Baking with Marianne

Showing posts with label Cherries. Show all posts

K

König Ludwig Törtchen ∼ Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cakes

Two winters ago, on a freezing cold and snowy day, I went for a very long walk in the park of the Nymphenburg Castle, in Munich. It was an absolutely beautiful walk and the Nymphenburg park - it is one of my favorite corners in Munich - could not look more like a winter fairy tale.

On the grounds of the castle there is the Café Palmenhaus which I visit sometimes after a long walk in the park. Unfortunately, the staff of the café is most of the time unfriendly and not very accommodating but the delicious cake served in the café make up for it.

On that particular cold winter day I visited the café and I ordered a "König Ludwig" torte which is a chocolate mousse cake with a cherry ragout and a chocolate sponge sponge cake bottom. The cake was extraordinary good and I was so thrilled that I wanted to recreate this particular cake myself but I made a few changes. The chocolate sponge bottom was good but I thought a crunchy shortcrust would be better than a soft bottom and by now, I think you know me well that I like everything petite. Instead of making one big torte, I made individual petite cakes. I also added a chocolate mirror glaze to the cakes, whereas the torte at the café was only decorated with cocao powder on top.

My Café Palmenhaus inspired cake creation has been a big hit among my family (in particular, my dad like this chocolate mousse cake a lot) and other people I presented these little delicious cakes. Amongst others, these little cakes were part of the 110 cakes ( I still need to write about my cake marathon) that I prepared for my brother's doctorial thesis ceremony celebration last June and these cakes were recieved exeptionell well which maked me more than happy.

I am very pleased that I finally share this recipe with you, my dear readers. I do hope you like this recipe as much as I do. And if you are in Munich, visit the Castle Nymphenburg and have a slice of the "König Ludwig" torte!

NOTE: I tried out different cacao percentages of chocolate for the mousse chocolate. I like 53 % chocolate the best because I think it makes the creamiest chocolate mousse. I used 60% chocolate as well but I must say that I prefer 53% chocolate. I use Valrhona chocolate, in case you are wondering what kind of chocolate I work with.

The grounds of Castle Nymphenburg

Makes 6 little cakes (7 cm / 2.75 inches)

Cherry Ragout

175 g / 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon frozen tart cherries or 125 g / 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon fresh cherries, pitted
25 g / 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
20 g / 1 1/2 tablespoons jam sugar (1:1) (it means a jam sugar is used with equal weights of fruits)
1 pinch of salt, pepper and cinnamon
50 ml / 3 tablespoons cherry juice
1,5 g / 1 sheet of gelatin, soaked

Defrost the frozen cherries. Keep the juice of the cherries.
Place granulated and jam sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon and cherry juice in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the gelatin, then add the cherries to the mixture and mix well.
Evenly divide the cherry ragout in 6 small silicon moulds. The size of each mould I use is: 2.5 cm / 1 inch in diameter and 2.5 cm / 1 inch in height.
Freeze the moulds for at least 24 hours.

Chocolate Mousse

75 g / 1/3 cup heavy cream
100 g/ 3 1/2 ounces chocolate (50 % - 60 %) ,* see my note above
2,25 g / 1,5 sheets gelatin, soaked
175 g / 3/4 cup heavy cream

Place the heavy cream in a small saucepan and bring it almost to a boil. Set the saucepan aside. Chop the chocolate finely, add the chopped chocolate to the saucepan and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Add the soaked gelatin and stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Pour the chocolate mixture into a medium sized bowl and let it cool to room temperature.
Whip the heavy cream until creamy. Fold in the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture.
Place (silicon) moulds on a board or a flat plate. Fill the moulds 2/3 with the chocolate mousse.
Unmould the frozen cherry ragouts (they are a little sticky but do not worry, that is fine) and gently press the cherry core into the chocolate mousse.
Freeze the moulds for at least 4 hours.

Almond Shortcrust Bottom

50 g / 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
50 g / 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 pinch of salt
15 g egg yolk, equals yolk of a medium sized egg
100 g / 1 cup pastry flour
75 g / 1/2 cup almond flour

Mix butter and sugar until well combined, Add the pinch of salt and the egg yolk to the mixture and mix well again.
Add almond and pastry flour to the mixture and stir until the dough comes together.
Place the dough on a sheet of parchment paper, place another sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is 2 -3 mm / 0.08 to 0.1 inch thick.
Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C / 355 °F.
Place the dough on a baking sheet. Remove the baking paper on top of the dough.
Bake the sheet of dough for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut out circles (7 cm / 2.75 inches) with a cookie cutter. Bake the shortcrust circles for another 4 minutes or until golden in color.
Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Mirror Glaze

