Baked Goods & Sweet Treats Recipes

The Not So British Bake Off: Week 9 (Entremet)

This week was the semi-final of The Great British Bake Off, which means here at the Not So British Bake Off I was under a lot of pressure! (If you missed it last week, I made Apple Cider Donuts). This week the bakers made entremet as their showstoppers. Did you know what entremet was? Because I certainly did not.

For those of you who were in the dark like me, an entremet to modern pastry chefs is a multi-layered mousse-based cake, with layers that have contrasting textures. (It meant something completely different in the Middle Ages.) Since the mousse needed to be the star I knew I wanted to do something a bit off-beat: peanut butter mousse. And then I really wanted to focus on having contrasting textures in all my layers. I was so pleased with my bake this week. No, my edges aren’t as clean as the contestants on the show, but a lot of that has to do with them having tiny fancy pans and me improvising with a dull knife and a brownie dish.

Next week is the big finale and who knows what the future will bring!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Entremet
presentation
Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate Brownie base:

85 g of unsalted butter
170 g of bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup of  plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Feuilletine

1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter (125g)
28 g of unsalted butter, softened
170 g ounces  milk chocolate, chopped
1 cup of rice krispies, or corn flakes

For the Peanut Butter Mousse

3/4 cup of creamy peanut butter (190 g)
4 oz of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 tablespoons of milk
1/2 cup of powdered sugar, sifted
2/3 cup of heavy whipping cream, very cold

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

1/2 cup heavy cream (115 g)
3/4 cup dark chocolate (130 g)

Instructions:

Start by preparing your mousse. Place the peanut butter, cream cheese, vanilla and milk into a large mixing bowl. Beat it with a mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add your powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and then set it aside.

Place whipping cream into a separate mixing bowl. Beat until the whipped cream holds stiff peaks.

Working in four batches, gently fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture to form a light, airy mousse.  Scrape the mousse into a piping bag with a large round tip. Place the mousse into the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour before piping.

Now preheat oven to 350°. Line your baking dish with parchment paper and then lightly butter the top of the paper.

Melt together butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Remove the bowl from heat and stir until smooth. Let the chocolate mixture cool slightly.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla until pale and thick, about 3 minutes. Beat in the chocolate mixture. Add the flour mix and beat until just incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Transfer the batter to your prepared baking dish, and smooth top with a spatula. Bake until a cake tester inserted into brownie between edge and center comes out with a few crumbs, 30 to 35 minutes, depending on your oven. Let cool completely.

Now make your feuilletine layer. In a medium bowl set in a saucepan of simmering water, heat the peanut butter with the butter and milk chocolate, stirring constantly, until smooth and melted. Remove from the heat and fold in rice krispies. Pour over top the brownie layer and put in the freezer.

Once the mousse has been in the fridge for 1 hour, remove it and put it into a piping bag. Begin by evenly piping the mousse over the feuilletine in large spirling cirles beginning on the outside and ending in the middle. Use all of the mousse. With a rubber spatula, smooth out the top surface of the mousse. Place the dish into the freezer and chill for at least 30 minutes before finishing. When the baking dish has been in the freezer for 20 minutes start preparing your ganache. In a medium saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer, remove from the heat. Add the chocolate to the cream and let sit for 5 minutes. Slowly stir the heavy cream and chocolate until they come together and form a shiny ganache. Let it cool. You want the ganache to  be pourable but not too warm that it will melt the mousse. Spread it over the  mousse and refrigerate until set.

Finally, lift the dessert out of the pan and trim the sides with a sharp knife, cut into the desired number of servings, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Phew! It’s one of the most multi-layered things I’ve ever made!

mixing brownies
Prepping my brownie batter.

into the ovenfeeding sam
Making Sam taste the peanut butter mousse. It’s one of his favourite things so I knew he’d want too.

list making
There were so many steps to this bake that I wrote myself out a list ahead of time and was crossing things off as I went.

testing brownies
Testing the doneness of my brownie.

making crispy layer
Making my feuilletine layer.

taste the peanut butter
Mmmm…..peanut butter spoon!

piping peanut butter mousse
Piping on my peanut butter mousse.

chocolate ganache
Now it’s ganache time!

smile
The camera man cracking me up; reminding me that baking should be fun, not stressful!

decorating entremet
Putting the final touches on my entremet. I made some chocolate pearl buttons to decorate the tops with.

entremetclose up of entremet
There they are in all their glory!

mary judges
Mary looms in for the judgement…..

starbaker
…. and it’s a winner!

proud of entremet
Next week is the big week: the FINALE! I can’t believe it’s here!

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