My original blog is going strong, but I kind of neglected its English brother :( School starting for the first time for my older son really took a toll on our schedule and at the end of the day, if I found any time for my blog, the original was my priority. Now with the things finally settling down a bit, we have adjusted to all te new things and I hope to have at least a bit more time to work on this site as well. Remember my witchcraft from a few months ago? The magic vanilla squares are one of the more popular posts on my blog, so I wondered ... how do you make a recipe better? Of course, with chocolate :) Let's try!

For a 25 cm x 15 cm tray:

3 eggs

110 g granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean

100 g butter

90 g flour

35 g (bitter) cocoa

375 ml milk

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg whites into a meringue. Beat room temperature butter with the sugar and the vanilla so you get kind of a nice buttercream. This technique seemed to work better for me instead of melting the butter like in the vanilla recipe.

Add the egg yolks to the buttercream and whisk so that the mixture lightens to a light yellow colour and increases in size. Add flour and cocoa or even better sift it, if you see that it has lumps in it, which tends to happen with my preferred cocoa brand. Mix thoroughly, then add 1 quarter of the milk. Mix again and add another quarter of the milk. Repeat until all the milk is mixed into the batter. The batter will be quite runny, like pancake batter. But not the american kind, I mean like our kind, so I should say it should be like a more runny crepes batter. 

Add the meringues and gently mix, but mix it well. It is OK to if there a few smaller meringue pieces left, but otherwise the meringue should be well incorporated into the batter. You'll find this may be quite tricky, but its what makes magic later.

Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake at 160° C for approx 30 - 40 minutes. Around that time mark just carefully try to jiggle the pan and if the batter is still kind of jiggly, add another 10 minutes to the baking time.

Once baked, take the pan out of the oven and let the cake cool to room temperature. Once cooled, place it in the fridge for at least another hour.

Cut the cake into squares and carefully put them on a plate. If your bake was a success, you will see 3 distinct layers, each completely different. One really soft, one custard like and one like a fudge.

And the verdict? Don't get me wrong, this is delicious, but at the same time, it is also one of those rare instances, where I prefer the original vanilla recipe. So this time ... chocolate vs vanilla = 0 : 1.

chocolate magic simple squares triple layer

november 01, 2016

Recently I had a request to make the triple mousse cake again. Actually some time has passed from my first attempt and these blog posts are consecutive only because I had finally gotten around to editing this blog as well. My original Slovene blog was and still is my priority. Given that both my blogs are still small and kind of new, I was surprised and beyond happy to get a very specified request saying to please make the triple mousse cake with some flowers like on my Mother's day cake. Yeeeay I am always excited  to know that someone actually took time to look at my blog and that I actually have readers. 

It was meant as a birthday surprise for my husband's colleague's mother. I didn't want this nice older lady to struggle with the firmer brownie base, so instead I chose a softer option, baking a vanilla sponge I most often use for my cakes. I baked only one disc to serve as the base. If you remember I also regretted the raspberry mousse from the original recipe not being raspberry tasting enough. I substituted the raspberry layer with the one from my Entremet recipe, which proved to be the winning combination. The amounts are also adapted for the bigger sized cake as before. Just note that after making it I noticed that the dark mousse layer is a bit taller than the other two, so the amounts below are already reduced and should give you even layers.

For a 26 - 28 cm size cake:

Sponge

100 flour

100 g brown sugar

2 eggs

40 ml water

40 ml oil

1 vanilla bean

6 g baking powder

Separate egg yolks and egg whites and whisk the egg whites to make a stiff meringue. Whisk the yolks together with sugar and vanilla so that it lightens in colour and doubles in size. Add oil and water and mix. Add flour and baking powder and mix well. Lastly fold in the meringue. Bake at 175° C, until golden brown. It is best to check to see if the sponge is done with a toothpick and if it comes out with no crumbs, remove from oven and let cool.

Dark chocolate mousse:

170 g dark chocolate

280 ml cream

pinch of salt

4 g gelatin (1 and 1/4 tsp)

20 ml water (1 and 1/4  tbsp)

Chop the chocolate into pieces and heat it together with 120 ml of cream and salt in the microwave. Heat until almost boiling, leave it for a few minutes, then stir to melt the chocolate. Leave to cool to room temperature. Soak the gelatin in water and let it bloom. Whip up the remaining 160 ml of cream. Once the chocolate has cooled, melt the gelatin in the microwave and add it to the chocolate. Mix well and add the whipped cream. Put the brownie base on a serving plate and line it with baking paper or acetate and a cake ring. Pour the mousse on the brownie and let it cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. It needs to set at least that much that we can pour the next layer on without them mixing.

