Raspberry Passion-Fruit Mousse Cake

This cake can be made with any combination of fruit flavours. The only things you want to be careful about is that your fruits compliment each other, and that you choose a colour for your stencil paste that compliments the fruit flavours in your cake. So if you are going to make a
raspberry passion-fruit cake for instance, it doesn't matter how much of a Mets fan you are should probably do not want to have the sides of the cake be orange and blue.


Formula: yields one 8" cake
One half sheet pan (2#) Ribbon Sponge
One 7" disk (11 oz.) passion-fruit flavoured Gelée
34.88 oz. Raspberry mousse
4.5 oz. Passion fruit glaze
2 oz. White chocolate pate a glace

Tools: 8" charlotte ring, 8" and 9" cake card, genoise pan or 7" template, 9" acetate, spatula, pastry brush, offset spatula

MOP:
Prepare and bake your ribbon sponge. Cool completely.
Prepare your gelée and freeze to set up.

Use a template or the bottom of a genoise pan to cut a 7" circle out of your prepared ribbon sponge. Leave enough room so you can cut out two strips, about 2" wide. Use the side of your charlotte ring as a guide for cutting the strip, this is going to be the side of your cake and you want to be able to see a layer of mousse on the top of the cake.
Use your pastry brush or offset spatula and cover the bottom of your 7" circle generously with a layer of white chocolate pate a glace. Refrigerate this to harden the chocolate.


Place the 7" cake chocolate side down on an 8" cake card. Line your charlotte ring with acetate and place this on the cake card too. Use your two strips, decorative side facing the acetate, to make a wall for the cake. If the strips are too long, trim them so that there are no overlaps or holes in the walls. Set aside.

Prepare the raspberry mousse. Fill the mold half way with mousse.
Place the frozen gelée on top of the mousse. Fill the rest of the way with mousse. The mousse should go higher up, about 1/2 and inch, then the cake. Freeze to set up.

While the mousse is setting make your glaze. Cool the glaze slightly and pour over the mousse. This should firm up immediately. Freeze to set completely.

Joconde Sponge Cake, Ribbon Sponge

This is a very light and spongy cake with a decorative element to it. The cake, a Joconde sponge cake, is laid on top of a stencil paste making a Ribbon Sponge. The stencil paste is a just a thin cake layer of a decorative colour or design. Other names for a stencil paste include: tuile paste, hippen masse, tulipe paste, cigarette paste, etc.

Formula: yields enough to fill a half sheet pan
Joconde Sponge: yields 1# 1 oz.
    3.5 oz. (340%)  Powdered almonds
    3 oz. (300%)  Confectioners' sugar
    1 oz. (100%)  Cake flour
    4.75 oz. (480%)  Whole eggs
    3.25 oz. (320%)  Egg whites
    0.4 oz. (2.5t) (40%)  Sugar
    1.25 oz. (120%)  Butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
Stencil Paste:
    3.5 oz. Butter, melted
    3.5 oz. Confectioners' sugar
    3.5 oz. Egg whites
    3.8 oz.  Cake flour
    Food Colouring, as needed


Tools: Silpat, offset spatula, heat resistant spatula, level or flat half sheet pan, pastry comb
*These formulas are adapted from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 410-411


MOP:
The stencil paste takes at least 15 minutes to scale, so its a good idea to just scale out your ingredients for your stencil paste, and make your stencil paste first. Melt your butter and place in mixing bowl. Add sifted flour and powdered sugar into the bowl. Mix on low speed at first then increase to medium and fully incorporate (this is just like the one-stage cookie method). When incorporated, drizzle your egg whites in making sure to scrape down the bowl as it mixes. Using gloves, if your food colouring is messy, add colouring into the batter. Do not use yellow since the Joconde sponge is a pale yellow but since this is going to be on the outside of your cake do use a complimenting colour to the flavour of your cake filling.


Place your silpat on top of your half sheet pan. If you do not have a silpat you can use a heavily sprayed parchment paper. Spread the batter thinly on the silpat, you'll end up using maybe half of the batter. Smooth out the batter. Use either your finger, pastry comb, offset spatula and scrape off the batter with the tool you picked. Make sure you are scraping away all the way down to the silpat. Freeze until set, when the batter is set you should not be able to move the batter at all when touched.

Other techniques, from Gisslen, that you can use to decorate it:

• Comb with a plastic pastry comb to make stripes, zigzags, wavy lines (as pictured above), or other patterns
• Place a stencil on top of the silpat, spread with a thin layer of the paste, and remove the stencil
• Make an abstract finger-painted design by applying dabs of coloured stencil paste
• Use a palette knife to combine two colours, be careful you do not over-mix because you will just end up with one colour.

