Biscuit Joconde Imprime/ Entremet (Daring Bakers' Challenge: Jan '11)

Back to blogging after two long months! Brother's wedding preps kept me away too long. In the end, though, it was smooth, beautiful and totally worth it. And now I'm back! With renewed vigour and the January 2011 Daring Bakers' Challenge. I had a great time executing it, though it wasn't easy by any means. A big thank you to Astheroshe for making me do something, I didn't think I had the capability of doing. It's nowhere close to perfection, but I know I've tried my best.

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.

A Joconde Imprime (french baking term) is a decorative design baked into a light sponge cake providing an elegant finish to desserts/torts/entremets formed in ring molds.

Entremets(French baking term) - an ornate dessert with many layers of cake and pastry creams in a mold, usually served cold.

The challenge let us decide on our own fillings for the entremet. Anythin from a cheesecake, bavarian creams, mousses, jams, cookie bases, more cake, nuts, gelee etc.

I was sure I wanted to do this with berries. Strawberries, being in season, were the obvious choice. So I decided to do a light strawberry mousse and some strawberry flavoured chocolate ganache for the entremet filling. Asssembling the joconde, mousse and ganache turned out a little more complicated than I thought it would. My entremet doesnt look very neat, but for a novice I think it's turned out well. Definitely worth a try, jus do so with time on hand. Following are the recipes for the Joconde Decor Paste, Joconde Sponge, Chocolate Ganache (adapted from David Lebovitz) and Strawberry Mousse (adapted from Academia Barilla) 

Biscuit Joconde Imprime/Entremet

Equipment Required:

Silpat

1/2 baking sheets

Mixer

Bowls

Knives

Offset Spatula

Regular spatula

Pastry comb

Rulers

Springform Pan/ torte/ entremets mold/ trifle dish (for larger desserts)

Biscuit cutter/ ring mold/ cut pvc pipe (for individual desserts)

Clingwrap

Parchment paper

Gel, paste or liquid food colouring

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste

YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan

Ingredients

14 tablespoons/ 210ml/ 7oz/ 200g unsalted butter, softened

1½ cups plus1½ tablespoons/ 385ml/ 7oz/ 200g Confectioners' (icing) sugar

7 large egg whites - about 7 oz / 200g

1¾ cup/ 420ml/ 7¾ oz/ 220g cake flour

Food coloring gel, paste or liquid

COCOA Décor Paste Variation: Reduce cake flour to 6 oz / 170g. Add 2 oz/ 60 g cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture.

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand)
2. Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.
3. Fold in sifted flour.
4. Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation.

Joconde Sponge

YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan

Ingredients:

¾ cup/ 180 ml/ 3oz/ 85g almond flour/meal - *You can also use hazelnut flour. 

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/ 150 ml/ 2⅔ oz/ 75g confectioners' (icing) sugar

¼ cup/ 60 ml/ 1 oz/ 25g cake flour 

3 large eggs - about 5⅓ oz/ 150g

3 large egg whites - about 3 oz/ 90g

2½ teaspoons/ 12½ ml/ ⅓ oz/ 10g white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar

2 tablespoons/ 30 ml/ 1oz / 30g unsalted butter, melted

Method:

1. 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.
2. Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)
3. On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light.
4. 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.
5. Fold in melted butter.

Preparing the Joconde- How to make the pattern:

1. Spread a thin even layer of décor paste approximately 1/4 inch (5 millimeter) thick onto silicone baking mat with a spatula, or flat knife. Place mat on an upside down baking sheet. The upside down sheet makes spreading easier with no lip from the pan.
2. Pattern the décor paste – Here is where you can be creative. Make horizontal /vertical lines (you can use a knife, spatula, cake/pastry comb). Squiggles with your fingers, zig zags, wood grains. Be creative whatever you have at home to make a design can be used. OR use a piping bag. Pipe letters, or polka dots, or a piped design. If you do not have a piping bag. Fill a ziplock bag and snip off corner for a homemade version of one. I used a piping bag to pipe out a checkered design for my joconde.
3. Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard. Approx 15 minutes.
4. Remove from freezer. Quickly pour the joconde sponge batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern of the decor paste.
5. Bake at 475 deg. F/250 deg. C until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed. It takes anywhere from 10-15 minutes to bake.
6. Cool. Do not leave it too long, or it gets difficult to remove from the mat.
7. Flip cooled cake on to a powdered sugared parchment paper. Remove silpat. Cake should be right side up with pattern showing.

Strawberry Mousse (adapted from Academia Barilla)

Ingredients:

500 g fresh strawberries

750 ml whipping cream

1 1/2 tbsp gelatin powder/ 1 oz gelatin sheet, bloomed

90 g confectioner's sugar

Method:

1. After cleaning and slicing the strawberries, place them in a blender and puree. Meanwhile, prepare the gelatin using a bowl of warm water and food gelatin (approx 1 oz of gelatin for 1.3 pounds of warm water).
2. While the gelatin soaks, heat 1/3 of the strawberry puree over medium heat. When it begins to simmer, add the gelatin. Allow it to completely melt and then add the rest of the puree.
3. When the strawberry mixture is done, allow it to cool down, Whip the cream and then mix it with the puree. Refrigerate for atleast a day.

Chocolate Ganache -Strawberry flavoured (adapted from David Lebovitz) 

Ingredients:

200 g chocolate (bitter, semi, sweet, white, anything you want)

1 1/2 tbsp honey/glucose syrup

10 g cream

40 g butter, unsalted

4 tbsp strawberry puree

Method:

1. Combine the honey, cream and strawberry puree in a pan and heat until it simmers.
2. Add this to the bowl of chocolate and mix till chocolate melts.
3. Once the chocolate melts, add in the butter and let that melt on it's own too. Adding the butter gives a nice sheen to the chocolate, making it look more sinful.
4. Leave in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to cool.
5. You can pass the puree through a strainer if you're looking at a smooth puree to merge into the chocolate. I didn't bother. The seed interruptions made it tastier.  

Preparing the mold:

Start with a large piece of parchment paper laid on a very flat baking sheet. Then a large piece of cling wrap over the parchment paper. Place a spring form pan ring, with the base removed, over the cling wrap and pull the cling wrap tightly up on the outside of the mold. Line the inside of the ring with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping top edge by ½ inch. CUT the parchment paper to the TOP OF THE MOLD. It will be easier to smooth the top of the cake.

Preparing the Joconde for molding:

1. Trim the cake of any dark crispy edges. You should have a nice rectangle shape.
2. Decide how thick you want your “Joconde wrapper”. Traditionally, it is ½ the height of your mold. This is done so more layers of the plated dessert can be shown. However, you can make it the full height.
3. Once your height is measured, then you can cut the cake into equal strips, of height and length. (Use a very sharp paring knife and ruler.)
4. Make sure your strips are cut cleanly and ends are cut perfectly straight. Press the cake strips inside of the mold, decorative side facing out. Once wrapped inside the mold, overlap your ends slightly. You want your Joconde to fit very tightly pressed up to the sides of the mold. Then gently push and press the ends to meet together to make a seamless cake. The cake is very flexible so you can push it into place. You can use more than one piece to “wrap “your mold, if one cut piece is not long enough.
5. The mold is done, and ready to fill.
6. Fill up with your choice of filling and leave to cool in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before removing the springform pan and serving.

Enjoy!!