Five simple ingredients – cream, vanilla, salt, eggs and sugar, make for an exquisitely rich and elegant dessert. Crème Brûlée is the star of this entremet.
My entremet is filled with decadent crème Brûlée, caramel mousse, chocolate ganache, chocolate mousse, and chocolate hazelnut sable Breton.
My favorite part of this entremet is the crème Brûlée insert of course. I wish I had doubled the recipe! The caramel mousse was also delicious! Entremets are a lot of work, and this was no different. There are so many components, but you can take your time and make them days ahead of time.
The part of this cake that gave me the hardest time was the mirror glaze. It was hard to get the glaze the right temperature and the cake the right temperature. If the glaze is too hot, it will be very thin and not stick well to the cake. If it is too hot, it will get rubbery and either stick in globs, or clump together and roll off the cake. If the cake is not cold enough, the mousse won’t stick either. If you are pouring the glaze on and it starts to cool down too much, it will be too thick in areas and bumpy. So many problems can happen! Also, making the glaze as well as the entremet leaves so many dishes to wash!
Luckily my Mom was here, and she helped me a lot. We had 4 colors of glaze, and while waiting for them to cool to 89.6 degrees, they got a little too cool. So my mom helped with warming up the different glazes, stirring, and taking the temperatures. We had enough glaze to cover two entremets. I’m grateful to my mom and her help! I am also grateful to my sister Wendy, from Wendycoxphotography for taking photos of my cakes! I love how the colors look different on the cake in different light. In some light it looks dark maroon. In other light it looks like a light purple.
The inside of this entremet is amazing! I love how the layers all line up in a straight line. As amazing as it looks, it tastes even better!
Mirror Glaze recipe here
Recipe from Pastry Workshop
Ingredients:
Chocolate Hazelnut Sable Breton:
100g all-purpose flour
25g cocoa powder
30g ground hazelnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
115g butter, softened
70g powdered sugar
3 egg yolks
Vanilla sugar syrup:
50g sugar
100ml water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla Crème Brûlée Insert:
120ml heavy cream
80ml milk
3 egg yolks
30g sugar
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Mousse:
4g gelatin + 20ml cold water
2 egg yolks
40g sugar + 20ml water
150g dark chocolate, melted
250g heavy cream, whipped
Caramel Mousse:
4 egg yolks
30g powdered sugar
1 pinch salt
180g sugar
30g butter
30ml water
8g gelatin + 45ml cold water
200ml heavy cream, whipped
1 tablespoon dark rum
Directions:
Chocolate Hazelnut Sable Breton:
Mix the flour, cocoa powder, hazelnuts, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
In a different bowl, combine the butter with sugar and mix until creamy.
Stir in the egg yolks, one by one and mix well.
Add the flour and mix until smooth.
Spoon the batter on a baking sheet. Cover with another baking sheets and spread the batter into a 1cm thickness sheet. The batter is quite soft, but that’s how it is supposed to be. Place the dough in the freezer and freeze for 30 minutes.
Once frozen and set, remove the dough from the freezer and cut it into a round with the diameter of 24cm. I used a cake ring to cut the round of dough and I recommend using the same because you will have to keep the ring around the dough while in the oven. That’s because being a butter dough, in the oven it will go soft and runny at first and only after that it will set and bake.
Bake in the preheated oven at 350F – 180C for 15 minutes or until touching the top of the sable doesn’t leave an indentation.
When done, remove from the oven and let it cool then place the sable in a cake ring and place aside.
Vanilla sugar syrup:
Mix the sugar with water and cook for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it cool completely then stir in the vanilla.
Using a pastry brush, brush the sable Breton with this syrup. Using a pastry brush allows you to control the quantity of syrup better.
Vanilla Crème Brûlée Insert:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
Line a small baking tray (18cm diameter) with baking paper then pour the egg mixture into the pan.
Cook in the preheated oven at 140C for 30-35 minutes or until set.
When done, let it cool in the pan then place the pan in the freezer for 2 hours. Only frozen you will be able to handle the creme brulee and place it into the cake later on.
Chocolate Mousse:
Bloom the gelatin in cold water for 10 minutes.
This mousse starts with a pate a bombe which is made by boiling a sugar syrup from 40g sugar and 20ml water. Mix the egg yolks until creamy then gradually stir in the hot sugar syrup and keep mixing until the yolks become creamy and thick.
Melt the gelatin and stir it into the egg yolks cream. Add the chocolate and mix well. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Fold in the whipped cream then pour the mousse over the sable Breton.
Caramel Mousse:
Bloom the gelatin with 45ml cold water for 10 minutes.
Mix the egg yolks with powdered sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a hot water bath and mix until creamy and double in volume. Remove from heat and place aside.
Melt the sugar in a heavy saucepan. When the sugar has an amber color, stir in the butter then add 30ml water and cook just until smooth.
Remove the caramel from heat and pour it over the egg yolks.
Add the gelatin and mix until smooth then let the mixture come to room temperature.
Fold in the heavy cream and dark rum.
Assembly of entremet
Start with a silicon mold like this
Bake the sable Breton and crème Brûlée insert a day before.
Fill the bottom of the mold with caramel mousse, and place the crème Brûlée insert in the middle.
Place the top part of the mold on the bottom part of the mold and fill to the top with chocolate mousse.
Place the sable Breton on top of the chocolate mousse.
Freeze overnight.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! I hope you decide to give it a go and make this entremet. If you do, please send me a pic either on the comments or at Instagram #sayitwithcake
Enjoy!