Start scaling your ingredients for you Joconde sponge.

Melt butter and let it cool to room temperature. Place sifted almonds, confectioners' sugar, and flour into a your mixer. On low speed add whole eggs in stages using your paddle attachment. Increase speed to high and continue mixing until the batter turns into a pale yellow colour. Transfer to a stainless steel bowl.

Clean mixing bowl throughly and whisk egg whites until foamy. Add sugar and continue whisking on high to a medium-firm peak.

Fold egg whites into egg yolks, fully incorporate both batters. Drizzle butter slowly along the sides of the bowl and fold in the mixture. If you can assist someone else then have them drizzle in the butter while you whisk (like with mayonnaise).

Make sure your stencil paste is set before pouring Joconde over the paste. Use your offset spatula to even out the batter. Use your fingers to clean the sides of the pan before baking.

Bake at 375°F in a convection oven, bake until it is slightly golden in colour. About 7-15 minutes.
In a deck oven bake at 400°F without a rack (10t-10s-6b)

Raspberry Mousse

This mousse is a simple curd + cream method. You can use any kind of fruit purée for this formula, just remember that if you are using a fruit that is very sweet (blood oranges, coconut, mango, blackberry) that you want to substitute 50% lemon juice for the purée. For acidic fruits like passion-fruit, you do not need to add any more acid into the purée.

Formula: yields 34.88 oz. (enough to fill one 8" cake)
3.75 oz. Raspberry purée
6.25 oz. Sugar
7.5 oz. Egg yolk
3.5 oz. Butter

13.75 oz. Heavy cream
0.13 oz. Gelatin (1 sheet)

Tools: stainless steel bowl, whisk, heat resistant spatula, saucepan, mixer


MOP:
In a saucepan heat purée and half of the sugar (aprox. 6.1oz) until the mixture boils. Stir so that the sugar and purée are combined, you do not need to stir it any more then this.

While the purée is heating up whisk your egg yolk and the rest of the sugar in a stainless steel bowl, stir to incorporate.

When the purée has boiled, temper half of the purée into the egg yolks, mix to combine and then return the mixture to the saucepan.

Stir, on low heat or off heat, until the mixture sets up to a thick custard state. When the mixture is thick, remove from heat and add butter slowly or in pieces into the mixture. Essentially you have just made a fruit curd.
Let the mixture cool, you can leave it covered with plastic touching the surface of the curd at room temperature.

Bloom your gelatin in cold water.


Whip heavy cream to a soft peak or a milkshake consistency.
Make sure you have your mold ready before you continue to the next step.
When the curd has cooled to room temperature fold the cream into the curd. Heat up your gelatin (without the water). You can dot this by microwaving the gelatin for a few seconds to melt it. Add the melted gelatin to the cold curd+cream mixture. Whisk to combine. Pour into mold. Chill to set before serving.

Fruit Glaze

The fruit glaze is a simple garnish or addition to a dessert. Because of the gelatin in this formula your glaze will set up very firm once it is chilled or once it comes into contact with a cool dessert.

Formula: yields 4.5 oz.
60g Purée
60g Simple Syrup
7g Gelatin (3 sheets)

MOP: Bloom gelatin in cold water. Heat fruit purée and simple syrup over saucepan until hot, simmering. Add gelatin, without water, and stir until the gelatin is fully dissolved. The mixture will still be very liquid, but if you touch it you will feel the gelatin on your fingers and will see that as soon as the mixture touches something cool it hardens right up.

Gelée

Gelée is French for jelly. This is a simple fruit jelly that can be used as an addition to a cake or a garnish to a desert.

This is what the frozen, set gelée
looks like

Formula: yields one 7" circle
6 5/8 oz. Purée
2 oz. Sugar
1/4 oz. Gelatin

MOP: Bloom gelatin in cold water. Over a saucepan heat purée and sugar until hot, stir in gelatin (without water). Stir until the sugar and gelatin are fully dissolved. Pour mixture into mold. Freeze to set.

For the Raspberry Passion-Fruit Mousse Cake in this portfolio we poured the gelée into a 7" genoise pan that is lined with plastic wrap.

Chocolate Mousse, Six Different Types

Mousses are basically a base + setting element + cream type of dessert. Probably the most popular is a chocolate mousse and here is six different ways of making chocolate mousse.


Simple Mousse
500 g Cream
250 g Dark chocolate*
*if you want to use milk chocolate or white chocolate increase to 275g.


MOP: Melt chocolate over a double boiler. While this is heating up whip cream in mixer on high speed to a low peak or milkshake stage. Whisk the chocolate into the cream, fold to incorporate. The mousse will be stiff enough so you can pipe it into souffle cups for presentation.


