Les Entremets de la Gourmande: Banana Chocolate Mousse Cake

Day 16: Recipes for Coconut Dacquoise, Banana Cake, Caramel Nut Filling, Chocolate Mousse, Banana Mousse, and Chocolate Glacage. Assembly of Banana Coconut Cake.

Coconut Dacquoise
1.5 oz Powdered Almonds
1.125 oz Cake Flour
4 oz Sugar
4 oz Whites
2.5 oz Sugar
¼ oz Coconut

Preparing Coconut Dacquoise
-Sift the almond flour, cake flour, and first amount of sugar. Because the nut flour is coarser you have to force them through the tamis.
-Egg whites are in the mixer.
-Toss the coconut with the dry ingredients.
-When the whites get foamy, sprinkle in the sugar and whip to stiff peaks.

-Have your piping bag ready with a plane round tip.
-Trace the outline of 7” cake pan onto a sheet of parchment on a sheet tray.
-You want the egg whites to be very stiff. The fat of the nuts will break them down.
-Fold in the drys in ½ and ½.

-It will get thick.

-Fill the piping bag and pipe a concentric circle from the center out to fill the 7” circle.
-Bake at 350 degrees until it is dry and crisp with very little color, about 12 minutes.

Banana Cake- ½ recipe
100 g Butter
125 g Brown Sugar
2 g Salt
75 g Whole Eggs
125 g Cake Flour
3.75 g Baking Powder
.375 g Baking Soda
.25 g Nutmeg
125 g Milk
156.25 g Pureed Bananas
50 g Chopped Pecans

Preparing Banana Cake
-Creaming method: the butter and brown sugar
-Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg.
-Add the salt to the sugar.
-You want the butter to be soft, and then add the sugar.
-Have a 7” cake pan sprayed and lined.
-Whisk the eggs so you can pour in a little at a time.

-Allow the fat and sugar to form an emulsion with the eggs.

-You want everything around 70 degrees.
-Add the dry ingredients in quarters and the banana puree and milk in thirds, alternating the wet and dry.
-Begin by adding the dry ingredients.

-You don’t want to over mix.
-Scrape the bowl down often.
-Alternate the dry and wet. Finish with the drys.
-Fold in the nuts by hand.

-Pour into cake pan and bake 325 degrees in the convection oven for around 35 minutes.

Caramel Nut Filling
180 g Sugar
45 g Glucose
90 ml Water
60 g Honey
180 ml Heavy Cream
150 g Walnuts
120 g Pecans
15 ml Vanilla

Caramel Nut Filling
-Bring the sugar, glucose, and water to 347 degrees.

-Take off the heat, add the cream slowly. It will bubble. Add the honey.

-Whisk to make sure the honey is fully incorporated.
-Put it back on the heat and cook to a medium amber color.
-Switch to a spatula and take it off the heat.
-Add the toasted nuts, then the vanilla.

-Don’t let it sit too long or it will become harder to work with.
-Take it out of the pan and let it cool slightly in a pie tin.

Chocolate Mousse
1.5 oz Yolks
35 g Sugar
1 oz Water
6 oz Dark Chocolate
11 oz Heavy Cream
6 g Gelatin Sheets

Preparing Chocolate Mousse
Initial directions:
-Melt the chocolate over a water bath.
-Bring the sugar and water to 244 degrees
-Make a pate a bombe by whisking the eggs with the hot sugar. Because it is such a small mixture we will do it by hand.
-Whisk in the sugar and whip until it is cooled slightly.
-The chocolate should be warm still, between 110 and 115 degrees. If it is too cold it will seize when mixed with the eggs.
-Fold in the chocolate aggressively then fold in the rum.

-Melt the gelatin over a water bath and fold in.
-Whip the cream lightly and fold in. Make sure it is cooled, around 90 degrees, before adding the cream.

When I followed these directions, the sugar was too hot and clumped up when added to the eggs. On the second try I ended up cooking it to about 230 degrees and then whisked it into the eggs. Also, adding the chocolate to the eggs caused the mixture to seize.

I boiled a small amount of the cream, about 2 oz, and added that to the chocolate/egg mixture to smooth it out.

I melted my gelatin with the residual heat in the pot I boiled the cream. I then added the melted gelatin and rum to the mixture.

I folded in the softly whipped cream.

My mousse began to set up right away so I didn’t need to cool it over an ice bath, which I would do if it was warm. Pour the mousse over the nut filling covered dacquoise.

Assembling Banana Mousse Cake
-Paint the bottom of dacquoise meringue with melted pate a glacer. This serves as a moisture barrier for the cake and adds a little flavor.

-Cut the cooled banana cake in half.
-Place the dacquoise on a cake board topped by a cake ring with acetate around the inside.

-Top with a layer of caramel nut filling.
-Pour chocolate mousse on top. Let set up in the freezer.

-Once set, place one layer of banana cake on top of the chocolate mousse. Cut the layer smaller with a 6” cake ring, so the final mousse goes around it and the cake can’t be seen from the outside. Put back in freezer.

-Top with banana mousse (see below) and let set in the freezer.
-Top with chocolate glacage (see below).

Banana Mousse
4 g Sheet Gelatin
155 g Banana Puree
12.5 g Lemon Juice
17.5 g Sugar
12.5 g Rum
210 g Heavy Cream

Preparing Banana Mousse
-Heat ½ of the banana puree and the sugar just until the sugar is dissolved.
-Bloom the gelatin in the ice bath you have ready to chill the mousse later.
-You want the mixture warm enough to melt the gelatin. Add the bloomed gelatin.

-Add the lemon juice. This adds a little acidity but also some flavor.
-Add the rest of the puree and then the rum.
-Cool down the puree some over an ice bath.
-Add the very softly whipped cream. Cold cream whips faster. Lightly whisk it into the puree.