4 g / 2 2/3 sheets gelatin, soaked
60 ml / 1/4 cup water
50 g / 3 tablespoons heavy cream
105 g / 1/2 cup granulated sugar
35 g / 1/3 cup unsweetened raw cacao powder, sifted

Place the water, heavy cream, granulated sugar in a medium sized saucepan. Bring the mixture almost to a boil, remove from the heat.
Place the cacao powder in a little bowl, pour about half of the hot mixture to the cacao powder and mix well. Add the cacao mixture to the hot liquid and mix very well until all ingredients are incorporated. Add the soaked gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely melted.
Pour the chocolate glaze through a sieve into a bowl and let it cool until the glaze has almost room temperature and has thickened up a little bit. If it is too thick gently reheat the glaze.
You can also prepare the glaze in advance. Pour the glaze into a jar, let it cool completely, then store the jar in the fridge up to one week. Carefully reheat the chocolate glaze.

Assembling

6 fresh cherries, for decoration

Unmould the frozen cakes. Place each mousse cake on a shortcrust circle. Place frozen cakes on a wire rack and place a deep plate under the wire rack in order to catch the excess glaze which you can reuse again.
Pour the glaze over the frozen cakes. It is important that the ackre are frozen and it is also important that the glaze has the right temperature (lukewarm / almost room temperature). Let the glaze set for a minute. Carefully remove the cakes from the wire rack (I use a a fish slice) and place the mousse cakes on cake boards. Let the cakes defrost in the fridge and keep the cakes in the fridge until consumption.
Decorate each cake with a fresh cherry.

10 comments

S

Sablés Bretons With Cheesecake Mousse And Cherry Jam

Ever since I made my strawberry lemongrass cakes, I discovered how delicious sablés Bretons cookies are. I am glad that I was indecisive and picky at the same time when choosing the right cake bottoms for my strawberry cakes because otherwise I might not discovered these cookies. I cannot get enough of these luscious, buttery cookies these days and it is hard to resist a sablé Bretons. I probably should not make these cookies so often but I cannot restrain myself baking them. I have the same trouble with cherries at the moment. I am having a hard time to overcome the temptation buying too many cherries. Every time I visit the farmers' market I cannot resist and buy a ridiculous amount of cherries - more than I can possibly consume - because I cannot resist these luscious red looking little fruits. Hence, I wanted to combine my two current addictions: cherries and sablés Bretons cookies.

I was inspired by this French recipe. Similar to the French recipe I made thick sablés Bretons cookies, topped the cookies with a cheesecake mousse and added a cherry jam between the cookie and the mousse. The result is a relatively light cheesecake mousse that paires so well with the cherry jam and the crunchy and buttery sablés Bretons cookies. It is delicious! It is a wonderful cake for those late summer nights al fresco dinner.

NOTE: The cakes taste the best on the day of assembling. The next day the sablés Bretons cookies get soft because of the cheesecake mousse. I prepare the cakes in the following order. I make the cherry jam a day before assembling the cakes or a few days ahead if I am busy. I make the sablés Bretons dough a night before I bake the cookies. The next day - usually in the morning - I bake the sablés Bretons cookies. When serving the cakes for afternoon tea, I make the cheesecake mousse in the morning time. When serving the cakes for a al fresco dinner I prepare the cheesecake mousse and assemble the cakes in the afternoon.

Makes 8 to 10 cakes ( 6 cm / 2.4 inches in diameter; 4,5 cm / 1.8 inches in height)

Sablés Bretons Cookies

75 g / 5 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
75 g / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
30 g egg yolks / equals egg yolks of two medium sized egg
100 g / 1 cup pastry flour, sifted
2 g / 1 /2 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt

Mix butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add the egg yolks to the mixture and stir well again.
Mix pastry flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until all ingredients are well combined. Place the dough between two parchment papers and roll out the dough until it is 7 mm to 10 mm ( 0.3 inches to 0.4 inches) thick. The dough is very sticky, that is why it is the best to roll out the dough between two parchment papers. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 170 °C / 340 °F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut out circles with ring molds and place the ring molds onto the baking sheet ( bake the sablés Bretons in the ring molds).
Bake the sablés Bretons for 17 to 20 minutes until the cookies have a golden brown color. While the cookies are still warm, carefully remove the rings. Let the cookies cool completely. In the meantime, clean the ring molds.

Cherry Jam

125 g cherry puree *
115 jam sugar (1:1) **

Place cherry puree and the jam sugar in a pot. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for three minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and pour the jam onto a flat plate. Let the jam cool completely.
You can prepare the jam a few days ahead. Keep the jam in a jar and store it in the fridge.

