In the CopyKat series, I will try different recipes I've sourced online, one food at a time.
It's taken me about a decade, but I've finally caught the addiction to The Great British Bake-Off. So naturally, I had to find recipes that I thought would challenge my culinary skills.
I mention in my About Me that cooking and baking is purely a hobby for me. My cooking skills were either taught to me by my dad as a young kid, learned in my part time work study job in college, or (for the most part), I learned by reading cookbooks / online, watching YouTube, and actually DOING. So I was really inspired by the culinary techniques and finesse that Britain's amateur bakers exhibited in the shows. Like many bakers, I assume, the most daunting type of baking for me is creating patisserie. And apart from dabbling at creating macarons time and again, I dared not try making patisserie... until now.
In GBBO, I was always most impressed by (and curious of) the entremet desserts. At its core, an entremet is a cake made of multiple layers of different components that usually had different textures, all encased in a glaze. I tried two different routes for testing entremet recipes: one recipe that told me how to make and time three different components, and combining different recipes to make one entremet. Here's how they went.
Here's the final product for the first entremet recipe I followed from Sugar Geek Recipes. They also have a YouTube video to accompany the instructions which I thought was super useful! A couple of modifications I made to the recipe:
I didn't have any glucose or corn syrup so I substituted with honey, as suggested. While it still tasted good, I think using honey definitely changed the flavor profile and if you're after a more decadent entremet, definitely stick to glucose or corn syrup!
I used dark chocolate cocoa powder for all parts of the recipe that called for cocoa powder - this was personal preference as I've always enjoyed dark chocolate more.
Since I used dark chocolate cocoa powder, I adjusted the ganache to be more milk chocolate than dark chocolate to balance out the flavors.
The molds I have are 4 1/2" rectangles so I had to be a bit creative in setting the entremets. I baked the cake as a sheet like suggested, but instead of using cake cutters, I measured and cut blocks that were about 1/2" smaller on each side. I also did a variation on decorating as I did not want to get gold leaf (lol). I also tried the sprinkles situation, but did not do a good job as you'll see in the pictures.
Overall, this was a FANTASTIC recipe to follow as it detailed every part of the process. The video also helped understand the instructions better. You do need a lot of setting time (the first time I attempted to pull it out of the mold, it was only about two hours after putting in the fridge). But it really needed at least four hours - so the mousse ended up melty and therefore the glaze highlighted all the ugly shaping created from the melting. These pictures were from the second, better attempt at pulling the cakes out of the mold, after it had set for about 18 hours.
I was pretty pleased with the overall look! I even managed to get some layers, despite the haphazard way I put on the ganache. And that mirror glaze!
After the first attempt, I was ready to make more entremets! This time, I wanted to see if I could come up with my own combination of flavors and come up with a good result. I set my sights on this combo: vanilla, raspberry, and lemon. I envisioned a white cake, lemon curd, and raspberry mousse encased in a white chocolate glaze.
I modified my own lemon curd recipe, used this recipe from Maya's Kitchen Daydreams for the cake, this recipe from Dessert Now, Dinner Later for the raspberry mousse, and this recipe from Chef Iso for the white chocolate glaze.
As with the first recipe, I made a couple of modifications to the recipes including my own:
Since writing the lemon curd recipe, I've found that rather than cooking it on a double broiler, it is much quicker to place the mixture directly on a medium saucepan and place over low-medium heat until the curd thickens.
For the sponge, I used a baking sheet instead of 4-inch pans, and like the chocolate entremet, I measured and cut the cake to fit my molds.
I cooked all the components a day ahead and refrigerated until I was ready to assemble. I first made "sandwiches" out of two slices of cake and lemon curd - as I was envisioning more layers in this entremet than the one I tried first. After setting in the freezer for about two hours, I placed them on the molds and surrounded with mousse and set again for about 12 hours. I glazed as the last step, as always.
The flavor combinations were pretty good! My one niggle is that the white chocolate glaze was far too jelly-like. If I use it again in the future, I would probably cut the amount of gelatin in half. This flavor combination was far less decadent than the chocolate one and perfect for summer!
Overall, I was pretty pleased with how my first two attempts at entremets turned out. How'd I do?! Would love to hear below if you've tried making these before!