When Caramel, Cafe, Vanilla, and Chocolate are sent back to the Sweets Kingdom for a supplementary exam, they have no idea what to make for the theme, "Surprise Sweets." Then, Chocolate suggests that they each bake a Genoise and they each make a cake from their individual specialty flavor. From that, they realize exactly what they should do for their examination! Let's see if making this cake together will spark our imagination and guide us to make amazing sweets built on strong basic foundations!
What is it?
A génoise is a type of sponge cake without any leavening agents and it serves as the basis of many french pastries. The batter can be used to form cakes, madeleines, lady fingers, rolled cakes, and many other sweets. The only leavening in the cake is the air suspended in the batter during mixing. It originated in Genoa and is a common base for many French and Italian desserts. It is known to be dry and is concequently commonly soaked in flavored syrups or liquors and covered in buttercream. Click here to see pictures of genoise.
Where can I try it?
The chances are that you've already had génoise at some point in your life as a component of some other dessert. Most pastry shops and restaurants don't serve génoise on its own but as the cake portion of a more constructed dessert or pastry. If you're looking to taste the génoise entirely on its own, you're better off just making your own. You could also easily find madeleines which use an almost identical batter to génoise in most instances. No batter how you make it, you have aim to keep the right texture or your génoise will come out with a flat leathery texture. You can experiment with the endless number of recipes available in just about every pastry cookbook and online.
How can I make it? (recipe: Pastry Chef Online following "The Cake Bible")
Genoise Ingredients:
1.25 oz browned butter
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3.5 oz sugar
1.75 oz sifted cake flour
1.75 oz cornstarch
Directions:
1. Spray and 8" or 9" pan with pan spray and line the bottom with parchment and spray again.
2. Sprinkle flour around the pan and spread around until it sticks to the spray. Tap out excess.
3. Melt 4 sticks of butter over medium heat until browned with a nutty smell. Strain. Let cool to room temperature. Weigh out 1.25oz and freeze the rest after.
4. Stir the eggs and water in a large mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water until lukewarm.
5. Mix with an electric mixer until it has tripled in volume.
6. Take 3/4 cup of egg mixture from step 4 and whisk in the warm liquid browned butter.
7. Sift half of the flour mixture over the remaining eggs and fold in gently and thoroughly in order to minimize loss of volume.
8. Repeat with the rest of the flour. Fold in the butter mixture.
9. Pour batter in to prepared pan, smooth the top and bake at 350F. Don't open the oven until the cake is golden brown and the cake shrinks away from the sides slightly or it may collapse. (25-35min)
10. Turn upside down on to a wire rack to cool. Trim off top and bottom. Sprinkle with syrup.
Syrup Ingredients:
2 oz sugar
4 oz water
1 oz liqueur of your choice or vanilla
Directions:
1. Bring sugar and water to a rolling boil stirring occasionally.
2. Cool to room temperature and add liquor.
Tips from the Real World:
- Since there is no leavening, you need to keep the batter light and fluffy throughout the process.
- Be gentle with the batter and don't over mix it. Use a whisk to fold in the flour and aim only for incorporation.
- Regardless of the recipe, overheating the eggs can lead to drying and already dry cake.
- Sift in any dry ingredients to prevent clumping and to keep it light and fluffy.
- You can use a whisk or fold with a rubber spatula to maintain texture.
- When adding wet ingredients to dry ingredients, add incrementally and mix in between.
- When browning butter, use a light colored pan so that you can easily see the color of the butter.
Ideas for Variations:
- If you decide to just eat the génoise unadorned, just sprinkle some confectioner's sugar on top.
- Génoise is a common component in more elegant desserts such as tiramisu and petit fours. Give them a try!
- You can replace some of the flour with cocoa powder to make a chocolate génoise.
- This same batter can be used for lady fingers and madeleines. You can use extra batter to experiment!
- This makes a great practice cake if you want to try your hand at some decorating. (You can also use a clean glass plate or upside down cake pan so that you can scrape off the frosting and reuse it.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Génoise_cake
http://www.pastrychefonline.com/Genoise.html
http://www.sallybernstein.com/food/columns/braker/genoise.htm
http://www.pastrychefonline.com/Genoise.html
http://www.sallybernstein.com/food/columns/braker/genoise.htm
It says to mix the eggs and water how much water do i use???
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