Taste: The simple mousse was exactly that. It did not have any complexity of flavour or texture to it. I think that because it is so easy and fast to make that this mousse does have benefits and might be a good choice if you are going to be using it as a filling for an elaborately rich dessert which can help mask the simple taste of this mousse.




Chocolate Mousse 1*: yields 2# 12 oz.
16 oz. (100%)  Dark chocolate
9 oz. (56%)  Butter
5 oz. (31%)  Egg yolks
12 oz. (75%)  Egg whites
2.5 oz. (16%)  Sugar
*This formula is from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 276


MOP: Melt chocolate over a double boiler. Remove from heat and add butter, stir until butter is fully mixed in. Add egg yolks in one at a time, mixing to incorporate with each addition. In mixer whisk egg whites until foamy, add sugar in a whip to a stiff peak. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture. Pour mousse into souffle cups, chill before serving.


Taste: This mousse had a very light, airy, and a little bit grainy taste to it. Did not have a complex taste but did have a lightness to it that tasted of a more quality mousse.




Chocolate Mousse 2*: yields 1# 4 oz.
1.5 oz. (25%)  Egg yolks
1.33 oz. (22%)  Fine granulated sugar
1 oz. (19%)  Water
6 oz. (100%)  Dark chocolate, 58%, melted
11 oz. (190%)  Heavy cream
*This formula is from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 277


MOP: Whip heavy cream to a soft peak, milkshake stage, set in refrigerator until you are ready to use. In your mixer whisk the egg yolks until pale. In a saucepan make a syrup with the sugar and water, boil to a soft ball stage (240°F). Slowly pour the syrup into the egg yolks and continue whisking until cool. By hand, fold the melted chocolate into the egg mixture fully incorporate. Temper the whipped cream into the egg and chocolate mixture, in thirds, fold to fully incorporate. Pour mousse into souffle cups, chill before serving.


Taste: This was richer than the simple mousse but still didn't't leave a lingering taste in the mouth. I think a mousse is a dessert that fits into the same taste category as wines and whiskies; you want to be wowed with a complex lingering taste on your palate.




Chocolate Mousse 3*: yields 1# 15 oz. 
10 oz.  Bittersweet chocolate
2.5 oz.  Water
3 oz.  Egg yolk (9 yolks)
4.5 oz.  Egg whites (9 whites)
2 oz.  Sugar
8 oz.  Heavy cream
*This formula is adapted from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 545


MOP: In a saucepan melt chocolate and water over low heat to 140°F, or until mixture is smooth. Beat in egg yolks and continue whisking until mixture thickens slightly. Remove mixture from heat and cool completely. Whip heavy cream to soft peak or milkshake stage, chill until ready to use. Using mixer whisk egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into cooled chocolate mixture. Fold whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Pour mousse into souffle cups, chill before serving.


Taste: This mousse had a deeper richer mousse taste, more like the quality you are used to getting with a super market mousse. This is probably due to the addition of egg whites to the egg yolks used in the previous recipe. When you add more ingredients to a mousse you can definitely taste the additional ingredients.

Chocolate Mousse 4*: yields 2# 12 oz.

16 oz.  Bittersweet chocolate (64%)

4 oz.  Butter

6 oz.  Egg yolks

8 oz.  Egg whites

2.5 oz.  Sugar

8 oz.  Heavy cream

*This formula is adapted from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 546

MOP: In a saucepan melt chocolate. Remove chocolate from heat and add butter in, stir until melted. Beat in egg yolks and continue whisking until mixture is incorporated. Set aside and let cool. Whip heavy cream to soft peak or milkshake stage, chill until ready to use. Using mixer whisk egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into cooled chocolate mixture. Fold whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Pour mousse into souffle cups, chill before serving.

Taste: This mousse tasted pretty much the same as mousse 3. The butter didn't add much of a complexity to the taste at all. But honestly I don't remember the taste of this mousse much.

Chocolate Mousse 5 (with gelatin)*: yields 2#  3 oz.

6g  Gelatin

50g  Sugar

50g  Water

10g  Glucose

80g  Egg yolks (4 yolks)

225g  Dark chocolate couverture, melted

500g  Heavy cream

180g Italian Meringue** 

         (100g sugar, 25g water, 50g egg whites)

*This formula is adapted from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 546

** Italian Meringue formula is on pg. 267. Technique is described in the link above.

MOP: Soften, or bloom gelatin in cold water. Whip heavy cream to soft peak, or milkshake stage and set aside in refrigerator to set up. Melt chocolate over a double broiler, set aside. Make Italian meringue, set aside.

