Well here we are at week #3 of the Nailed It or Failed It posts. And this cake, I’m inclined to say, Nailed It…Hmmmm…not so much… But not a total failure. This recipe is coming from the Bachour book that we will be using for the entire 52 weeks. If you are just catching up on our series, you can find the other weeks here. As I got down to the very last image for the comparison of final products, one could clearly see some of the errors of my ways. Somehow during plating, my cakes became supersized. Funny how we lose track of things when we are focused on other items. For this series, I don’t bring in assistants or any extra hands to help with the workload of these posts. All cooking, recipe modifications, plating, styling and photographing are done by me. So if something goes wrong in the cooking, by the time I get to the photographing, that is still fresh on my mind, and sometimes a distraction.
The original recipe in the book was entitled, Apple Valrhona Jivara Milk Chocolate Mousse Cake. Three pieces to this pastry. The Valrhona Jivara Milk Chocolate Mousse, the Almond Cake and the Apple Caramel Jelly. Simple in theory. Whip up all three pieces, stack and refrigerate. Well….
The apple caramel jelly was a butt kicker. A couple of things going on with this for me. One, I don’t like apple juice, and two, I’m not a big fan of apples either. But with a name like apple caramel jelly, I was hoping that the caramel would steal the show. Didn’t happen. So I scraped the Apple Caramel Jelly from Bachour and whipped up my own Caramel Apple Jelly. More caramel, less apples, makes Serena a happy gal.
The Chocolate Mousse and the Almond Cake are straight from the book, with modifications to serve smaller portions. And I’m also going to add in that if you have never tried the Valrhona Jivara Chocolate, you should. A delicious milk chocolate. One could easily substitute other chocolate for this recipe, but when a Chef like Antonio Bachour says to use Valrhona Jivara, I’m inclined to believe in his expertise and go with his suggestion. And he was right, delish.
Ingredients
- 17 oz sugar
- 1 1/4 cup apple juice
- 3 lb granny smith apples, peeled and diced small
- 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 3 sheets gelatin
- 5.25 oz heavy cream
- 2 large egg yolk
- 15 gram sugar
- 1 gelatin sheet
- 150 gram basic custard
- 245 gram Valrhona Jivara chocolate, chopped
- 225 gram heavy cream, whipped to medium peaks
- 95 gram almond paste
- 85 gram unsalted butter, softened
- 77.5 gram sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 1 1/2 large egg
- 63.5 gram cake flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 77.5 gram sour cream
Instructions
- Soak gelatin in ice water until softened; squeeze out excess water and set aside.
- In a large nonstick skillet slowly heat diced apples and 3/4 cup apple juice and the vanilla bean.
- In a small saucepan, slowly heat 10 oz sugar and 1/2 cup apple juice to reach a light amber color caramel. Should take 10-15 minutes. Once color reached add to the saucepan with apples and continue to cook on low heat until apples are soft.
- In a second small saucepan, add 7 oz sugar, and cook on medium heat until you achieve a dark brown caramel. Once color achieved, carefully add to the skillet. This will bubble and splash a lot. Keep stirring to incorporate.
- Stir in gelatin to dissolve.
- Bring heavy cream to a simmer in a medium sized pot.
- Whisk to combine egg yolks and sugar in a small bowl and slowly pour hot liquid to temper.
- Return mixture to pot and cook to 82-84°C.
- Soak gelatin in ice water until softened; squeeze out excess water and set aside.
- Stir gelatin into hot Basic Custard to dissolve.
- Pour mixture over chocolate and process with a hand blender until smooth.
- Cool before folding in whipped cream.
- Preheat oven to 325°
- Beat almond paste, butter, sugar and vanilla in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until smooth.
- Add eggs slowly, mixing between each addition.
- Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt together over egg mixture.
- Add sour cream and beat to combine.
- Pour onto a quarter sheet pan lined with parchment paper and spread evenly over surface.
- Bake 20 minutes until golden.
- Place almond cake in quarter sheet pan frame.
- Pour Caramel Apple Jelly evenly over cake. Transfer to freezer to set.
- Pour mousse on top of caramel apple jelly and spread evenly to coat. Set in freezer again before cutting into small rectangles.
- Garnish with freshly diced green apples, dulce de leche and a chocolate garnish before serving.
Pay attention to the assembly instructions on this recipe. You can see that the cake should be made first, then the caramel apple jelly. While this is setting in freezer, I then make the chocolate mousse. So go ahead and give this a try, we would love to see how it turns out for you.
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