Sacher (not soccer) Cake

So, when I was first told that I would be preparing this cake, the instructor said the name so fast I thought we were making a cake, in the shape of a soccer ball. I quickly found out that that was not the case. I give a CHOCOLATE CAKE to end all chocolate cakes. Sorry some of the pictures didn't come out so great, I'm taking pictures in class with my iPhone, and well... get over it.

RECIPE: Chocolate Glaze

4oz unsweetened chocolate
4oz semisweet chocolate
4oz unsalted butter
4 tsp light corn syrup

Melt all ingredients together over a double boiler, remove from heat and allow to cool - stir occasionally. Use immediately before the glaze dries or stiffens.

RECIPE: Sacher Cake

10oz A/P flour
3oz cocoa powder, alkalized (more expensive chocolate than sometimes available)
12.5oz unsalted butter, softened
18oz sugar
14 egg yolks
hazelnuts (I used pecans), toasted and finely chopped
14 egg whites
18oz apricot jam/glaze (or as needed to glaze tops of cake)

Grease (2) 9" spring foam pans, line with parchment.
Sift flour and cocoa powder TWICE.
Cream butter and 7 oz of sugar until light. Slowly add egg yolks and beat well.
Fold in sifted flour mixture and nuts by hand (mixture will be really hard/tough).
Whip egg whites to soft peak, than add remaining sugar and whip until stiff.
Stir in 1/4 of egg whites to flour mixture, to lighten mixture. Repeat.
Fold in last 1/4 of egg whites.
Pour batter into pans, bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. Cool cakes before removing from pan.
Split cakes in half (or thirds) and glaze the tops and sides of each cake with apricot jam/glaze. Cool cakes completely.

*OPTIONAL- frost tops and sides of cakes (additional) with chocolate ganache.
Layer cakes on top of each other, and "ladle" chocolate sauce over sides and then top of cake.
**DO NOT SPREAD SAUCE**
"Shock" the pan the cake is on, making the chocolate even out over the top of the cake. Replace cake on a clean surface, and refrigerate to set.


"Torch" the top of the cake when ready to serve, in order to have a nice shiny cake.



Use a HOT knife to cut through all layers and give a clean cut.

(Ladyfingers were used to decorate the cake, and you can also use some left over ganache to write on top of the cake, and on a random piece of paper -see????!?!!?!!!)

Ganache filled Ladyfingers

Even though I wasn't a really big fan of the ganache we made, I still think it turned out pretty good. The ladyfingers could have been piped better, there was way too many different shapes (meaning some were longer, fatter than others) but HAY! ... they all tasted the same when I dumped them into my mouth.

RECIPE: Ladyfingers
3oz cornstarch
4oz bread flour
6 egg yolks
6oz sugar
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp lemon juice

RECIPE: Ganache
1 lb bittersweet chocolate
1 pt heavy cream
1 fl oz almond/coffee liquer

(bring cream to a boil. Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate stir with rubber spatula to blend; stir in liquer. All to cool before using)

Sift flour and cornstarch together.
Whip egg yolks with 2oz of sugar until thick and creamy.
Whip egg whites until foamy. Slowly add 2 oz of sugar and lemon juice.
Whip until soft peaks form, then add remaining sugar until soft peaks form.
Fold 1/3 of whites into whipped yolks, then fold in remaining whites. Fold in
the flour mixture.
Place mixture in pastry bag, and pipe as desired.
Bake at 425 until lightly browned.
Flip cookies on back side. Pipe ganache in center and sandwich between two cookies.
Sprinkle with powder sugar.

Orange Chiffon w/ Chantilly Cream

This cake is wonderfully light, and has a great orange/lemon compliment flavor.
The normal chiffon cake is suppose to be made in a bundt pan, however we decided to make it into a 'jelly roll' and have a little fun. You could also fill this one up with a lemon curd... and it would equally as great!