In saucepan combine sugar, water, glucose and bring to a boil. While this is boiling whisk your egg yolks until thick and turns to a pale yellow colour. Slowly pour the syrup into the egg yolks, continue whisking until the mixture cools down. Fold melted chocolate into egg yolk-sugar mixture. Fold in whipped cream, incorporate both mixtures. Fold in Italian meringue, fully incorporate mixtures. Pour into molds and chill mousse until set.

Taste: This mousse was by far the superior mousse. The extra steps really did make the taste more complex, you tasted the cooked chocolate, you tasted the light meringue, you tasted the cream, and the best part was tasting them all together and also having them separate depending on what part of your palate the mousse landed on. The only thing was this mousse was a little strong for me. But definitely a mousse that could be served as a showcase product instead of a filling to a cake.

Banana Mousse Cake

This is a really nice, seemingly healthy dessert. It has a lot of different textures and layers that really work very nice together.


Formula:
1# 15 oz.  Banana mousse

Dacquoise,  7" circle and 8" circle

Pate a glace (melting chocolate)
16 oz. Chocolate meringue (you will have extra, but its good to have extra incase some are broken)

Tools: 8" charlotte ring, 8" and 9" cake card, 9" acetate, brush, spatula, chefs knife


MOP: assemble
Make dacquoise, pipe the batter into two circles one 7" and one 8". With the extra batter you can pipe cookies. Bake and let cool. Before the cake gets hard use a 8" charlotte ring to make sure your 8" cake is still 8". If it isn't cut the edges so that you have a 8" cake. Set aside and let cool completely.

Make Chocolate meringue and pipe into strips the size of the short end of a sheet pan. Pipe the strips/sticks at least a finger width apart. Get as many strips as you can out of the batter, as some of them will break when you assemble. If you have extra batter you can use the batter to pipe more cream puff shaped cookies. Bake and let cool completely.

Prep your cake before you make your banana mousse. Brush pate a glace over the bottom of your 8" dacquoise cake, make sure you are brushing the non textured side. Let the chocolate set up in a refrigerator or freezer. Flip the cake over on a 8" cake card so that the chocolate is on the bottom. Line a 8" charlotte ring with acetate and place this on the 8" cake card. Set aside.

Make your banana mousse. Fill the cake half way with banana mousse. Place the 7" dacquoise cake on top of the mousse, try to get it as center as possible. Fill the rest of the mold with the banana mousse. Even out the top of the mousse with a flat edge or an offset spatula, you can also jiggle the mold slightly to get it even. Chill the mousse until set.

While this is setting, when the chocolate meringue is finished baking and cooled; cut the chocolate meringue sticks down to approximately the height of your cake. All of the sticks do not have to be the same size but should not be too much taller then the cake.

When the mousse is set un-mold it, carefully. Take the acetate off. Start placing the chocolate meringue sticks around the mousse, sticking the sticks to the mousse so it stays in place. Continue this all the way around until the cake is completely covered. You can dust the top of the cake with cocoa powder if you desire.

Chocolate Meringue

This formula is also referred to as a common meringue or a french meringue. This can be used as a cookie dough, similar to the dacquoise cookies and to a macaroon. It also makes a lovely looking garnish, see the Banana Mousse Cake for an example of how to use it as a garnish.

Formula*:
4 oz Egg whites
4 oz Fine granulated sugar
4 oz Sifted confectioners sugar**
4 oz Cocoa powder

* this formula is from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 267
** can also use fine granulated sugar, depending on the application


MOP:
Whip egg whites in a mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk until eggs start to foam, add granulated sugar in slowly and continue whisking until a soft peak is reached, should look like marshmallows.
While this is mixing sift the cocoa and confectioners sugar. Set aside until egg whites are whipped up.

Turn down the mixer and add the confectioners sugar and cocoa powder in slowly. You can also fold this in with a spatula if you are making a small quantity like this. You do not want to over mix, or mix the cocoa in on high speed because you will loose some of the powder and the oils will start to break down the structure of the eggs.

Use your 802 tip and a large pipping bag and pipe sticks down the width of the pan. Leave about a fingers distance in between each stick.

Bake immediately, or as soon as possible so the meringues do not loose their shape. Bake for roughly an hour at 200°F or low temperature. You want to bake the chocolate meringue until it is hard and crispy.
Sometimes bakeries that close during the evening and have a night shift will turn the oven off at the end of the night and place the meringues in the oven to be cooked by the low carry over heat. When the night shift people arrive they will take the cookies out when they get there a few hours later.

Almond Dacquoise

A Dacquoise is similar in taste, texture, and ingredients to macaroons. They can also be pipped in cream puff shapes to make little cookies that make it much more similar to macaroons.

