December was a month long delay in everything, but I'm starting to catch up. This is from Thanksgiving.
December was a month long delay in everything, but I'm starting to catch up. This is from Thanksgiving.
One of my favorite pastries, well, cakes, is Marjolaine. It is a type of dacquoise, which is meringue with ground up nuts in it. This link will give you a little background (the cake has history), as well as an image with the original recipe toward the bottom. http://hubpages.com/food/Restaurant-de-la-Pyramide-and-Their-Famous-Marjolaine-Cake
Anyway, thought I'd try and make a thanksgiving version, so, not a Marjolaine, because, by definition, it has to be that cake to be a Marjolaine. However, it's still a layered dacquoise, and inspired by, so, you know.
The original plan was to use pecans for anything requiring nuts, make a layer of pumpkin mousse, a layer of pecan praline buttercream, a layer of cranberry cream, and "frost" it with a pumpkin ganache.
No plan survives contact, etc. I saw what color the mousse was when made with pumpkin and not altered with some other coloring thing and immediately decided that would be extremely unappetizing as a frosting color. Ok, spiced white chocolate ganache, then.
It also appears that gelatin can, in fact, get old. Oops. This is why the mousse was useless as a structural element of the cake. It clumped right out of solution when chilled and even though I sieved out the clumps to make it palatable, that also meant you lost the reinforcement of the gelatin.
It seems there is at least one thing I don't like in a pumpkin spice form - mousse. It really tastes like fresh pumpkin and that somehow just doesn't work for me. Oh, well.
Praline - wow, is this easy to make. Toast nuts, heat sugar up to required temp (use thermometer), pour over on something non-stick (I used parchment), let cool.
It seems it isn't possible to make a stiff enough combo of curd and pastry cream that they are structural when combined. At least, not without more experimenting. Probably needs more solid at room temp fat, but it still needs to be edible. Cranberry curd, though, is delicious and highly recommended.
Sugared cranberries - wow, these are really tasty. I mean, I was really just doing it for looks, but it turns out they taste great. The recipes all say helpful things like soak in sugar syrup overnight, but they don't absorb it. Maybe you get a thicker layer on? Don't know, suspect it's not necessary. Used regular old sugar for coating, did twice, sparkles beautifully.
Traditionally, making meringue or dacquoise means making four separate pieces, piped out and baked. There were a number of places that suggested you could just do it as a sheet, so I tried it. I was a little bummed by how much volume it lost that way while baking, although it didn't significantly mess up the texture in the cake and the taste was fine.
I used Cluizel white chocolate because it made a big difference to have very high quality chocolate for this. I simmered whole spices in the cream for quite a while, then let them sit in it overnight, then reheated the cream and took the spices out before using it to make the ganache. This infused the flavors really well without being too much.
I chilled everything after making it, and every time I added a layer. This is definitely helpful.
It still came out really well, if richer than I'd like. The best parts were the praline buttercream, the ganache, and the sugared cranberries, but it was good as a whole. Glad I tried, probably rather make a real Marjolaine, though. Next time.
https://goo.gl/photos/8EyQmCsDeWQ2893J8
One of my favorite pastries, well, cakes, is Marjolaine. It is a type of dacquoise, which is meringue with ground up nuts in it. This link will give you a little background (the cake has history), as well as an image with the original recipe toward the bottom. http://hubpages.com/food/Restaurant-de-la-Pyramide-and-Their-Famous-Marjolaine-Cake
Anyway, thought I'd try and make a thanksgiving version, so, not a Marjolaine, because, by definition, it has to be that cake to be a Marjolaine. However, it's still a layered dacquoise, and inspired by, so, you know.
The original plan was to use pecans for anything requiring nuts, make a layer of pumpkin mousse, a layer of pecan praline buttercream, a layer of cranberry cream, and "frost" it with a pumpkin ganache.
No plan survives contact, etc. I saw what color the mousse was when made with pumpkin and not altered with some other coloring thing and immediately decided that would be extremely unappetizing as a frosting color. Ok, spiced white chocolate ganache, then.
It also appears that gelatin can, in fact, get old. Oops. This is why the mousse was useless as a structural element of the cake. It clumped right out of solution when chilled and even though I sieved out the clumps to make it palatable, that also meant you lost the reinforcement of the gelatin.
It seems there is at least one thing I don't like in a pumpkin spice form - mousse. It really tastes like fresh pumpkin and that somehow just doesn't work for me. Oh, well.
Praline - wow, is this easy to make. Toast nuts, heat sugar up to required temp (use thermometer), pour over on something non-stick (I used parchment), let cool.
It seems it isn't possible to make a stiff enough combo of curd and pastry cream that they are structural when combined. At least, not without more experimenting. Probably needs more solid at room temp fat, but it still needs to be edible. Cranberry curd, though, is delicious and highly recommended.
Sugared cranberries - wow, these are really tasty. I mean, I was really just doing it for looks, but it turns out they taste great. The recipes all say helpful things like soak in sugar syrup overnight, but they don't absorb it. Maybe you get a thicker layer on? Don't know, suspect it's not necessary. Used regular old sugar for coating, did twice, sparkles beautifully.
Traditionally, making meringue or dacquoise means making four separate pieces, piped out and baked. There were a number of places that suggested you could just do it as a sheet, so I tried it. I was a little bummed by how much volume it lost that way while baking, although it didn't significantly mess up the texture in the cake and the taste was fine.
I used Cluizel white chocolate because it made a big difference to have very high quality chocolate for this. I simmered whole spices in the cream for quite a while, then let them sit in it overnight, then reheated the cream and took the spices out before using it to make the ganache. This infused the flavors really well without being too much.
I chilled everything after making it, and every time I added a layer. This is definitely helpful.
It still came out really well, if richer than I'd like. The best parts were the praline buttercream, the ganache, and the sugared cranberries, but it was good as a whole. Glad I tried, probably rather make a real Marjolaine, though. Next time.
https://goo.gl/photos/8EyQmCsDeWQ2893J8
Argh, google, why you no use the pictures the way I arranged them?
ReplyDeleteBecause... reasons?
ReplyDelete(Seriously. I... think... it may be listing them alphabetically by filename or something? Whoever coded that aspect of Google Photos/G+ was asleep in database class when they were covering ordered lists...)
(Also, #extremezeyneping )
ReplyDelete