RECIPE:
8oz cake flour, sifted
12oz granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 fl oz vegetable oil
6 egg yolks
2 fl oz water, cool
4 fl oz, orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest, fine grated
2 tbsp vanilla extract
8 egg whites

Sift together flour, 6oz of sugar, baking powder and salt.
Mix together oil, yolks, water, orange juice, orange zest and vanilla. Add to flour.
Beat egg whites until foamy. Slowly beat in remaining sugar.
Stir 1/3 of egg whites into batter. Fold in remaining whites.
Pour mixture into parchment lined baking sheet or jelly roll pan.
Bake on 325 for about 8-10 minutes.

Allow to cool (can place in refrigerator overnight).
Line the entire top of cake with chantilly cream.
Roll cake, sprinkle with powder sugar, slice and enjoy.

Vennoise Baguette

The last of the projects made this week in bread class was the "Vennois."
At first glance its made almost exactly like a standard baguette.
It has an egg wash (that you first brush on; refrigerate the bread for a couple of minutes, and then re-egg wash the bread) that makes it incredibly shiny.

The other difference is in how you "slash" the bread. If you slash it almost straight across it looks like mine (pictured here). If you slash it downward, towards the length of the bread, it almost made an "S" curve down the bread (which was very beautiful... sorry no pics).

RECIPE:
1 kl bread flour
20g salt
100g sugar
40g yeast
2 eggs
500g milk
150g butter, cold and cubed.

Again, just make this bread dough as you would any other. Add butter last.
Allow to rest for 1 hour. Portion your dough into 300g. Preshape into baguette
shape. Final shape bread into baguette and egg wash. Refrigerate for 3 minutes, then egg wash again. Slash bread and proof for 20 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Baguette Rolls

Using pretty much the same recipe as in my previous post HERE, we made some baguette rolls, to be served with dinner at the local bistro (on campus).
There is a slight difference in the recipe, but basically you make the baguette the same way, however after you slash the tops of the bread, you then cut the bread into smaller pieces to create the "roll" effect.

RECIPE: baguette roll
1 kl flour
650g water
25g salt
350g fermented dough
30g yeast

Enjoy

(unbaked) Brown Sugar/Cinnamon Curls

You would think that as much money as we (all of the students) are paying to go to school all, or most, of our ovens would work properly - EVERYDAY. Well for the past few days only the bottom layer of our 3-tiered deck oven have worked. This only truly affects the classes that bake bread. In addition to that oven not working, only (1) layer of our convection oven is working also.

With this in mind we had to decide which bread we were NOT going to be able to bake, and who would wait until next week to go into the oven. The choice was either chocolate or cinnamon/brown sugar (what a choice)... alas the chocolate won.

Using the MILK BREAD RECIPE from the previous post (chocolate chip swirls).
Using the other half of the dough from the recipe.

Spread pasty cream over the entire 1/2 of the dough.
Sprinkle a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon all over the dough and then fold 1/2 of the dough ontop of the other.
Cut the double folded dough into long strips and separate.
Holding both ends of the stips, begin twisting the dough into tight twists.
Circle around one edge until the dough makes a circle round.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
You can top the bread with more pastry cream and fresh fruit.

(we didn't, because we couldn't bake them... so they just went into the fridge).

Chocolate Chip Milk Bread Swirls

I really enjoyed making these in class last night, mostly because I was able to eat large portions of quality chocolate chips while waiting around to do "stuff."

Again, the steps to making bread by hand are far too long to list (and my arm is damn near numb from doing all of the kneading).

RECIPE:
1 kl bread flour
20g salt
100g sugar
40g yeast
6 eggs
275g milk
200g butter, cold and cubed

After mixing and kneading the dough, leave out in a floured bowl for 30 minutes. Then refrigerate dough overnight.
Remove dough from refrigerator, divide in half and begin rolling it out on a floured surface.
Roll out the dough until it covers the bottom of (2) sheet pans (cookie sheet).
Place pan back in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Place dough onto countertop and egg wash the middle of the dough (about 3-4 inches).
Brush both sides of egg wash center, with pastry cream all the way to the edges.
Sprinkle chocolate chips over the pastry cream and roll in both sides to the center.
Refrigerate for 20 minutes, then slice roll into sections; twist the center and
place back on the baking sheet flat side down.
Egg wash tops, and bake for 10-15 minutes on 350.