Formula*: yields 1# 2oz (enough for one 8" cake, one 7" cake, and roughly twenty cookies)
3.5 oz  Powdered almonds
4 oz  Sugar
1.5 oz Cake flour
5 oz  Egg whites**
4 oz  Sugar

Tools: bowl scraper or spatula, 804 tip, large piping bag, genoise pan or 7" and 8" circle template, 8" charlotte ring

* this formula is modified from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 349
** do not use frozen egg whites as they will not give you the same texture

MOP:
Prep your pan before you start. Using a 7" and 8" template draw two circles on a piece of parchment. Turn parchment over so you are not piping on top of the ink. If you have a parchment paper that is not coated with silicone then you will want to spray the pan, other wise do not spray. Set aside.

In mixing bowl whisk your egg whites until they start to foam up. Add (4oz) sugar and continue whisking until it reaches a firm peak. If your egg whites are not setting up then you can add cornstarch to assist the egg whites.

While this is whipping up sift your flours and the remaining sugar.

When the egg whites are set fold dry ingredients into egg whites (or you can fold egg whites into dry ingredients) with hands or with

a spatula. Fold until flour and egg whites are fully incorporated.

Using your 804 tip and your piping bag pipe paste down the corners of the parchment and then pipe a 8" circle and a 7" circle with the batter. This is the same technique we used for piping lady fingers for the bottom of the tiramisu cake. With your extra batter you can pipe cream puffs in the empty space of the sheet tray.

Bake at 300°F in a convection oven, you might want to turn down the

fan speed to provide more even baking for this delicate batter. If you are baking this in a deck oven bake at 350°F (10f-10t-6b) without a rack. Bake for 7-12 minutes or until it reaches a golden brown colour. When baking it should rise up and fall back down again, should be slightly crunchy when baked.

Take out and cool when baked. If you are using the dacquoise for a cake bottom make sure you cut out the bottom before it cools completely. Use a 8" template (like a charlotte ring) and make sure your 8" circle is still 8".

This cake/cookie can be made a few days ahead, wrapped, and filled for a cake a few (two or three) days later.

Banana Mousse

This is a pretty sweet and healthful mousse, if you want to consider a mousse to be healthful. The important thing to remember when using a fruit like banana in a mousse is that you want to food process the banana's even if they are over ripe. You want the texture of the fruit to be the most puree like possible for a uniform creamy texture. A mousse is a very similar technique to the technique used for a curd (lemon-curd-fruit-curd).

Formula*: yields 1# 15 oz pulp (enough to fill one 8" cake)
8g  Gelatin
310g  Banana pulp, fresh or frozen
25g  Lemon juice
35g  Sugar
420g  Heavy cream
*This formula is adapted from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 543


MOP:
Add lemon juice to banana pulp to preserve colour of bananas. If you do not do this your mousse will form a unappealing brownish colour.

Whip heavy cream to a soft peak, milkshake consistency. Refrigerate to help set up.
Bloom, or soften, gelatin in cold water. Set aside until you are ready to use.

Heat one-third of the banana pulp to 140°F in a sauce pan**. When the pulp reaches temperature turn off heat and add gelatin to pulp, before use squeeze water out of sheet gelatin. Stir in gelatin until it fully dissolves. Add sugar and stir in until it dissolves.

Add the heated mixture to the remaining cooled banana pulp. You can use a white rum in this recipe as well (25g), if you have this addition you would add it now as well. Continue to stir the mixture to cool to 75°F, you can also cool it by stirring it over an ice bath. This mixture will not thicken that much.

Fold whipped cream into banana mixture. Fully incorporate and fill molds. Chill to set.


**Banana's are acidic and when you heat them up they loose some of their taste due to the acid. You can omit this stage and do a cold infusion for this recipe if you desire. If you omit this step you will still need to heat up the gelatin before adding it to the mousse.

Gâteau St. Honoré

This is a really nice cake, light looking but with a lot of components to it that make it taste quite rich and balanced. It also incorporates a lot of different elements to build it so it is a nice practice of varying techniques.

Formula*: yields one 8" cake
20 oz. Blitz puff pastry
1# 8 oz. Pâte à Choux (you will have extra)
3# 4 oz. Pastry Cream**
10 oz. Whip cream
4 oz. Caramel

Tools: large piping bag, 804 tip, heat resistant spatula, whisk, docking tool or fork, brush, St. Honoré tip, sauce pan, mixer, stainless steel bowl, 8" cake card, 8" charlotte ring
*This formula is modified from Gisslen, Professional Baking Ed. 5, pg. 367
**Full recipe of pastry cream in Gisslen, Pg. 271


MOP: assembled
Make and cool Pâte à Choux. You want the Pâte à Choux to be at room temperature so you can pipe it. Make sure that you cover it with plastic, touching the paste, so that a crust does not form. Can be chilled or cooled at room temperature.