Raspberry mousse

250 g raspberries

100 g sugar

6 g gelatin (2 tsp)

60 ml water (4 tbsp)

30 ml lemon juice (2 tbsp)

1 egg white 

270 g cream

Mix the egg whites with 30 g sugar, heat over steam until the mixture is warm to touch, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whisk for 5 minutes or until the mix has cooled down to room temperature to get a firm Swiss Meringue. Blend the gelatin with 1 tbsp water and 1 tbsp lemon juice and let it bloom. Mix the raspberries with 3 tbsp of water and 1 tbsp of lemon juice and puree with a hand blender. Heat the puree just a bit, since this will make it a bit less thick and strain everything through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Add the remaining sugar and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. The sugar will make it somewhat thicker, then add gelatin and stir until it has dissolved. Cool the puree to room temperature and in the meantime whisk the cream to just a bit more than soft peaks. Add the raspberries to the Swiss meringue and fold it in until well mixed. Add the whipped cream and again fold it in. Pour over the at least partially set dark chocolate mousse.

Mousse bele čokolade

260 g white chocolate

360 ml cream

4 tbsp honey (60 g)
1 vanilla bean

pinch of salt
6 g gelatin (2 tsp)
30 ml water (2 tbsp)

Prepare the final mousse layer by chopping up white chocolate and mixing it with 120 ml cream, honey, vanilla and salt and melting it in the microwave. Repeat the step with gelatin and the remaining 240 ml of whipped cream as before with the dark chocolate mousse. Pour on top of the raspberry mousse. Leave in the fridge overnight.

brownie cake chocolate ganache mousse raspberries white chocolate

julij 28, 2016

If the oven is your addiction of choice, you bake for any occasion. Any excuse is good enough. Birthday, anniversary, holiday, moving party, your kid goes to school, your kid finishes school,  it's the weekend, basically anything. You must really fight the urge to bake for any menial occasion like it it is the biggest event of the year. A while ago I changed my job and before I left, I treated my soon to be former colleagues to some homemade deliciousness. That's a good enough reason right? To lessen the blow? Suuuuure. I've baked for way less important occasions, so a life milestone must qualify!

This dessert caught my eye as soon as I saw its photo on Pinterest. And let me tell you it turns out it is not just love at first sight, but also love at first taste. Like so good that when you take it out of the fridge, you know that you will not be putting any of the leftovers back again. Or if you bring it to work and you have to disappoint your dear husband that there is no more pieces left for his taste test. Better luck next time. Because with this one, there is sure to be a next time.

For a 16 cm sized cake (double for 26 cm sized cake):

Brownie base:

50 g flour

40 g bitter cocoa

2 g salt

2 g baking powder

60 g butter

100 g brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean

Chocolate mousse:

130 g dark chocolate

210 ml cream

pinch of salt

3 g gelatin (1 tsp)

15 ml water (1 tbsp)

Raspberry mousse:

130 g white chocolate

180 ml cream

pinch of salt

3 g gelatin (1 tsp)

15 ml water (1 tbsp)

red food colour

100 g raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Vanilla mousse:

130 g white chocolate

180 ml cream

2 tbsp honey (30 g)
1 vanilla bean

pinch of salt

3 g gelatin (1 tsp)

15 ml water (1 tbsp)

To decorate:

60 g dark chocolate

60 ml cream

60 g fresh raspberries 

Brownie base

Mix flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside. 

Cut the butter into smaller pieces, melt them on low heat and add sugar. Let the sugar dissolve, but don't let it boil. The sugar might not entirely dissolve, but that is ok, as long as at least most of it dissolves. Remove from heat and wait until it cools to room temperature, then add eggs and vanilla. 

Lastly add the dry ingredients. The batter will be very thick. 

Pour it in a greased and floured cake pan and bake at 180° C for approx. 25 minut or until the toothpick comes out dry or with only a few crumbs attached. 

This sponge will be really dense, actually it is not really a sponge, but really more like a mix between fudge and brownie. If you want a softer base, you should use another recipe.

Chocolate mousse 

Chop the chocolate into pieces and heat it together with 90 ml of cream and salt in the microwave. Heat until almost boiling, leave it for a few minutes, then stir to melt the chocolate. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Soak the gelatin in water and let it bloom. Whip up the remaining 120 ml of cream.  sladke smetane. Once the chocolate has cooled, melt the gelatin in the microwave and add it to the chocolate. Mix well and add the whipped cream.

Put the brownie base on a serving plate and line it with baking paper or acetate and a cake ring.

Pour the mousse on the brownie and let it cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. It needs to set at least that much that we can pour the next layer on without them mixing. 

