Week Eight: Finale

 Finale

I am so sorry this took so long to post for anyone who may have been anticipating it. Life has been a little hectic and, to be honest, this intimidated the shit out of me. 

Also... 

This is it.

The finale.

The end.

I feel like something significant has ended in my life... I've spent so much time the last few months planning and baking and writing these posts, and while I fully intend to keep on baking and cooking and blogging, this is it for Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. I'm about to share my attempt at entremets shaped like the fruits they are flavored with, and that is a kind of pretty, finicky, delicate, decorative baking that I would never have attempted on my own...  That being said... despite the fact that I set out on this challenge to bake everything in Rosaline Palmer, I have skipped a few here and there and in the end I decided, and I feel a little bad about copping out like this, to skip Alain and Nora's entremets... for now at least.

So, without further adieu... 

Blind Bake: Alfajores

I used this recipe, I have no recollection of *why* I picked this recipe, but it is the recipe I used, which calls for a jar of dulce de leche (insert eye roll here) so I used the same dulce de leche recipe that I used pie week (linked here) and I cooked it for about 2.5 hours (not entirely sure what I did wrong pie week that it took so much longer then, but at least my experience is weirdly consistent with Rosaline's). It is DELICIOUS, and I *thought* it had achieved the correct texture but it was still a little too thin and so, as you can see, the cookies ended up very, very messy. 

But delicious.

Ask anyone who stopped by my office the day after I made them. They were a big hit. Some even asked for the recipe and I told them they'd have to wait for me to post this (and then I took like another month to make entremets! Sorry Ela, et. al.)

Anyway... cook your dulce down a bit longer if you want yours to not be quite so messy, and then maybe you also won't have so much left over to use as an excuse to keep eating the very terribly delicious vanilla ice cream I posted in pudding week with a big spoonful of dulce de leche on top. It's been a true hardship in this horrible hot weather, let me tell you.

Rosaline's Apple, Peach, and Cherry Fruit-Shaped Entremets

So, for all three of these I based them off recipes and instructions I found on the internet, but for a combination of reasons I did not exactly follow instructions. For one thing, I didn't always have exactly the right stuff (i.e. powdered gelatin v. gelatin sheets, no spray gun for non-mirror glaze for peach). For another, I was making all three at once and I didn't want to make *everything* three ways. Finally, as I may have previously mentioned, I'm just kind of not great at following recipes and tend to mess with things as I go. So, I've done my best to capture the way I actually made them but forgive me if I did not. 

The recipes that inspired mine are: apple, cherry, peach.

I will note that for each recipe it made WAY more than necessary. For the most part, for the things I used to make all three recipes, I only needed to double what was called for and though I made six of each, I have a freezer full of bits of weird gelatinous fruity ice cubes. That being said, I'm not doing this all again, so I'm not scaling down the recipes, just warning you.

Apple Filling

Ingredients

• 2g gelatin (I used powder, if you have sheets that what the original recipe called for)
• 300 g apple juice
• 50 g apple liquor
• 20 g sugar (I used vanilla sugar, cuz it's a vanilla-y filling and I had some)
• 6 g apple pectin
• 400g apples (I used a mix of some I got from a farmers market and some honeycrisp from the grocery store. Use your favorite but make sure at least one is something firm/crisp like honeycrisp or granny smith for the tiny chop)
• Lemon juice (not much, I used less than half a lemon's)

Instructions

• Chop apples roughly, reserving one firm/crisp apple.
• Soak gelatin in cold water to bloom (or soften, and then drain, if using sheets)
• Mix sugar and pectin, set aside.
• Bring roughly-chopped apples in apple juice, liquor, and vanilla to a simmer over a medium heat and cook until soft.
• Chop the reserved apple finely into little teensy tiny cubes and toss with a little lemon juice to keep from browning.
• Remove apple/liquid mixture from stove and use immersion blender to make it softer, then return to heat.
• Mix in sugar/pectin mixture.
• Bring to a boil and simmer for two minutes.
• Remove from heat and whisk in gelatin. 
• Stir in finely chopped apples. 
• Fill up ice cube trays or mini half-sphere silicone mold (1 tbsp/15 g) and freeze. (I just used an ice cube tray because I didn't have the right size spherical molds.) Un-mold the frozen apple filling halves if you're using the spherical molds, and seal them by two to create a 1 oz/30 g inserts. Keep frozen.