Dust your work table generously with bread flour. Roll out the puff pastry, turning often so that the butter does not stick to your table, to the 1/8" thick. Make sure that the pastry is rolled out large enough to fill a 8" ring. Use a docking tool (or a fork if you dont have a docking tool) to mark the pastry generously. With the docking tool roll horizontally and vertically. Let the pastry rest for a minute so it will better hold its shape.

Use the 8" Charlotte ring and press down, like a cookie cutter, in the docked puff pastry. Transfer your 8" puff pastry circle onto a parchment lined sheet pan.
Using your 804 tip and piping bag, pipe a thick circle of Pâte à Choux around the edge of the puff pastry circle, about 1" thick band. Pipe a smaller circle of Pâte à Choux creating a bulls-eye look on top of the Pâte à Choux.

With the remaining Pâte à Choux use your 804 tip and a piping bag, pipe small 3/4" cream puff (also called Profiterole) style bulbs with the Pâte à Choux. Make at least 14. With the extra Pâte à Choux pipe extra cream puffs or Éclairs.

Bake at 400°F in a convection oven until it has risen and turned golden, drop the temperature to 275°F and continue baking until it has a uniform golden colour and the cream puffs sound hollow when tapped.

Cool completely.

While this is cooling you can make your whip cream (8 oz. cream, 1.6 oz. sugar, dash of vanilla) Whisk it to a medium peak. Chill until you are ready to use.

Make pastry cream and cool to room temperature.

When puff pastry and cream puffs are cool place the puff pastry circle on top of a 8" cake card. Set aside.

Using the same technique for filling Éclairs fill the cream puff balls with pastry cream. Set aside any Éclairs you might have made and pipe them with any extra pastry cream after you've made the cake.

Make caramel, heat to a golden colour. When caramel is heated turn off heat but keep the saucepan on the burner so the caramel stays warm and liquid. Hold a cream puff from the bottom and dip in caramel, use the cream puff to "glue" the cake to the 8" cake card with the caramel. Set this cream puff aside, caramel side up to use as garnish.

Use this same method to place filled cream puffs around the cake. Place each bulb about 1" apart around the cake symmetrically. To do this, dip the cream puff in caramel and then dab the cake with caramel, carefully turn the cream puff over and glue down on the cake so that the caramel is facing up.


Pipe or fill the center of the cake generously with pastry cream, leaving a thicker amount in the middle to form a hill like shape. The pastry cream should be as high as the bottom of the cream puffs around the outside. If the extra pastry cream has stiffened up slightly use your spatula to smooth it out a little bit.

Using your St. Honoré tip with your piping bag piped a decorative
cursive "L" design down the top of the cake. Make sure the decorative part of the tip is facing up. The colder the whip cream the stiffer your lines are going to be.

Pipe a ridge between each cream puff, around the sides of the cake.

Place an extra caramel dipped cream puff in the center of the cake for garnish.

Blitz Puff Pastry

Blitz is German for lightning. This is a fast method of making puff pastry, although it does not give you as many layers as normal puff pastry it still achieves a light and airy and flakey product.

For puff pastry there are a few different methods of rolling it out:
Single Fold: You fold the rectangle in from both ends, making sure to dust off all flour.

Book Fold or Double Fold: You fold the ends in to the center, making sure to dust off all flour, and then fold the sheet in half once again. Forming a booklet shape.

Formula*: yields 2# 8 oz.
8 oz. Bread flour**
8 oz. Pastry flour
16 oz. Butter, chilled
0.25 oz. Salt
8 oz. Water, cold

*This formula is modified from Gisslen, Professional Baking Ed. 5, pg. 325
**You will need extra bread flour for dusting and rolling out pastry


MOP:
Sift both flours into a large mixing bowl, add salt and sugar.
Cut in or break up butter into small bits, about 1" across.
Add water, like you would for the well method for pie dough. Mix until it starts to come together, can turn out on table to knead into a solid form. Wrap in plastic wrap and press dough into a rectangle shape, no thicker then 1/2". Refrigerate, chill until the butter is cold and dough feels solid. At least 15 minutes.

Take pastry out of cooler and turn out on a well floured surface. Roll out to 1/4" thickness. Make sure to move the pastry around so that the butter does not stick to the table or rolling pin, this will break the structure that is forming. Dust off flour from pastry and fold the pastry using the book fold method. Make sure to dust off flour as your folding. Re wrap and refrigerate until butter is cold and dough feels solid. At least 15 minutes.

