Dessert - by Scarlett

From soufflé to parfait, you'll find my personal selection of yummy dessert recipes here and more!! So for home-made goodness or sweet treats around Sydney, be sure to check here - oh, and bon appétit!! Scarlett :)

Gateau - Dessert

Cheat’s Chocolate Rum Gateau

January 15th 2008 15:04

Cheat’s Chocolate Rum Gateau

About Cheat’s Chocolate Rum Gateau

This recipe, originally invented for Comic Relief, is the busy person’s chocolate dessert, which is made in an instant but tastes like you slaved all day. It freezes like a dream – so why not whip up two of them while you’re at it?

About Gateau / Cake

Gateau means cake in French. Cakes began in ancient Egypt as round, flat, unleavened breads that were cooked on a hot stone. Their evolution from crude cakes to what we enjoy today was possible, over many centuries, through the introduction of new ingredients and technology. The Egyptian’s discovery and subsequent skill at using natural yeast helped leaven those once flat cakes. When butter and eggs made their way into the cake dough, their consistency became the precursor for today’s cakes.
Cake making continued to improve especially with the new ingredients such as chocolate and vanilla, and eventually sugar, that came to Europe with the discovery of the New World.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 8

a ready-made chocolate loaf cake

4 tablespoons good-quality hazelnut chocolate spread
55 ml / 2 fl oz dark rum
25 gm / 1 oz whole, blanched hazelnuts
425 ml / 15 fl oz double cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar, sifted

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC / 350ºF.

2. Toast the hazelnuts on a baking sheet on the top shelf of the oven for 7 minutes, using a timer.

3. Chop the toasted hazelnuts roughly, then remove the paper from the cake, turn it on its side on a board.

4. Using a serrated knife, cut the chocolate loaf cake lengthways into 5 slices. Then arrange the slices on the board in the order you cut them (as you’ll be reassembling them into their original shape a little later).

5. Brush rum all over the cake slices, making sure it’s all used up.

6. Using an electric hand whisk, whip the cream with the icing sugar in a bowl until quite stiff.

7. Spread 4 layers of the cake (not the top one) with the chocolate spread.

8. Then spread the same 4 layers with about 4 heaped tablespoons of the cream.

9. Layer the cake back together, pressing the top down lightly.

10. Cover the whole lot with the remaining cream.

11. Sprinkle with the hazelnuts.

12. Cover and chill for about 3 hours before serving.

**From “The Delia Collection Chocolate” and “Joyofbaking.com”**

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Posted By: Scarlett - Category: Gateau

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Cassata Italienne

October 23rd 2007 09:53

Cassata Italienne

About Cassata

Cassata is a traditional sweet from the province of Palermo, Sicily (Italy). It is similar to the French gateau. The word ”Cassata” comes from Arabic gashatah (cf. Latin caseata, anything made of cheese) and was first introduced during the Arab rule in Sicily from the 9th to the 11th century.
“Cassata” refers also to a type of Italian ice cream inspired by the homonymous sweet.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 2-4

90 gm / 3 oz common meringue
200 gm / 7 oz vanilla ice cream, softened
50 gm / 1.5-2 oz raspberry jam
200 gm / 7 oz raspberry sorbet, softened

For the common meringue (French meringue)

250 gm /8 oz egg whites
250 gm /8 oz fine granulated sugar
250 gm /8 oz fine granulated sugar or sifted confectioners’ sugar

For raspberry jam (60 gm)

28 gm sugar
7.5 gm / ¼ oz water
31.25 gm / 1 oz raspberries, fresh
3 gm glucose
2.5 gm pectin

For the vanilla ice cream (about 333 gm)

2 egg yolks
62.5 gm / 2 oz sugar
167 ml milk
83.5 ml heavy cream, freshly opened, pasteurized cream
1.7 ml vanilla extract
pint of salt

For the raspberry sorbet

500 gm / 1 lb sugar
500 ml / 1 pt water
1125 gm / 2 lb 4 oz strained raspberry purée
For the raspberry purée
1500 gm fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed if frozen
375 gm / 12 oz / 1½ cup caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 120ºC. Line a 6½ X 3½ inches / 17 X 9cm loaf mold.

2. For the vanilla ice cream, combine the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Whip until thick and light.

3. Heat the milk to scalding (just below simmering) in a double boiler.

4. Slowly beat the hot milk into the beaten eggs and sugar. This raises the temperature of the eggs gradually and helps prevent curdling.

5. Heat the mixture slowly in a double boiler, stirring constantly, in order to prevent curdling, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Immediately remove from the heat.

6. Stir in the cold cream to stop the cooking. Add the vanilla and salt.

7. Chill the mixture thoroughly.

8. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s directions.

9. To prepare the raspberry purée, blend the raspberries to a purée with the sugar then boil down to reduce by half. Cool, then rub through a sieve with a ladle to remove the pips.

10. For the raspberry sorbet. Make a syrup by heating the sugar and water to dissolve the sugar. Cool.

11. Mix the syrup with the raspberry purée. Taste the mix before freezing. Chill well. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

12. For the raspberry jam, place 23.5 gm of sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, dissolving the sugar.

13. Add the raspberries and glucose. Boil until the fruit has broken down and the consistency is thick.

14. Mix together the pectin and the remaining sugar. Add to the cooked fruit. Mix well and simmer another 3 minutes.

15. Pour into a clean glass jar and seal. Keep refrigerated.

16. To make the common meringue, with the whip attachment, beat the egg whites first at medium speed, then at high speed, until they form soft peaks.

17. Add 250 gm of sugar, a little at a time, with the machine running. Whip until stiff.

18. Stop the machine. Fold in the remaining sugar with a spatula.

19. For the Cassata Italienne. Using a pastry bag with a plain tip, pipe the meringue onto the parchment-lined sheet pan in a rectangle loaf molds. Bake for 1 hour. Cool.

20. Line the mold with plastic film.

21. Using a pastry bag with a plain tip, pipe the ice cream into the bottom of the mold and smooth the surface (using a pastry bag makes it easier to avoid air bubbles). Freeze until firm.

22. Spread the raspberry jam onto the ice cream in an even layer. Freeze until firm.

23. Pipe the raspberry sorbet into the mold and smooth the surface.

24. Place the baked, cooled meringue on top of the sorbet and press down gently. Freeze until firm.

25. Unmold, remove the plastic film, and slice to serve.

Note:

To make the vanilla ice cream, if you are not using freshly opened, pasteurized cream, it is best to scald and cool the cream or else to heat it with the milk in step 2. In this case, set the cooked custard in an ice-water bath as soon as it is cooked to stop the cooking.

**From “Professional Baking” and “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”**

Dessert - by Scarlett

Gateau - Dessert

Cheat’s Chocolate Rum Gateau

Cassata Italienne

Gâteau St-Honoré

Mango Strawberry Napoleon Gateau