Raspberry mousse

For the next layer puree 40 g of raspberries and use a fine mesh sieve to strain it to remove the seeds. Add 60 ml of cream together with a pinch of salt and heat it in a microwave the same as the dark chocolate mousse.

For visual effect you can add some red food colour because truthfully this will come out way more white than pink otherwise. I recommend gel food colours, which are highly concentrated, so use them just in small amounts. Repeat the step with gelatin and whipped cream as before with the previous mousse and pour it on the set chocolate mousse. Place whole raspberries into the raspberry mixture. If you want this to be more fruity, don't skimp on the raspberries, because I was hardly able to taste them in the mousse. The white chocolate is way to strong unfortunately (scroll to the bottom of the page for the solution).

Again let it cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. 

Vanilla mousse

Prepare the final mousse layer by chopping up white chocolate and mixing it with 60 ml cream, honey, vanilla and salt and melting it in the microwave.

Repeat the step with gelatin and whipped cream as before with the previous mousses and pour it on the set chocolate mousse. Don't be alarmed by the colour of the mix, it will be kind of brown-ish and unlike the one you see in the finished photos, but once the mousse sets, it will lighten up and be more of a off white colour. Leave in the fridge overnight.

Final decorating

Chop up the dark chocolate and melt it together with the cream and let it cool a bit. Take the mousse from the fridge, remove the baking paper/acetate and the ring and pour the ganache over the top. The ganache should really cool to be a bit thicker. You can see that I was a little too impatient and my ganache was more on the runny side, hence the rim of the mousse shows through. Some fresh raspberries on top, but that is just my preference. Decorate as you wish and enjoy!

Fell like this couldn't be any better? Think again and try my improved version of this dessert.

brownie cake chocolate ganache mousse raspberries white chocolate

julij 24, 2016

The other day I came across the term Entremet for the first time. Ever heard of it? Me neither. Because it was accompanied with a photo that makes your mouth water, I felt it was necessary to investigate this thing further. You will too if you read further. Come on, I dare you :)

Wikipedia helped me shed some light on this mystery: "For modern pastry chefs, an entremet is a multi-layered mousse-based cake with various complementary flavors and varying textural contrasts." Complicated? Sounds like it. A challenge? Definitively :)

There is no lack of recipes out there, so I decided to play the puzzle game and I mixed and I matched, taking a layer from one and then a layer from another, until this beauty was created in my head. But now for the execution. With so many layers it is all in the organisation, preparation of all the ingredients and planning all the steps. If you are a more visual person, you can also create a sketch.

Some parts can be made in advance and some even have to be made before and and allowed to settle. Time-wise this will take a couple of hours, but the easiest is to start in the evening and continue the next morning.

This will make a desert a size of a 20 x 20 cm square.

Raspberry jelly

125 g raspberries
20 g sugar
15 ml water
5 g gelatin (1.5 tsp)

Mix the water and the gelatin and let it bloom. Puree the raspberries, add sugar and heat on medium so that the sugar dissolves.

If you want a clear jelly, then pour the berries through a fine mesh sieve, but I don't mind the seeds, so I didn't bother with the sifting. Melt the gelatin in the microwave and add it to the raspberries. Mix thoroughly and pour into the same size mould as the finished cake will be.

Brownie base

50 g flour
40 g bitter cocoa
big pinch of salt
2 g baking powder
60 g butter
100 g brown sugar
1 egg
1 vanilla bean

I wanted a firm base so I used the same as with the triple mousse cake, which uses a dark chocolate cake base, which is like a combination between fudge and a cookie.

Mix flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside. Cut the butter into smaller pieces, melt them on low heat and add sugar. Let the sugar dissolve, but don't let it boil. The sugar might not entirely dissolve, but that is ok, as long as at least most of it dissolves. Remove from heat and wait until it cools to room temperature, then add eggs and vanilla. Lastly add the dry ingredients. The batter will be very thick. 

Pour it in a greased and floured cake pan and bake at 180° C for approx. 25 minut or until the toothpick comes out dry or with only a few crumbs attached. 

This as well can be made in advance, so I baked it in the evening, let it cool, wrapped it in cling film and just let it sit on the kitchen counter until the next morning.

Chocolate panna cota

270 g cream
90 g dark chocolate
pinch of salt
5 g granulated sugar (1 tsp)
5 g gelatin (1.5 tsp)
15 ml water (1 tbsp)

Add water to gelatin and let it bloom. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and try to make them even, so that they will melt at the same rate. Add salt and sugar; those who need to sweeten their lives just a bit more can add up to 10 - 15 g, but my life is sweet enough, so 5 g works just fine for me. Heat the cream up to boiling point and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for a couple of minutes, then stir to melt all the pieces. If you're not successful and you have some chocolate pieces left, zap the mixture in a microwave, but only in small increments and stir after each time, until all the chocolate has melted. If you want to save yourself the trouble of cleaning more bowls than you want, which I am sure is welcome with this dessert, given the number of layers you'll be making anyway, you can mix the cream with the chocolate from the get go and just heat everything in the microwave until hot.

