Pencil and Fork

A little while ago, I joined the Daring Bakers, and January marked my first Daring Bakers challenge. It turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever made.

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

If you’ve never heard of some of the words in the paragraph above, you’re not alone. When I first read the instructions for this challenge I was intimidated to say the least. The biscuit joconde imprime is a fancy French sponge made from two separate parts that  make a design that’s visible on the outside of the finished cake. the sponge, which forms only the outer layer of the cake, is filled with the ”entremet”. If this doesn’t make much sense, hopefully the pictures will enlighten! The challenge provided a recipe for the joconde imprime, but we had to make the entremet up ourselves. I decided on a chocolate hazelnut brownie base, with chocolate nutella cream, topped with chai tea flavoured Chantilly cream. I had no idea if this would work, but it did!

I started by making the joconde-décor paste. this can be made with food colour if you want to use colour in your design, but I chose to make it with cocoa. I spread the paste onto a silicon baking sheet, on the back of a swiss-roll tin.

I then used the end of a spatula to make a design in the paste.

I then put the décor-paste in the freezer to get hard. While it was setting, I made the joconde sponge using almond flour.

I then spread the joconde sponge mixture over the décor-paste.

The joconde sponge was then baked for about 5 minutes. The edges got a bit crispy, but they were trimmed off.

I turned the joconde sponge out onto some baking parchment dusted with icing sugar. This is the moment you can see whether or not the design has worked.

I needed to line a springform cake tin with pieces of the joconde sponge, so I cut it into sections.

I lined my springform cake tin with baking parchment and wrapped it in cling film. I then lined the tine with strips of joconde sponge. the sponge is surprisingly flexible. The fancy design goes on the outside.

I decided to make a brownie base for the entremet. I made a large dark chocolate hazelnut brownie (the trimmings made regular brownies). I cut out a circle from the brownie and placed it in the springform tin.

For the entremet filling, I made a nutella cream. I used a recipe in French for crème au chocolat au nutella. Not sure I got it 100% right, but it worked out ok! I brought some double cream to the boil and added nutella. I melted some dark chocolate in a bain marie and meanwhile, whisked up some egg yolks and sugar.

I poured the melted chocolate into the yolks.

After mixing, I added this to the nutella/cream and heated it for 10 minutes.

Once cooled, I poured the nutella cream into the joconde mold and out the whole lot in the freezer, hoping it would set.

The next day, to my delight, it had set.

I released the springform tin and unmolded the joconde.

As you can see, there wasn’t quite enough nutella cream to reach the top of the joconde sponge. I’m actually quite pleased because the way the top set, it ended up looking a little strange, so I was quite happy to cover it up. I covered the top with Chantilly cream, flavoured with chai tea.

Cutting it open revealed the layers:

Joconde décor paste

• 7oz/ 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 7oz/ 200g icing (confectioners’) sugar
• 7 large egg whites
• 6 oz/ 120g cake flour
• 2 oz/ 60 g cocoa powder

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand). Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously. Fold in sifted flour and cocoa.

Joconde sponge

• 3oz/ 85g almond flour/meal
• 2⅔ oz/ 75g icing (confectioners’) sugar
• 1 oz/ 25g cake flour
• 3 large eggs
• 3 large egg whites
• ⅓ oz/ 10g white granulated sugar or caster (superfine) sugar
• 2 tablespoons/ 30 ml/ 1oz / 30g unsalted butter, melted

In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later. Sift almond flour, icing sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl). On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light. (If using a stand mixer use blade attachment. If hand held a whisk attachment is fine, or by hand.) Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix. Fold in melted butter.

Nutella Cream Entremet

• 200 g dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp nutella
• 400 ml double (heavy) cream
• 100 g caster (superfine) sugar
• 3 egg yolks

Heat the cream in a pan until it just begins to boil. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the nutella. Cover and leave to let the nutella melt. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie, and let it cool. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar and add the melted chocolate. Pour in the nutella cream mixture and stir it all together. Heat the whole lot for ten minutes, without letting it boil.