* This is how you make your own cherry puree: Puree 150 g / 1 heaped cup pitted sour cherries (you can also use frozen sour cherries) and strain it through a fine sieve. Add about 25 g / 2 tablespoons granulated sugar to the cherry puree. (10 % sugar is added to the fruit puree).

** This means that a jam sugar is used with equal weights of fruits (or in our case puree) and sugar. If you use a jam sugar 2:1 you need twice as much fruits or puree as jam sugar.

Cheesecake Mousse

75 g / 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
65 ml / 1/4 cup lemon juice
100 g eggs / equals 2 medium sized eggs
2 sheets gelatin (3 g), soaked
75 g / 5 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
145 g / 2/3 cup cream cheese
125 g / 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Mix powdered sugar, lemon juice and eggs in a heatproof bowl.
Over a double boiler heat the bowl with the mixture - continuously whisk - until the mixture has reached the temperature of 84 °C / 183 °F. You will notice that the mixture has thickened up; remove the boil from the double boiler
Add the gelatin and stir until the gelatin has completely dissolved; then add the butter cubes and stir until the mixture is smooth.
Let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes until it is lukewarm. Add the cream cheese and mix well again.
Whip the heavy cream until creamy. Fold in the heavy cream into the mixture.

Assembling

Line a flat plate or a board with parchment paper, place the ring molds onto it and place the sablés Bretons cookies into the rings.
Spread about a teaspoon of cherry jam on each sablés Bretons cookie.
Carefully spoon the cream cheese mousse into the rings and level the surface out.
Let the mousse set in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours.
Carefully remove the ring molds.
Keep the cakes in the fridge until you consume the cakes.
Decorate each cake with a cherry. I dip the cherries into cherry puree and then sprinkle the cherries with sugar. This way the sugar will stick to the cherry ( if you dip the cherries into water, the sugar roll off the cherry).

C

Cherry Blossom Mousse Cakes

Last month I saw the Japanese movie "Sweet Red Been Paste", "あん" (An), directed by Naomi Kawase. The movie is about Dorayaki (little pancakes filled with red been paste) which are sold in a tiny bakery in Tokyo, about an elderly lady who was isolated most of her life because of leprosy and who shares her secret recipe of red been paste and above all, the theme of the movie is about social exclusion and the virtue of patience. It is an incredible beautiful and moving movie and one of the best movies that I have seen in a while.

The movie opens with the peak bloom of the cherry blossom season and this picture was not only stuck in my head for a long time but it also brought back memories of my time when I lived in Seoul, South Korea. The cherry blossom season (the cherry trees were brought by the Japanese during their colonisation) last only about a week and during this short period of time the streets that are lined up with cherry trees are full of marshmallowy clusters of cherry blossoms. It is like a fairy tale. It is like a dream. In a blink of an eye the cherry blossom season is over and all of a sudden the ground is covered with the cherry blossoms which resemble feathers. During the cherry blossom season I always got up very early in order to enjoy a morning stroll and admiring the beauty of the cherry blossoms. I wanted to make most of this season, I did not want to miss a single moment of this breathtaking cherry blossom season.

The cherry blossom season did not only show me the beauty of nature but it also taught me how to live. Enjoy the moment and do not wait until tomorrow. This sounds so profane but the cherry blossom season had an impact on me and my way of living. Over the years I got lost and I forgot about it but the opening scene of the "Sweet Red Been Paste" movie was a reminder for me.
Inspired by the movie, the cherry blossoms, the colors, my memories in Korea I created delicious little cherry vanilla mousse cakes as an homage. I had a specific image in my head how I wanted the compose this blog post and how the cake should taste like. It turned out exactly how I wanted it. This rarely happens to me. It was pure joy composing this blog entry. I hope you enjoy this post and recipe as much as I do.

NOTES
Patience is a virtue and this also applies making these delightful mousse cakes. You need time making the cakes but the good news is that you can prepare the cake ahead of time and you can make the cake over several days. The preparation time of the cakes is about 90 minutes; the freezing time of the cakes is 7 1/2 hours.
I always use a kitchen scale and weight my ingredients in grams. I try my best to calculate the ingredients into tablespoons, teaspoons, cups, et cetera, as accurate as possible. But keep in mind that this way of measuring ingredients can never be precise as measuring in grams. I cannot recommend highly enough investing in a kitchen scale.

