate for brushing cake circles

Heat the oven to 375F. Using a KitchenAid mixer, whip together the icing sugar, almond meal and the eggs. The mixture should double in volume, so whip it for at least 8 minutes. Reserve.

Make a meringue, gently beating the egg white until soft peaks form. Increase the speed of the mixer and add the sugar, a little bit at a time. Beat until firm peaks form. Fold one-third of the meringue into the whipped egg mixture, followed by the flour. When the mixture is smooth, gently fold in the remaining meringue. Spread the mixture on a half-sheet pan covered with parchment paper, and smooth the surface with an off-set spatula. Bake for about 10 minutes, until dry to the touch. Dust a sheet of baking paper with a little powdered sugar and invert the baked sponge over it. Peel off the parchment paper that it baked on. Using two cookie cutters, cut out 4 discs that will fit inside the mold that will hold the dessert, and 4 discs that will fit inside the little mold used for the cherry inserts. Melt the white chocolate and apply a very thin coat over one side of the larger piece of sponge. Reserve.

for the mascarpone mousse:
6 g Platinum gelatin (3 sheets)
80 ml whipping cream
55 g egg yolks
80 g granulated sugar
160 g mascarpone cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla paste
320 g heavy cream

Bloom the gelatin in cold water for 10 minutes. Combine egg yolks with sugar, whisking well and set aside. In a saucepan, heat 80 ml of cream until it boils. Remove from heat, and slowly pour a bit of the hot liquid into the egg yolk mixture, to temper it gently. Add the rest of the cream and transfer all the mixture to a saucepan.

Over low heat, cook until 180 F stirring constantly. Remove from heat, drain the gelatin, and add to the mixture, stirring until completely dissolved. Let the mixture cool down to around 140 F. Add the mascarpone cheese, mix until the cheese is incorporated. Process with a hand mixer, to emulsify. Add the vanilla paste, and let it cool to around 95 F. Meanwhile, whip the 320 ml of cream to soft peaks. Incorporate the cream gradually to the mascarpone mixture.

ASSEMBLE THE DESSERTS. Place a small amount of mascarpone mousse inside each of 4 cavities of a semi-sphere silicone mold (3 to 3.2 inches in diameter). Drop the cherry insert inside. Place the small circle of sponge on top. Cover the cavity with mousse, leaving a little space on the top, so you can place the larger circle of sponge on top, with the chocolate painted side facing up. Smooth the surface, adding a little more mousse if needed. Freeze overnight, or for a minimum of 6 hours.

for mirror glaze:
3 sheets Platinum grade sheet gelatin
120ml water
150 g liquid glucose
150 g granulated or caster sugar
1 tsp agar-agar
100 g condensed milk
150 g white chocolate, chopped fairly small
½ tsp titanium oxide (optional, but advisable)
red and purple gel food coloring
Prism powder to sprinkle in the end (optional,I used Tourmaline Pink)

Put the water, sugar, liquid glucose and agar-agar in a small pan and bring to simmering point, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and let it stand for about 5 minutes. This is the base syrup for the glaze. Meanwhile, soak the gelatin in some cold water for about 5 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water and stir into the hot water, sugar and liquid glucose mixture to dissolve. Stir in the condensed milk and the titanium oxide.

Put the chocolate in a medium bowl and pour this hot mixture slowly over the chocolate, stirring gently to melt it, avoid making bubbles. Add the red food gel dye. A stick immersion blender works great, but you must keep the blades fully submerged at all times. If bubbles are present, pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

The ideal temperature to glaze is 92 to 94 F. Un-mold the cakes, immediately pour the mirror glaze over the frozen surface. Sprinkle with Prism powder or golden luster powder. Cake should sit in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I love making entremet cakes. They seem complicated but the nature of these cakes pretty much forces you to do everything in steps, over a period of a couple of days. No rushing is advisable, not even feasible. Just take your time and enjoy the ride. This version calls for a baked center. That part of the recipe came from a great cookbook, Patisserie at Home, from Melanie Dupuis. Once that is made (and it can sit in the freezer until you are ready to proceed with the recipe), it is all very straightforward. A sponge bake, some assembling, freezing everything and then my favorite step, mirror glazing!

I used two different ways to present the mini-cakes. In the first version the cake was placed on a small plate and little chocolate covered candy added around the base. A little gold leaf for a final touch on top.