Melt the gelatin and stir it in with the melted chocolate and cream.

Leave the mixture in the fridge, not to set, but just to thicken a bit. This should take approximately 20 - 30 minut, but check it from time to time, because your fridge may be set differently than mine. If you just pour the mixture on the cake base, it might soak up too much of it and you would end up with a really soggy base. While this is setting, you can prepare the chocolate Genoise.

Chocolate Genoise 

You won't need any leavening agents for this cake to rise. The eggs and the method of preparation are the key to this delicate sponge. 

1 egg
1 egg yolk (save the egg white for later)
pinch of salt
50 g sugar
20 g flour
10 g cocoa

Put the whole egg and the egg yolk together with salt and sugar into a heat proof bowl and place the bowl over a pot of boiling water. Continuously stir until the mixture heats up to 38° C. If you do not have a kitchen termometer on hand, you can kind of guesstimate with touch; the mixture will be between luke warm and warm.

Remove from heat and whisk until it has tripled in size and has become really pale.

Mix cocoa and flour in a separate bowl, sift it if necessary and add it to the whisked eggs one third at a time, gently (!) folding it in.

Cover the oven tray with baking paper and spread out the batter evenly on the tray. The batter should be the size of te finished cake or even better a bit bigger, since the edges usually become a bit hard.

Heat the oven to 200° C and bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Let it cool, remove from paper and trim the edges so that the sponge fits into the cake mould.

Start assembly

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp rum

While the Genoise is cooling, put the brownie base on the bottom of the cake pan, ring or mould, whichever you are using and line the sides with acetate. Mix milk and rum together and lightly brush the base with this mixture. The Panna cota must have cooled and thickened by now, so pour it over the brownie base and put everything in the fridge to set a bit more. Then put the cooled Genoise sponge over the panna cata and again return to the fridge. 

Hazelnut ganache

100 ml cream
100 g dark chocolate
50 g hazelnut croquant (crushed caramelised hazelnuts)

Shop the chocolate into even pieces and pour over boiling hot cream. Let it sit for a bit, then stir until the chocolate has melted (or just heat both together in a microwave). Add the croquant, stir and spread over the Genoise sponge.

Raspberry mousse

250 g raspberries
100 g sugar
6 g gelatin (2 tsp)
60 ml water (4 tbsp)
30 ml lemon juice (2 tbsp)
1 egg white (saved from the Genoise)
270 g cream

Mix the egg whites with 30 g sugar, heat over steam until the mixture is warm to touch, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whisk for 5 minutes or until the mix has cooled down to room temperature to get a firm Swiss Meringue.

Blend the gelatin with 1 tbsp water and 1 tbsp lemon juice and let it bloom.

Mix the raspberries with 3 tbsp of water and 1 tbsp of lemon juice and puree with a hand blender. Heat the puree just a bit, since this will make it a bit less thick and strain everything through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds.

Add the remaining sugar and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. The sugar will make it somewhat thicker, then add gelatin and stir until it has dissolved.

Cool the puree to room temperature and in the meantime whisk the cream to just a bit more than soft peaks. Add the raspberries to the Swiss meringue and fold it in until well mixed.

Add the whipped cream and again fold it in.

Continue assembly

Pour half of the raspberry mousse over the hazelnut ganache and let it set in the fridge. Keep the other half of the mousse at room temperature in the meantime. Once the mousse has set enough that you can touch it and not dip your finger, place the raspberry jelly on the mousse. Pour the remaining mousse over the jelly and let completely set in the fridge.

White chocolate mirror glaze

40 ml cream
18 ml water
7 g corn syrup
60 g white chocolate
2 g gelatin (1/2 tsp)
6 g oil

Mix gelatin with water and let it bloom. Mix cream, water and corn syrup in a pan and heat it until boiling. Chop up the chocolate, melt it in the microwave and mix with the cream. Melt the gelatin as well and blend in with the rest. Lastly add the oil. Pour over the dessert and let it set in the fridge.

The End. Whoaaaaa that took a while :) But believe me, it will be worth it. 

Remove the mould/ring and acetate and cut into pieces. I did 8 pieces,but frankly they were a bit big now that I think about it and aesthetically I think 10 long pieces would have worked better or you could do 16 smaller squares (each about 5 x 5 cm)

Decorate according to your current inspiration and enjoy because this is what heaven must taste like ! 

chocolate entremet mousse raspberries

julij 23, 2016