Makes 6 little hemisphere cakes (7 cm / 2.8 inches in diameter, height 4,5 cm / 1.8 inches)

Vanilla Core

125 g / 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean
30 g / 2 egg yolks (medium sized egg)
10 g / 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1.5 g sheet gelatin, soaked or 1/2 teaspoon gelatin powder
30 g / 1 ounce white chocolate, finely chopped

Pour the heavy cream into a small pot.
Split vanilla pod lenghtwise and scrape out the seeds (use the tip of your knife or the dull side of the knife). Add the vanilla seeds and the empty vanilla pod to the milk. Bring the milk to a boil and set aside. Remove the empty vanilla pod.
Mix egg yolks and sugar. Pour the hot milk to the egg sugar mixture and mix well. Pour the mixture back to the pot. Over medium heat whisk continuously until the mixture starts to thickens which takes about three to four minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the gelatin and finely chopped white chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Pour mixture into a bowl and let it cool for a few minutes.
Pour the mixture into small (silicone) hemisphere moulds (3 cm / 1.2 inches in diameter). Place the moulds in the freezer and let the vanilla cores freeze for at least 1 1/2 hours.

Cherry Mousse

90 g / 2/3 cup frozen sour cherries, unsweetened
35 g / 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 g gelatin sheets, soaked or 2/3 teaspoon gelatin powder
15 g / 1 egg yolk (medium sized egg)
145 g / 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Defrost the cherries. Puree the defrosted cherries and press the cherries through a sieve. You need 55 g / 1/4 cup of pureed cherries.
Add cherry puree and 15 g / 1 tablespoon sugar into a pot and bring it to a boil. Remove from the heat. Add the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Set aside.
Mix egg yolks and the remaining sugar (20 g / 2 tablespoons) in a heat proof bowl. In a double boiler heat the egg mixture, stir constantly. until it has reached 82 °C / 180 °F. Remove the bowl from the double boiler and continue to whisk until the egg mixture has cooled down.
Add a little bit of the cherry mixture to the egg mixture and stir until well combined. Add the rest of cherry mixture and mix again until well incorporated.
Whisk the heavy cream until creamy. Add one third of the whipped cream to the cherry mixture and mix well. Fold the remaining whipped cream into the cherry mixture.
Fill the cherry mousse into hemisphere (silicone) moulds (almost to the top of each mould).
Unmold the frozen vanilla cores and gently press each core into the cherry mousse.
Freeze the mousse cakes for at least 6 hours or overnight. You can also leave the cherry mousse cakes for several weeks in the freezer.

Financier Bottom

45 g / 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
25 g / 3 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
15 g / 2 tablespoons pastry flour, sifted
30 g / 5 tablespoons almond flour
60 g / 2 medium sized egg white
30 g / 1 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 °C / 350 °F.
Line a small rectangular cake pan (20 cm x 20 cm / 8 inches x 8 inches) with parchment paper.
Melt the butter on medium heat until the butter turns to a golden brown color and develops a nutty flavor.
Place powdered sugar, flour and almond flour in a medium sized bowl and stir.
Whisk the egg white until they form light foam. Add the lightly beaten egg whites to the flour mixture and stir well. Add little by little the melted butter to the mixture and mix until well incorporated. Add the chopped white chocolate to the mixture.
Pour the batter into the cake pan.
Bake the cake for 10 to 12 minutes or until sligthly golden in color.
Let the financier bottom cool completely. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter; the size depends on the size of your hemisphere moulds. My moulds are 7 cm / 2.5 inches, so I cut out 7 cm / 2.8 inches circles.

White Chocolate Glaze

55 ml / 1 /4 cup water
25 g / 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
50 g / 2 1/2 tablespoons liquid glucose
3.5 g gelatin sheets, soaked or 1 1/3 teaspoons gelatin powder
35 g / 2 1/2 tablespoons crème double
50 g / 1.5 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

Pour water, glucose and sugar into a small pot. Over high heat bring the mixture to a boil and let it boil until it has reached the temperature of 103 °C / 217 F°. Remove from the heat and add gelatin and crème double and mix. Place the chopped chocolate into a bowl and pour the the hot mixture over the chocolate. Stir until the glaze is smooth.
Pour the glaze into a jar and let it cool to room temperature. Cover the jar with a lid and store it in the fridge ( you can keep the glaze in the fridge for several days).

Assembling

Place the white chocolate glaze into a pot (it has a thick consistency) and gently reheat the glaze.
Unmould the cherry mouse cakes and place the frozen cakes on a wire rack (put a deep plate under the wire rack, so you can catch the excess glaze and reuse the glaze). Pour the glaze over the frozen cakes. It is important that the mousse cakes are frozen when pouring the glaze over the cakes.
Carefully place each glazed mousse cake onto a financier circle bottom.
Let the mousse cakes defrost.