The second version was a little less time-consuming, I just carefully added golden non-pareils around the edge, in a random pattern, and a little white pearl on top.

I imagine you are curious to see the cake cut… So here it is, the different components of this very tasty dessert…

I must say that of all the entremets I’ve made, this ranks very high in the deliciousness level. The cherry, when cooked to make the center, gets a very nice texture and the taste seems concentrated. Lovely. If you make mirror glazes, I want to point out that I add a touch of agar-agar to my recipe. That makes the layer cut more nicely, without slipping, as it is common with gelatin-only formulas. There is no change in taste.

Without further ado, I invite you to step with me
into the 14th year of my blogging adventure!

ONE YEAR AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen Turns 12!

TWO YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen turns 11!

THREE YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen Turns 10, and a Giveaway…

FOUR YEAR AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen turns 9!

FIVE YEAR AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen turns eight!

SIX YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen Turns Seven!

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Bewitching Kitchen Turns Six!

EIGHT YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen turns Five!

NINE YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen turns Four!

TEN YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen Turns Three!

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: The Bewitching Kitchen turns Two!

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Bewitching Birthday!

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Welcome to my blog!

5Dec2019

SANTA HAT MINI-MOUSSE CAKES

Posted in Cake by sallybr

In case you’ve missed my big announcement:
7 days to showtime!

I believe that once Thanksgiving is over, we are allowed to go deep into all sorts of end of the year festivities. Christmas included. Having said that, I am ready to share little mousse cakes I’ve been flirting with for a couple of years. As I stumbled on cute examples on Pinterest, Instagram, and food blogs, I kept telling myself I had to give them a go. My version pairs white chocolate mousse (plus a touch of yogurt) with raspberries. I had a lot of fun making them, and even more fun sharing with our colleagues from the department.

SANTA HAT MINI-MOUSSE CAKES
(adapted from several sources, main inspiration from Lilicakes)

For the sable base:
100g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla paste
150g unsalted butter
50g egg yolks
50g almond meal
250g all-purpose flour

Place the icing sugar, vanilla bean paste and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until there are no lumps of butter left. Add in the egg yolks and combine before adding the almond meal and plain flour. Continue beating until it just comes together. Remove the dough from the stand mixer and place on top of a silicone mat, press it gently in a rectangle shape.

Add a very small amount of flour on top of the dough, add a piece of parchment paper on top and roll it to 3mm thickness. Cut circles slightly bigger than the size of your dome cakes. Freeze for 10 min. Bake in a 350F oven for around 8 minutes, until you get a slight golden color on the edges. Let it cool completely on a rack. Can be prepared a couple of days in advance.

for the raspberry insert (make the day before assembling):
175g raspberry puree (I used frozen, processed and sieved)
15g maple syrup
3 sheets gelatin (Platinum grade)

Soak gelatin leaves in cold water for 10 min. Bring the raspberry puree and maple syrup to a gentle boil, remove from heat, let it stand for 5 min to cool down slightly. Add the drained gelatin and mix well. Place the mixture in semi-sphere molds appropriate to place in the center of your dome cakes. Freeze overnight or for at least 4 hours.

for the white chocolate mousse:
110 grams of cream cheese at room temperature
200 grams of Greek yogurt at room temperature
225 grams of white chocolate
6 grams of gelatin leaves
50 grams of milk
180 grams of whipping cream
1 T sugar

Hydrate the gelatin leaves in very cold water for 10 mon. Mix the cream cheese and yogurt with in a KitchenAid type mixer with a paddle attachment until homogeneous. Reserve. In a saucepan boil the milk and add the previously hydrated jelly leaves, mix and add to the yogurt-cream cheese mixture. Mix for a minute or so to disperse the gelatin through.

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave and add to the yogurt mixture. Reserve. Whip the cream until it gets the consistency of melted ice cream. Fold gently into the yogurt mixture.

Assemble the mini-cakes:
Place mousse in six semi-sphere molds, filling a little more than half its volume. Place the frozen raspberry jelly in the center, fill with mousse and level the top with an off-set spatula. Freeze overnight.

for the marshmallow decorations.
9g powdered gelatin (I used fish gelatin, 250 bloom)
50g very cold water
60g egg whites at room temperature
17g + 165g superfine sugar (divided)
50g water
35g glucose syrup or light corn syrup (light)
1 tsp Chambord (optional)

Bloom the gelatin in cold water for 10 min. It will form a thick paste.

