The weekend is close and I am already planning my next big bake, it cheers me up non grey days like this. To be honest, I don’t mind rainy, cloudy, foggy days, I actually enjoy the quietness in compared to the weather outside and it’s the perfect weather to enjoy a (good) horror movie at night (I am actually out of good horror movies to watch, so feel free to recommend some! :)).
Last week I received persimmons and pineapple with my odd box and I thought that the two flavours might have worked really well together. I added walnuts and pepper and caramel to the plan and I was ready to bake. As this is an enticement and it’s vegan, it requires a lot of planning and patience. As usual, but even more today, I have decided to describe all the passages in the order that makes more sense to me, so how I approached each element.
The entremet is composed of, from the bottom up:
- Walnut and pepper croustillant
- Pineapple cake
- Caramel layer
- Persimmon pepper compote
- Pineapple mousse
for the coating, I used a velvet cocoa spray – it’s vegan and works wonders with uneven surfaces (I used the bubble silikomart mould). Another option is to make a vegan mirror glaze but with cocoa butter, which is the best for uneven surfaces. If you are using a smooth mould you can do whatever you please instead 🙂 I felt that this bubbly one was super nice when placing fruit and flowers as decorations on top.
Layer by layer ingredients
Crumble con black pepper e dark chocolate
100 g Dark chocolate
50 g Ground walnuts
1 tbsp cocoa nibs
1 tsp black pepper
Pineapple cake
1,25 g salt
100 g flour
3 g baking powder
60 g coconut sugar
40 g softened veg butter
96 g ananas puree
100 ml veg milk
Persimmon and black pepper compote
150g persimon, 1/3 pureed
50ml clementine juice
1 tsp black pepper
20g brown sugar
2g pectin
1g agar agar + 5g water
Caramel layer
140 g Coconut sugar (it will give a oomph to the caramel flavour!)
272 g heavy cream
20 g agave syrup
80g vegan white chocolate
80g rice milk chocolate
48 g soft butter, to room temperature
Mascarpone mousse
300g mascarpone, room temperature
40g powdered sugar
250g whipping cream (35% fat), chilled
7g agar powder+ 1 tbsp cold water
60g pineapple juice
tsp (5g) vanilla extract
2 tbsp caramel
Directions:
For the pineapple cake:
Mix together the dry ingredients, then pour in the milk and mix well.Then add the pineapple puree and the vegan butter. Pour the mixture in the baking tin, covered with parchment paper and greased and floured and bake at 160 C fan for approximately 15 minutes.
Keep in a dry place until ready to use. If preparing the day before store in the fridge or in an airtight container.
For the compote:
Bring the persimmon puree and the clementine juice to medium heat together with the sugar. Add the pepper. Then pour in the agar agar and the pectin and bring to a boil. Pour in the same baking tin you used for the cake or a smaller one (the compote disc will have to be smaller because the mould is dome-shaped so either you will have to cut away a bit as I did, or you can use a smaller tin) and cover the sides with acetate to make it easier to remove. The basis of the tin can be covered with parchment which will work wonders. Freeze until ready to assemble.
For the caramel layer:
Place 1/3 of the coconut sugar in a saucepan over low-medium heat and wait until it’s dissolved without stirring. Do not leave too long on the heat because it might become bitter, due to its unrefined nature. Add another third of the sugar. Stir to combine and put back on the heat without stirring. Repeat this for the rest of the sugar.
In the meanwhile, heat the heave cream and the agave syrup.
When the sugar is melted, remove from heat and pour on the warm cream. Do this in three batched and stir well to combine. The cream you will obtain has to be smooth. Pout on heat and keep cooking until the caramel reaches 104 C (when I did this, my thermometer was broken so I patiently waited for it to become bubbly, but I wouldn’t recommend to do this as it feels very risky and could end in utter disaster!). Do not over worry if the mixture is not 100% smooth at the beginning, when it will heat up everything will be melted and silky if things have been done right.
Chop the chocolate and let sit in a bowl. Once the caramel and cream mixture is ready pour in on the chocolate (use a sieve to avoid any potential solids to end in there). Once the chocolate is melted, transfer to a blending glass and emulsify. Add the butter when the cream has cooled down to approx. 35C and emulsify. Transfer to a baking dish and then cover with cling film touching the surface. Let set in the fridge for about 2 hours.
After this time, put the caramel in a piping bag and pipe it evenly on the cake. Freeze for about 2h.
For the mascarpone mousse:
Dissolve the agar in cold water.
Place the agar over low heat with the ananas purée and bring at high temperature. Pour on the mascarpone and mix well. Add the caramel cream.
Whip the cream until stiff peaks form and then fold in the mascarpone mixture.
To assemble:
Spread the mousse well in the mould covering the edges.
Then push the compote disc in and cover with some more mousse.
Then add the cake+caramel layers that have been frozen together. Freeze for 4h.
Make the croustilliant:
Melt the chocolate with a double boiler system. Stir in the chopped walnuts, after having roasted them in the oven for 10 minutes at 180 C, add the cocoa nibs and the black pepper.
Spread the crooustillant evenly on the base of the cake, helping yourself with a spatula.
Let freeze for 1 more hour before removing.
To coat the cake, I recommend either using cocoa butter mirror glaze (as reported in my halloween entremet recipe) or with a velvet spray, which is the option I have used today. I liked the velvety effect better for the decorations I had in mind!
I wouldn’t recommend a traditional mirror glaze because it might not cover well a dessert with such a convoluted surface. However, if you are using a smooth mould that should work fine.
Decorate with seasonal edible flowers or fresh fruit, or both and enjoy after 1-2 hours it has been removed from the freezer. I promise that the caramel is super addictive and the mousse is the silkiest and freshest and lightest ever. It was such a lovely bite.
Let me know whether you try this cake here or on my instagram @cake_files_ 🙂