You will do two more folds to the pastry. Repeat the steps above but each time roll out in the opposite direction from the previous fold. I like to look at where the "spine" of the pastry was when I rolled it out last time, and have the spine facing you when you begin to roll it again. Helps you keep track of which direction you were rolling.

Refrigerate to set. You might need to make one more fold before you use it, depending on the application. For instance, for the Gâteau St. Honoré we used the puff pastry for the cake bottom and only rolled out the pastry 3 times total.

Éclairs and Cream Puffs

Formula: yields 1# 8 oz. (about 40 Éclairs)
1# 8 oz. Éclair paste (pâte à choux)
1 1/8 qt. Pastry cream
8 oz. Chocolate ganache

Tools: piping bag, 804 tip, parchment paper, spatula or bowl scraper, calm and patience

MOP:
Fold a parchment paper in fourths, length wise. Unfold and lay this as flat as you can on a sheet pan. Fill your large piping bag with Éclair paste and paste down the corners of your parchment. Using your 804 tip and a large piping bag (at least a size 14) pipe "fingers" diagonally leaving about 2" space between each finger. Use the same motion for Langue du Chat cookies or for individual lady fingers as you would for Éclairs. If you have a tail on your Éclairs wet your finger with water and press the tail in.
They should be the length of 1/4 of the pan, 3-4 inches, and should be about 3/4" wide. Pipe them diagonally and stagger the next row.


Bake at 400°F Convection until they turn golden. Drop the oven temp to 275°F and let bake until the bottoms and the tops are the same golden colour.

In a deck oven/conduction oven you want to bake it at 400-425°F and then drop it to 300°F. You want to set the deck oven at 6-10-10.

Let cool completely before filling.
When cooled. Turn the Éclairs over and poke two holes in the bottom. You can also poke holes on either end but you will not be covering the holes and for presentation it looks cleaner to have holes on the bottom where the customer can not see them easily. Make sure your pastry tip can fit snug in the hole.

Fill your pastry bag with pastry cream. Keep filling until you feel the cream come out the other end, or the end you are piping in from. If you feel the Éclair start to give, stop immediately and proceed to fill from the other end.
Refrigerate (this step is optional. It makes it easier to dip the Éclairs, and if you are not serving them immediately it will preserve the moisture in the product to glaze it before service).

When you are ready to serve the Éclairs, hold the bottoms and dip the top into ganache. You want to only have a thin strip down the

top, so you can still see the shape and all the sides of the Éclair. Wipe off any excess chocolate so nothing is dripping down, you can also use your finger to patch up any holes in the chocolate. Let the chocolate dry and serve.

Unfilled and uncut Éclairs can be held in the refrigerator for one week, can crisp up in the oven before use.



Cream Puffs:
Line sheet pan with parchment paper. Paste down ends if baking in a convection oven. Using an 804 tip, pipe dollar coin sized round mounds of dough, about 1 1/2" in diameter. To do this apply steady pressure until you reach the size mound that you intended, stop pressure and cut off in a quick circular motion to create the smallest tail possible. Wet your finger and press in any "tails" made from piping.

Bake at 400°F Convection until they turn golden. Drop the oven temp to 275°F and let bake until the bottoms and the tops are the same golden colour.

Pâte à Choux

This is sometimes also known as Éclair paste, essentially it is a dough that can be piped out to make cream puffs, éclairs, paris-brest, choux pastry latice, pralines, choux florentines, as well as mini versions of all of these. Because the levening agent for pâte à choux is steam (from the eggs, milk, water, and butter) it can be made up to an hour before you bake it.

Formula*: yields 1# 8 oz.  (about 40 Éclairs or 70 cream puffs)
8 oz Water**
4 oz Vegetable oil***
0.09 oz (1/2t)  Salt
0.09 oz (1/2t) Sugar, optional
6 oz. Bread Flour****
10 oz. Eggs*****

*This formula is from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 336
** can use milk, or half water half milk
*** cab use shortening or butter
**** Type of flour used can vary, but you want to use a flour with 11-12% protein. All purpose flours, or low protein bread flours are perfect for this. You can also mix bread flour and pastry or cake flour to achieve this protein percentage.
***** the amount of eggs you will use depends on how long your starch is cooked. You might not use all 10 oz. you might need to have another egg on hand. The amount needed depends on several factors including air humidity, flour percentage, flour humidity..

If you want to add a flavour into your Éclair shell then you can substitute a puree instead of water, or for a percentage of it.