Peach Filling

Ingredients

• 250 g Yellow peach puree (I made this myself by pureeing defrosted frozen peaches)
• 10 g Lime juice
• 2 g Ascorbic acid (I couldn't find this. I used citric acid)
• 30 g Sugar 
• 4 g Pectin
• 250 g White peaches, peeled & cubed
• 25 g Peach vine liquor (I didn't have this, I used some peach juice)
• 1 g Ascorbic acid (Again, I subbed citric, and it seemed to be fine?)

Instructions

• Puree peach flesh with the ascorbic (or citric) acid. 
• Combine sugar and pectin. 
• In a saucepan, heat up peach puree, lime juice and mix in the sugar-pectin mixture and cook for 2 min; cool on ice. 
• Mix peach vine liquor with ascorbic (or citric) acid and fold in peach cubes, and add it to the puree. (I didn't like how chunky it was so I pureed it with the stick blender. I meant to leave it a little chunkier, but really, this is up to your personal preference.)
• Fill up ice cube trays or mini half-sphere silicone mold (1 tbsp/15 g) and freeze. (I just used an ice cube tray because I didn't have the right size spherical molds.) Un-mold the frozen peach filling halves if you're using the spherical molds, and seal them by two to create an ounce/30 g inserts. Keep frozen.

 Cherry Filling 

Ingredients

• 450 g Dark cherries, pitted
•  7 g neutral oil (the recipe called for olive oil. you could taste the olive oil. I did not think this was a good choice. I'd go for coconut oil or something neutral like veggie oil if I tried this again)
•  50 g Kirschwasser
•  40 g Corn syrup
•  25 g Sugar
•  10 g Corn starch
•  5 g Apple pectin
•  160 g Tart cherry juice (I used a tart cherry concentrate. It was too tart.)

Instructions

• Remove pits from cherries (or use thawed, frozen, pitted cherries, as I did. Since you're cooking them anyway, I don't see a point to paying more for fresh here).
• Cut them into 8 pieces and set aside. 
• Meanwhile combine sugar, pectin and corn starch; set aside.
• Sautée half of the cherries (225g) with oil for a couple of minutes; on high heat. 
• Then, flambé with Kirsch. 
• Lower the heat and add corn syrup and the sugar-corn starch-pectin mixture; cook for 2 minutes more. 
• Add the tart cherry juice, remove from heat and add remaining cherries. I did not like how chunky it was so I used my immersion blender and broke it down until it was not quite smooth but significantly less chunky.
• Let cool to room temperature. 
• Fill ice cube trays or mini demi-sphere silicone mold and freeze completely. If making pretty spheres, un-mold cherry inserts onto a frozen tray (wear disposable gloves) and seal them by 2 forming individual 1 oz/30g sphere. Freeze immediately. Repeat until done. (I just used an ice cube tray because I didn't have the right size spherical molds.) 

White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Mouse 

Ingredients

• 5 g Gelatin 
• 120 g White chocolate
• 400 g Heavy cream
• Vanilla bean
  

Instructions

• Bloom gelatin over a little water (if you can get gelatin sheets, soak them in cold water for about 5 minutes or more; drain and set aside). 
• Meanwhile, melt white chocolate over water-bath, (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the boiling water). Stir every so often. Do not over heat chocolate; remove once just melted.
• Heat up heavy cream with the sliced vanilla bean and seeds. Turn off heat, cover and let sit to infuse for about 20 min. 
• Pour into melted chocolate, stirring to incorporate fully. 
• Add gelatin and puree until smooth using an immersion blender. 
• Cover with a plastic wrap in contact and chill completely, ideally overnight (I did not wait overnight). 
• Transfer cold mixture into mixing bowl and beat on high speed until smooth – do not over work.

This is a recipe for one batch. I doubled it and it was just shy of what I needed for all three.

White Chocolate Shell

Ingredients

• 250 g cocoa butter
• 250 g white chocolate

Instructions

• Melt cocoa butter first (cocoa butter can boil but the chocolate should not). 
• Mix in white chocolate, blend and pass through a sieve. 