Whisk the egg whites with 17 g of sugar until it foamy. Add the gelatin, whisk for another minute and turn the mixer off.

In a heavy saucepan, bring 50g of water, 165g sugar and glucose to a boil, making sure the sugar dissolves fully. Heat the mixture to 250F, when it gets to that point, turn the mixer on full speed and drizzle the hot syrup on it while whisking. Whisk at full speed for 3 minutes, add Chambord, continue whisking for 2 more minutes.

Add the marshmallow to a piping bag with an 8mm round tip. Pipe lines long enough to circle the diameter of your mold. Pipe little molds for the hats. Sprinkle dessicated coconut all over. Reserve at room temperature for about 3 hours.

For the mirror glaze:
3 sheets Platinum grade sheet gelatine
120ml water
150 g liquid glucose
150 g granulated or caster sugar
1 tsp agar-agar
100 g condensed milk
150 g white chocolate, chopped fairly small
red gel food coloring

Put the chocolate in a medium bowl and pour this hot mixture slowly over the chocolate, stirring gently to melt it, avoid making bubbles. A stick immersion blender works great, but you must keep the blades fully submerged at all times. If bubbles are present, pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

Leave the glaze uncovered for an hour at room temperature for the glaze to cooled and be slightly thickened: if it is too runny you will get too thin a layer on top, colors will not blend well and less glaze will cling to the sides of the cake. The ideal temperature to pour the glaze is 92 to 94 F.

Remove the cake from the freezer, place on a rack over a baking sheet. If you like to make it easier to save leftover glaze, cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap, so that you can lift it and pour easily into a container.

Glaze the cakes, place them over the reserve sable cookies and decorate with the marshmallow.

Defrost in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I know, I know, the recipe is a mile long. Let me focus on a couple of points about it. First, I am kicking rules to the side and confessing to you that I will never chill my sable dough before rolling it out. It is a bit on the soft side once it comes out of the mixer, but trust me, it will be fine. Place it gently over Silpat. Roll it under parchment paper to the thickness you need, in this case 3mm. If you have those plastic pastry rolling guides, now is the perfect time to use them. The more uniform the thickness, the better they will bake. Roll, cut and freeze. I actually made two batches of bases, one of them pistachio-based, but used the almond, lighter ones for this dessert.

One of the benefits of being in “that show”, is that I had to learn to work very fast and save time at every opportunity. I realized that as long as you protect the pastry dough either with plastic wrap or parchment paper (it truly depends on our goal, for pie crusts plastic wrap is the best way), it rolls pretty nicely as soon as mixed. Much better than cold dough does. Ten minutes in the freezer is all you need before baking. There, I saved you at least one hour of work!

Second point I want to make: I adore mirror glazes but don’t care for their texture. Colette Christian has a beautiful macaron cookbook in which she advises using a bit of agar together with gelatin for macaron fillings, particularly if they will sit at room temperature for a while. I immediately thought about incorporating that trick into mirror glazes. And I am thrilled to tell you that the texture got a lot better. I will play with it in the near future to optimize it, but if you also like the look of mirror glazes but would prefer a more sturdy texture, think of adding a bit of agar. The only thing is that it needs to be boiled, so add it together with the sugar/glucose mixture.

These cakes turned out exactly the way I wanted them to, the only tricky part was placing the decorations, as marshmallow is super sticky. Just work slowly and keep in mind that wherever it sticks first, that’s where it will be… Be careful with the positioning of the string in the beginning, so that the angle is right to wrap it around keeping it nicely on the same level all the way.

I cannot resist posting one more photo of the little Santa Hats, as the light bulb of my light stand made a cool effect on the mirror glaze…

The inclusion of agar-agar in the mirror glaze did a nice job improving the texture. Since my mousse cakes always sit in the fridge overnight before they are shared with our colleagues, the gelatin-based glaze suffers a bit. Whenever I slice them, there is some bleeding and sliding of the glaze. This time it behaved a lot better, so thank you Chef Colette!

I hope you consider making some Santa Hats for your holiday get-together. As usual, this type of dessert can be prepared over several days, with very little hands-on work each day. As for the molds I used, the large ones are here, the small ones here. I had a little leftover mousse, which I froze into a pretty cute Silikomart mold, and served over a sable base, with a little spray of white chocolate velvet.