Carrément Chocolat (Recipes by Pierre Hermé)

Came across this recipe by French pasty chef Pierre Hermé months and months ago and been dying to try it out. This cake is named Carrément Chocolat in French which simply means Downright Chocolate, but there is no way to simplify the description of this cake. You get 5 textures of chocolate in one single bite. Starting with the base of a lightly set chocolate brownie, a layer of chocolate cream, a layer of chocolate mousse, a layer of chocolate glaze to cover the cake and topped with a thin brittle sheet of dark chocolate. The whole process of making the cake can take up to 2 days and it involve many but easy to do steps. Rest be asure that you will definitely be rewarded for your hard work!! 

Recipes 

Chocolate Cake

125g              72% Chocolate chopped

125g              Unsalted butter, cut into cubes

110g              Castor sugar

2                    Large Egg

35g               Plain flour, sifted 

• Preheat oven to 170 degree C, butter a 8 inch square or round mold, Sprinkle with flour
• Melt chocolate over a bain marie or microwave
• Place cut butter into chocolate, mix to incorporate 
• Add sugar, mix to incorporate 
• Add egg, mix to incorporate 
• Add flour, mix to incorporate 
• Pour batter into mold and bake for 20 mins. 
• The cake should look underdone. Unmold and cool on a rack
• Place the cake into the bottom of a cake ring of the same size as the cake. 

Smooth Chocolate Cream 

70g               72% Chocolate, chopped 

100g             Whole milk

100g             Heavy cream

50g (2 1/2)   Egg yolk

50g              Castor Sugar

• In a saucepan, bring milk and cream to a boil
• In a bowl, beat egg yolk and sugar till pale yellow
• Once the milk/cream boil, slowly pour a little of the boiled milk into the beaten egg yolk, whisking at the same time. until all the milk have been added to the egg yolk. 
• Return to the saucepan and stir over gentle heat until the mixture reach 85 degree C.
• Place 1/3 of mixture over the chocolate and stir well. Repeat till fully incorporated
• Process the mixture with a handheld immersion blender. 
• Pour cream over the cooled cake. 
• Refrigerate for an hour (minimum) then into the freeze for an hour before adding the mousse. 

Chocolate Mousse 

170g          72% Chocolate, chopped

80g            Whole milk

1                egg yolk

4                egg white

20g            Castor sugar

• Melt the chocolate over a bain marie or microwave 
• Boil the milk and pour the milk over the chocolate beating until smooth
• Add egg yolk and incorporate well. 
• In a stand mixer with wire whisk, beat egg white until foamy, add sugar slowly and beat until stiff peak form. 
• Incorporate 1/3 of the egg white into chocolate mixture. 
• Fold the remaining beaten egg white into the chocolate
• Pour the chocolate mousse over the chocolate cream in the mold. 
• Place in fridge for 2 hours (minimum), freeze for 2 hours before next step. 

Thin Chocolate Sheet

100g           72% chocolate, chopped

• Melt chocolate over bain marie or microwave
• Cool at room temperature until thickens
• Reheat slightly until reach 88 to 90 degree F
• Pour chocolate over a sheet of acetate and spread it out
• Before it set, cut out the shape the same size as the cake. 
• Place another acetate sheet on top and add a weight to prevent chocolate from warping as it dries. 
• Refrigerate for 2 hours

Chocolate sauce 

 50g      70% Dark chocolate chopped
 95g       Plain water
 35g       Castor Sugar
 50g       Heavy Cream

•  Combine all ingredients into a heavy bottom sauce pan.
•  Bring to a boil while stirring constantly.
•  Lower heat and continue heating till mixture is able to coat the back of your spoon.

Chocolate Glaze

100g      70% dark chocolate, chopped
80g        Heavy cream
20g        French butter (room temperture)
100g      Chocolate Sauce

• Heat the cream in the microwave for 30 sec on high
• Pour cream into chocolate and stir to melt the chocolate
• Add in butter in 4 equal parts
• Add in the chocolate sauce

Final Assembly

• Remove the cake from the mold 
• Pour the warm chocolate glaze onto the cake and spread evenly using a spatula
• Leave to set for a few minutes and then transfer to a cake plate. 
• Remove the chocolate sheet from the acetate and place it on top of the cake
• Set the cake in the fridge to defrost for 2 hours before eating. 