MOP:
Heat water and oil in saucepan on high heat, whisk briefly to combine. Add salt and sugar, if you are using them, and wait until it boils.
When the liquids boil add flour, off of heat, whisk in carefully so you incorporate all the flour.  Bring it back to the heat. On high heat, use a wooden spoon and continuously stir the "ball" until a film is formed on the bottom of the pan. Move the ball around the pan and down so that the entire mixture is getting cooked. Be aware that the longer its cooked the more flavour will be extracted but the longer it cooks the more eggs you will need to hydrate the "ball".

When that film has formed transfer the "bread ball" to a mixing bowl. Start mixing it on a low speed. Add eggs in one by one. Make sure that you whisk the eggs together so that you are incorporating whole eggs. After you add the first egg you will see the mixture separate, when it comes back together around the paddle add your next egg. Watch the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed.

When you have added most of your eggs test the batter for doneness. You should be able to easily pull the batter between your thumb and first finger forming either an hour glass shape, or stalagtites and stalagmites. It should feel like a custard, a little firmer then a cake batter but not as thick as a cookie batter.

If you are not piping immediately wrap the pâte à choux with plastic, letting the plastic touch the top of the pâte à choux so a crust does not form. Can be stored up to an hour before piping.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

This is a cake that is not supposed to have a lot of rise to it. If you want the cake to be more moist and light bake in a water bath. If you want it do be a little more dense then it can be baked without a water bath, as we did in class.

Formula: yields one 10" cake
4 oz. Butter
8 oz. Chocolate nibs
3 oz. Sugar (this portion goes with the egg whites)
3 oz. Sugar (this portion goes with egg yolks)
1 oz. Cocoa
7 Eggs, separated
Can add salt or vanilla if you want to enhance the flavour, use vanilla if the chocolate that your using is a low quality.

Tools: saucepan, 10" genoise pan, parchment paper, pan spray, heat sensative spatula

MOP:
Heat chocolate and butter over double broiler (also called, ban marie) until melted.
While the chocolate is melting prep your cake pan. Place a parchment circle on the bottom of the pan, spray sides and bottom of the pan generously.

While chocolate is melting start mixing sugar and egg whites in mixer on high speed until it reaches a medium peak.

When the chocolate and butter is melted, do not over heat this mixture, add the egg yolks and sugar and cocoa powder. If the chocolate is too hot then you will cook the eggs.

Combine both mixtures, fold in with hands until batters are incorporated. Scrape down sides and pour into your cake mold.

Bake immediately. Bake at 350°F convection, for 20-30 minutes. The cake will soufflé up and then fall down and start to crack when its ready. Feel the cake for doneness, it will feel firm to the touch but not hard.

Cool upside down as soon as you take it out of the oven.

Cheesecake

Formula*: yields 2 - 8" cakes
2.5# Cream cheese, room temp
14 oz. Sugar
0.75 oz. Cornstarch
3.5 g. Lemon zest**, grated
0.25 oz. Vanilla extract
5 g. Salt (aprox. 1/2. tsp)
8 oz. Whole eggs
3 oz. Egg yolk***
4 oz. Heavy cream
2 oz. Milk
1/2 oz. Lemon Juice
6 oz. Graham cracker crumbs****
3 oz. Sugar
3 oz. Butter, melted

Tools: mixer, spring form pan (or cake pan lined with parchment paper), rubber spatula

*adapted from Gisslen, Professional Baking Ed. 5, pg. 528
**lemon zest will dry out if you do not combine it with something else.
***can combine with whole eggs
****adapted from Gisslen, Professional Baking Ed. 5, pg. 290


MOP: assembled
To make Graham cracker crust take crumbs, sugar, and melted butter and mix on low with paddle attachment until all the ingredients are fully combined and slightly moist. Press crumbs into the bottom of your springform pan. If you are using a cake pan make sure it is sprayed and that a parchment circle is sprayed on the bottom of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes in heated oven (temperature does not matter) or until the moisture in the crumbs has dried out and are hard. Set aside.

In mixer break down cream cheese with paddle attachment. Stop mixer to scrape down as necessary. You want the cream cheese to be soft and at a spreadable consistency. When softened add zest (and lemon juice) to cream cheese. Move mixer to slow speed and add in sugar. When sugar is incorporated increase to medium speed. Continue mixing to get out lumps. Stop mixer to scrape down bowl as necessary. Pour in eggs in stages. Mix until smooth. When mixture is smooth decrease to low speed and add cornstarch, milk, and cream.

If your mixture is still lumpy run it through a sieve. Pour into two pans. Can be baked in a water bath, but is not necessary. Water baths, for cheesecake, aides in browned tops and unbrowned sides.

Bake at 320°-325°F deck oven with settings 0-10-10 for 12-15 minutes, or until the center is not jiggling and the sides have separated slightly from the pan sides.

Cool the cake before refrigerating or freezing to set. Let set and chill before serving.