Week 3 of the Nailed It or Failed it posts features a Caramel Apple Chocolate Mousse Cake. I hesitate to fully say I "Nailed” this recipe, but it wasn’t a total failure. This recipe is based on the Apple Valrhona Jivara Milk Chocolate Mousse Cake from the“Bachour”cookbook. You can find the other Nailed It posts here.
This is a multi step recipe that is great for a baking day with lots of time to kill. This recipe is challenging, but is perfect for winding down and getting into the baking zone. You get out of baking what you put in. With time and practice even the most complicated recipes get easier!
Caramel Apple Chocolate Mousse Cake
The original recipe in the Bachour book was entitled, Apple Valrhona Jivara Milk Chocolate Mousse Cake. There are three pieces to this pastry: Valrhona Jivara Milk Chocolate Mousse, Almond Cake and the Apple Caramel Jelly. It’s simple in theory. Whip up all three pieces, stack and refrigerate. Cake is done! However, this recipe presented more of a challenge than I anticipated.
Almond Cake
The almond cake recipe is straightforward from Bachour’s cookbook. I only made modifications for creating smaller portions. This is a simple recipe for a moist, tender basic almond cake. Note that the recipe calls for cake flour which is important to use!
Caramel Apple Jelly
The caramel apple jelly was a butt kicker. A couple of things going on with this for me. One, I don’t like apple juice. Second, I’m not a big fan of apples. In my first attempt I was hoping the caramel would overpower the apples in the jelly. Didn’t happen. Instead I whipped up my own version of Caramel Apple Jelly. More caramel, less apples, makes Serena a happy gal.
Chocolate Mousse
The Chocolate Mousse recipe is straight from the book, with modifications for smaller portions. I must add that if you’ve never tried the Valrhona Jivara Chocolate, you should. It’s 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!
Tips for Making Chocolate Mousse
- Plan to make the mousse a few hours before you plan to eat it. This helps the flavors develop.
- When you cut up the chocolate, save the fine pieces as decorative pieces if you are choosing to just make the mousse. A dollop of whipped cream and some chocolate sprinkles would be a great pairing for the mousse.
- Gently fold in the whipped cream into the mousse. This helps create the smoothness you love with mousse
Take What You Need
The great thing about this recipe is that you can take any of these pieces like the almond cake, caramel apple jelly, or the chocolate mousse and make them to serve on their own.
Even though chocolate is the perfect pairing for this buttery almond cake, it will still shine just as bright when paired with fresh peaches or other fruits and berries that are in season. I've served it successfully with poached pears before! And if you're looking for something to go great for tea time, try splitting the cake horizontally and spread a thin layer of your favorite jams or jellies in between the layer, reassemble and dust with powdered sugar.
The caramel apple jelly would be perfect to serve with breakfast as a topping for toast or biscuits during fall. It would also pair nicely as a spread on the Apple Cinnamon Muffins.
Chocolate mousse is a classic light dessert. You can whip up a batch of whipped cream and serve the mousse with a spoonful of whipped cream on top.
FAQ
No, almond paste has a courser texture, but is much softer than marzipan which allows it to be spread as a filling.
No, the two are different enough that you can't replace one for the other.
You should be able to find it in your local market. If not, Odense will let you know where a market is that sells it.
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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Caramel Apple Chocolate Mousse Cake
Ingredients
Caramel Apple Jelly
- 17 oz sugar
- 1 ¼ cup apple juice
- 3 lb granny smith apples peeled and diced small
- 1 vanilla bean split and scraped
- 3 sheets gelatin
Basic Custard
- 5.25 oz heavy cream
- 2 large egg yolk
- 15 gram sugar
Valrhona Jivara Chocolate Mousse
- 1 gelatin sheet
- 150 gram basic custard
- 245 gram Valrhona Jivara chocolate chopped
- 225 gram heavy cream whipped to medium peaks
Almond Cake
- 95 gram almond paste
- 85 gram unsalted butter softened
- 77.5 gram sugar
- 1 vanilla bean split and scraped
- 1 ½ large egg
- 63.5 gram cake flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 77.5 gram sour cream
Instructions
Almond Cake
- Preheat oven to 325° F.
- 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.
Caramel Apple Jelly
- Soak gelatin in ice water until softened; squeeze out excess water and set aside.
- In a large nonstick skillet slowly heat diced apples and ¾ cup apple juice and the vanilla bean.
- In a small saucepan, slowly heat 10 oz sugar and ½ 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.
Basic Custard
- 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.
Valrhona Jivara Chocolate Mousse
- 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.
Assembly
- 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.
Notes
Here are a few of our favorite fall flavored recipes!
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