Can be stored at room temperature. Use at 113 F.

The recipe for any ONE dessert is 250 g. I made double that for all three and had twice as much as I needed, if not more.

Mirror Glaze

Ingredients

• 100 g Water
• 200 g Sugar
• 200 g Corn syrup, or glucose
• 130 g Condensed milk
• 14 g Gelatin (recipe calls for sheets but, as you know, I never have sheets and make do with powdered)
• 220 g White chocolate
• Food coloring

Instructions

• Soak gelatin in cold water to soften and drain. 
• Cook water, sugar and corn syrup to 218 F and mix in gelatin, condensed milk and vanilla.
• Pour over white chocolate, let sit to melt and blend well without adding too much air. 
• Add food coloring to desired color. 
• Pass through a fine sieve, tap over the counter to remove remaining air bubbles and chill completely.
• Rewarm to 86 F before using. This is KEY. If you rush and just glance at your recipe and reheat to 218 instead you will melt the chocolate shell and your fillings will mush out and it will take a LONG TIME to cool down enough to make anything and if you, like me, are not particularly patient, your mirror glazes will melt off your entremets and look more like the poison apple from Snow White than the pretty and realistic thing you're attempting.

This is a recipe for one batch. I doubled it and did split it up to make different colors, and it was like three times as much as I needed, so don't do that. Scale down if you can.

Stems

Put some dark chocolate in a food processor and process until a paste forms. Use it to shape stems. 

If it's too stiff, roll it between your palms, your body heat is enough to soften it. If they get too mushy from the heat of your hands, just sit them down to cool for a moment and you'll be fine.

Assembly

This is a many step process and takes place over DAYS. At least two days. The fillings need to be frozen fully, the mouse needs to set for a day, the mirror glaze also needs to be made, chilled, and warmed up again. If you want to do this in two days, or any sort of baking-show-like timeframe, you'll have to plan VERY carefully. If, like me, you did not, your plan to make this over two days will stretch out and take a whole week. Luckily, most of this stuff does better with more time freezing or are at least not harmed by being made in advance.

• Fill a mold a little more than halfway with the mouse. Press in the fruit filling insert to be in the middle and fill the rest of the way with mouse. Freeze overnight (or up to a week).

• Remove fruit mousse from mold, smooth, stick a skewer in them and refreeze.

• Dip in white chocolate shell. Let cool until hard by gently twirling the stick in your fingers (should only take a few seconds.

• For cherry and apple:
• Dip in mirror glaze (again, make sure it's the right temperature so it doesn't run right off and melt your white chocolate shell like mine did)

• For peach:
• Split your remaining white chocolate shell dip into three containers, add yellow food dye to one, orange to another, red food dye to the third. Then pour all three into one container. *DO NOT MIX IT.* Then dip your peaches in, one at a time, and spin to dry, just like 

But really, how perfect is that peach?

• Remove skewer and add stems. (Note, the apples were supposed to be decorated with leaves from actual apples. My apples did not come with leaves. I stole apple leaves off my parents' apple tree, but then I kept putting off making the entremets because I was so intimidated by them and sad to finish blogging Rosaline, so they went all brown and were no longer appropriate for decoration. Also, note that I bought my apples, like Rosaline, because while my parents do have apple trees, I can probably count on one hand the number of apples we as a family have ever eaten apples from said trees as the squirrels and deer and birds and bugs get most of them.)

• Chill in fridge. Serve cold but not frozen.

I have to say, I'm super proud of myself, even if the final product would not have won me first place on a baking show, and I never would've thought of it on my own. 

The flavors, I will say, are a direct inverse to the looks- the peaches came out beautiful and the cherries a mess and the apples halfway between... flavor-wise, I adore the cherry. I really like the apple. The peach... well, it doesn't exactly make me go OOOH YES PLEASE MORE!!! but it's not bad and the mousse and chocolate shell are delicious on all of them.

And...

Well...

That's a wrap for Rosaline Palmer. 

Thank you all so much for reading this. Thank you for sharing and commenting and generally supporting me in this strange and delicious journey. I hope you'll keep reading as I move on to other books and bakes and eventually apparently fly-paper-arsenic. (Just kidding. Only actually edible things, I promise.)