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Seed Culture / BARM

In my first step of embarking on the journey of sourdough bread making or wild yeast bread, I first need to cultivate a batch of my own homemade, home growth wild yeast. Growing your own wild yeast is a easy but 4 days or more process, mine too 4 days exactly. Basically the concept is to let your dough ferment at room temperature to grow the bacteria that we want and this will then be made in to a BARM that will become the starter for all our sourdough bread.

Seed Culture 

DAY 1

1 Cup         Dark Rye flour
1/2 Cup      Unsweeten Pineapple Juice

- Mix the flour and juice together till then form a ball of dough. Do not worry if the dough is stiff or soft but ensure that the flour is properly hydrated. Press this dough into a 4 cup measuring beaker and place a piece of tape to mark the top of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

DAY 2

1/2 Cup        Bread flour
1/4 Cup        Unsweeten Pineapple Juice

- The dough would not have risen much if at all. Combine day 2 ingredients with day 1 sponge. Mix until evenly distributed. Return to beaker and press down. Make the top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

DAY 3

1 Cup           Bread flour
1/2               Water, at room temperature

- Check to see if there has been a rise in the dough. There will probably be some but not alot. Maybe a 50% rise. Regardless, discard half of the starter or give it to a friend to continue. Mix the remaining with the 3 day ingredients and return it to the beaker, press it down and mark the top. It should press down to the same height as on day . Ferment for 24 hours.

DAY 4

1 Cup           Bread flour
1/2               Water, at room temperature

- The sponge should have at least double in size; more is even better. If it is still sluggish and hasn't doubled in size, allow it to sit out for another 12 to 24 hours. Otherwise, discard half of the starter and mix the remaining half with the new ingredients, returning it to the beaker as before. Cover the ferment until double in size. This may take 4 to 24hours. It is okay if it triples in size but because it is now fairly soft and spongelike, it will not be able to sustain that large of a rise without falling. IF it falls easily when you tap the beaker, that is the sign that your seed culture is ready to be turned into a barm or a mother starter.

BARM

Makes 6 cups of barm

3 1/2 Cup     Bread flour
2 Cup           Water, room temperature
1 Cup        Seed Culture

- Stir together the flour , water and seed culture. Ensure all the flour is evenly hydrated. It will become a wet and sticky sponge.
-  Transfer this to a clean plastic, glass or ceramic storage container as least twice the size of the barm.
-  Cover and ferment at room temperature for about 6 hours or until the barm is bubbly. Open the lid to release the gases and replace cover. Place in fridge overnight before using.
- The barm will be ready to use the next day and will remain potent for 3 days. After that, you will need to refresh the barm.

Saving and Refreshing the Barm

You can store the barm that you do not wish to use in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 months and then refresh it when you want to use but discarding all but 1 cup of the barm and built up from there.

You can also freeze it in the freeze for up to 6 months and then defrost it in the refrigerator 3 days before you need it. When it is thawed enough to use, discard all but 1/2 cup and refresh accordingly. Then refresh it again the next day building back to 4 to 6 cups of barm

The standard refreshment for barm is to double it at least, measure out the weight of the barm and then to double the it, measure out equal amount of bread flour and water by weight and mix to the barm. eg. for a 500g Barm, to double it, you add 250g of flour and 250g of water to it.

Leave the refreshed barm at room temperature for about 4 to 6 hours until it become bubbly and foarmly again. Cover and place it in the fridge overnight before using to allow the flavour to develop.

Garlic Cream Cheese Dinner Roll

Having some cream cheese left over from making my cheese cake so decided to put them into use by making them into filling for my bread. These bread at stuffed with garlic herb cream cheese and baked to a golden brown.

 Recipes (makes 20 rolls)

Dinner Roll

Wholewheat Dinner Roll recipes....

Cream Cheese Filling 

• 200g             Cream cheese
• 2                   Cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp              Dry Basil
• 1 tsp              Cayenne Pepper  

Assembly 

• After dividing the dough into 20 equal pieces
• Flatten the dough and place a tsp (or more if you like) into the center and seal
• Roll the dough into round and place onto baking tray
• Proof for 45 minutes 
• Top the bread with shredded cheddar cheese
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes 

Snickers Cheese cake bars

Snickers bar... nougat topped with caramel and peanuts en-robed with milk chocolate...  imagine this inside a rich creamy cheese cake with a oreo bottom crust. This is the treat to give yourself are a hard day of workout.. not like I am having much recently.. too busy cooking and baking!!

