Yogurt Mousse, White Chocolate Sauce, and Raspberry Sauce

For last month's Daring Bakers challenge, we were tasked with making a joconde sponge cake, then molding it and filling it with the fillings of our choice. The filling began with a layer of the joconde, then a yogurt mousse, lemon curd, raspberry sauce, and white chocolate sauce. While the lemon curd came from Trader Joe's the recipes for the remainder of the fillings can be found here.

Raspberry Sauce

Adapted from Bon Appétit, August 1993

Ingredients

1 12-ounce package unsweetened frozen raspberries

6 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preparation

Cook frozen raspberries, sugar, and cornstarch in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until mixture resembles jam and is reduced to 1 cup, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes. Cool and enjoy.

White Chocolate Sauce

• Adapted from Bon Appétit, December 2003
• 
  
• Ingredients
• 
  
• 5 ounces white chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Stir chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water; whisk in sour cream and vanilla. Cool completely and enjoy.

Yogurt Mousse

Adapted from Gourmet, May 2006

I used a vegetable-based gelatin product, Natural Dessert's Unflavored Jel Dessert, instead of the usual animal-based product, so I had to amend the recipe a bit to make it work.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored vegetable-based gelatin
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 (4- by 1-inch) strip fresh lemon zest
• 1 (32-oz) container well-stirred whole-milk yogurt
• 3/4 cup chilled heavy cream

Preparation

Drain yogurt in a paper-towel-lined sieve set into a bowl in refrigerator, discarding liquid occasionally, 8 hours, then transfer to a clean bowl.

Beat cream with an electric mixer at high speed until it just holds soft peaks.

Scrape seeds from vanilla bean pod into remaining 3/4 cup milk in a 1-quart heavy saucepan, then add pod, sugar, and zest and bring to a simmer over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. When milk mixture is almost at a simmer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl and let stand 1 minute to soften. Stir gelatin mixture into milk mixture until dissolved. Remove lemon zest, then stirring frequently for two minutes to allow mixture to cool slightly. Since the vegetable based gel is quick-setting, it is important to move quickly once the gelatin has been activated.

Add milk mixture gradually to yogurt, whisking. Fold whipped cream into yogurt mixture gently but thoroughly. Chill mousse, covered, until set, about 2 hours.

BISCUIT JOCONDE IMPRIME/ENTREMET: Daring Bakers January 2011 Challenge

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.

I was excited about this challenge, as it looked like a very beautiful technique. The actual execution was a bit more trying. One key conclusion is that it would have been helpful to read the posts with everyone else's comments before beginning as opposed to immediately after. Oh well - now I know for next time.

We began by preparing the colored paste for the joconde - we used green since we planned to serve the completed dessert at a festival celebrating the new year for the trees later that week. We spread the paste and created a wave design. We noticed that the paste went on a bit thick - others commented that only 1/7-1/3 of it was really necessary - oops! In hindsight, I think we would have made less paste and piped it instead of spreading it.

Next we spread the joconde batter on top of the paste and proceeded to bake it in the oven. As a result of all the extra paste, the cake run over off the pan, creating some oven excitement. It also cooked much faster than expected. Unfortunately, again, because of the extra paste, not very much of our design could be seen.

Next came the task of assembly. We measured the cake and cut it into long strips for our event cake, which were then frozen to stay fresh, and we used the remaining cake to make individual desserts for us to enjoy that evening. Due to the thickness of our joconde (again, from the extra paste), it was hard to maneuver. We eventually rememdied this problem by slicing the cake into top and bottom pieces.

For the final version of the dessert, the joconde was molded in a springform pan. The filling began with a layer of sliced joconde, then a yogurt mousse, lemon curd, raspberry sauce, and white chocolate sauce. The lemon curd came from Trader Joe's; the recipes for the remainder of the fillings can be found in my next post. The yogurt mousse in itself was an adventure, as a vegetable-based gelatin product, Natural Dessert's Unflavored Jel Dessert, was used instead of the usual animal-based product. It is a quick setting gel, so I had to amend the recipe a bit to make it work.

I was crossing my fingers that the dessert would not fall apart after we took it out of the pan, and hurrah, it did not!

CASSOULET: Daring Cooks January 2011 Challenge

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

Being a mostly vegetarian, I prepared the vegetarian version of the cassoulet from Gourmet with a leek confit. At first, I was nervous that the recipe wouldn't be anything more that just a bean stew, but after preparing it, I thought the flavors came together in a beautiful way that was distinctly French.

The leek confit was more or less just leeks and butter, and what could be wrong about that?

I added the confit to carrots and celery along with seasonings of thyme, parsley, garlic, cloves, and a bay leaf, which gave the dish a very tasty flavor. Finally, it was topped off with some garlic crumbs for a little contrasting flavor and texture. Yum!