Was surfing the net when I came across recipes for snicker cheesecake and I thought to myself "I am so going to make this one day" and so here we are.. my creation and take on the snicker cheesecake cut into little bite sizes pieces... the end result?? I can help but pop one after another into my mouth.. haha...

Recipes

Crust

2              Packs of oreo cookies (cream remove)
50g          Butter (melted)

• Preheat oven to 180 degree C
• Line the bottom of a 7 inch round or square baking tin with greaseproof paper
• Blend the cookies in a food processor with the melted butter
• Press the crumbs into the baking tin
• Bake for 10 minutes

Filling

400g           Cream cheese
1                  Egg
1/4 cup      Castor sugar
8                  Mini Snickers bar chopped into small pieces (add more if you like)
2 tsp            Vanilla extract

• Cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla together in a stand mixer until well mixer
• Fold in the snicker bar
• Pour cheese mixture onto the crust
• Bake for 20 to 25 min
• Set aside to cool then place in fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight
• Remove and cut into square cubes 

Chocolate Mousse Cake

This cake is made specially for a buddy of mine to celebrate his 30th birthday!!! Have a disappointing attempt at the macarons as it ended up with a cracked shell...darn!! But I did not have time to remake the macarons as I need to prepare for that day lunch which I was hosting so end up having to make do with the not so nice looking chocolate macarons, at least it taste yummy still.. haha....

The recipes given below is more then enough to make 1 large 6 inch round cake and 6 more miniature one which I ended up with eventually, of course you can feel free to adjust the recipes according to the amount you need. The sponge and the chocolate glazes are recipes adapted from Pierre Herme while the mousse itself it adapted from William Curley.

If what my friends say is true... I hope they are, then this cake is really yummy and whole the effort to make it. Although I would say it not that difficult to make at all if you already know how to make a chocolate mousse and make a sponge cake.

Recipes: 

Chocolate Sponge 

32g                     Dutch Process Coco powder
28g                     Cake flour
3 Tbsp                Potato Starch
60g                     Butter (Melted / Cooled)
7                         Egg yolks
120g                   Castor Sugar
5                         Egg whites

• Preheat oven to 180 degree C
• Sift flour, starch and coco powder and set aside
• Whisk egg yolk with 60g of sugar till pale yellow
• Whisk egg white till soft peak then add 60g of sugar slowly and whisk till stiff peak(French Meringue )
• Fold the 1/3 of dry mixture to egg white then add 1/3 of egg yolk, repeat till everything is Incorporated.
• Mix a few table spoon of the mixture to the butter and mix well.
• Pour this butter mixture back into the batter and fold.
• Bake for 20-25 mins

Chocolate Mousse 

120ml           Milk
50g              Egg Yolk
24g              Sugar
256g            Bittersweet chocolate (Chopped)
440g            Whipping Cream

• Place milk in sauce pan and bring to boil. Meanwhile whisk the egg yolk and sugar until light in colour about 2 -3 min
• Pour half of the boiled milk to the egg yolk and mixture and mix thoroughly
• Pour this back into the pan and cook over low heat, stirring continously until mixture is thick enough to coat back of spoon
• Take off heat and pass through a sieve onto the chocolate 
• Mix till smooth and emulsified then leave to cool. 
• Whisk the cream until soft peaks form.
• Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate and use 

Chocolate Mirror Glaze

1/4 cup           Cold water
2 tsp               Powder gelatin
150g              Castor sugar
1/3 cup           Water
1 1/4 tbsp       Corn syrup
95g                 Coco powder
1/3 cup           Heavy cream

• Mix the 1/4 cup cold water with gelatin and set aside
• In small saucepan, whish together sugar and water over medium heat. When sugar melted, remove from heat and add corn syrup follow by whisking in the cocoa powder. You will end up with a glossy mixture
• Stir in the cream and return to the heat. Bring to a boil stirring constantly
• Strain into a bowl and leave to cool to about 50 degree C
• Add in gelatin and stir till dissolve
• Strain again and let cool till room temperature before pouring onto cake

Assembly 

• Cut the cake into 3 layers, (You will only need 2, the 3rd is for the mini cakes)
• Using a 6 inch round cake ring, place the first layer of cake on the bottom
• Top this layer with mousse 
• Lay the next layer and top with mousse again. 
• Chill in fridge for 4 hours or over night. 
• To remove the move, use a hot towel to wipe the ring or use a blow hot air using a hair dry at the ring. 
• Place the cake in the freezer for at least 2 hours before glazing to make the glazing easier.
• Decorate the cake as you wish... Enjoy