Impress family-in-law with a dessert: part two

Part two: Hazelnut and dark chocolate Bavarois with a walnut biscuit and a Toblerone top layer

The recipe of this cake is hard to translate. If you are Dutch speaking, you always can contact me and I will send you the Dutch recipe. If you are not Dutch speaking and there is something you don’t understand, contact me and I wil try to explain it. My e-mail is declercqpieter@gmail.com, tweet me or just write a comment.

The Bavarois

What do you need? (26cm – around 10 person)

For the Biscuit: 3 eggs, 65gr sugar, 90gr self-raising flour, 100gr of walnuts (or pecan nuts)

For the bavarois: 4 yolks, 150gr of sugar, 5dl of COLD heavy cream, 2dl of milk, 4 sheets of gelatin, a little bit Amaretto, 100 grams of hazelnuts, one dried vanillapod, a little bit of lemon juice

For the “”top layer”: 100 grams of Toblerone, 1dl of cream, 1 sheet of gelatin

Extra: a 26cm diameter springform cake pan (rubbed in with butter)

What do you do? We start with the biscuit. Beat the eggs up in a kitchenaid or with an electric hand whisk till the eggs are foamy or very light. It can take you at least 5 minutes or even more, depending of the speed of your machine. With mine, it takes most of the time 10 minutes. The lighter it is, the lighter your bavarois will be. Add the sugar while still whipping. Add the flour with a spatula.

Roast the walnuts, blend or chop them and put them in your dough. Take a griddle covered with baking paper and pour your mix. Be sure that it’s not too tin, nor too small for your cake pan. Bake it in the oven for about 10 minutes on 165°C. Take it out of the oven (it has to be a little soft, but not raw of course). Cool down, cut out your mould and add the biscuit in the cake pan. Put it in the fridge.

Now we start making the bavarois or the bavarian cream. Roast the nuts and chop them in a blender. Take 25 grams of sugar and put it aside. Take a bowl (to whip the cream) and put it in the fridge. The colder your cream and the bowl is, the faster it gets whipped. Beat up the yolks with 125 grams of sugar “au ruban” (We use the term “au ruban” when lifting the dough of a sponge cake mixture with a whisk, it runs down like a ribbon.) The mixture has to be almost white (click to see a picture, number 3). You can do it by hand, but I use almost every time a electric whisk, otherwise it takes me too long.

Heat the milk with the vanillapod (cut in two lengthwise) on a low fire for about ten minutes. Remove the black vanilla seeds and add them to the milk. Add the milk and the vanilla seeds to your egg and sugar mix. Stir and put it again on a low fire, stir slowly with a wooden spoon.

Now be careful. We are going to “vaneren”. If you have little children, a barking dog or a wife complaining about the mess in the kitchen, put them in a room and lock the door . Your milk and egg mixture should not boil. Around 75°C degrees is perfect, 80°C is ok, but more is dangerous. You can use a food thermometer or use a little trick. Take your wooden spoon out of the pan, draw a line on your spoon and if the line stays the same and the mixture doesn’t flows back, it’s ready. So take it of the fire. You will also see that your mix starts to get thicker. That’s what we call a “creme anglaise”, the basic recipe for ice-cream, crème brulée or your bavarois. If it stays too long on the fire, it will start to clot.

Soak the sheets of gelatin in cold water, add the gelatin, a little bit of lemon juice and little bit of Amaretto to your mix. Be sure all the gelatin is melted. Strain your mix to a sieve. Melt the chocolate. If you put your chocolate in the microwave, follow this rule: 20 seconds in the microwave, stirring, 20 seconds in the microwave, stirring, 20 seconds in the microwave , stirring, …

Add your melted chocolate and your blended hazelnuts to your creamy mixture. Let it cool down. While cooling down, take the 25 grams of sugar, your cold cream and your cold tub. Beat up the cold cream till you have a thick yoghurt. Be sure it’s not totally whipped. When your cream is too whipped, you can’t make it smooth. Mix it with your chocolate and egg mixture. Stir some air inside your bavarois with a spatula so it’s a bit floppy or airy. Take your biscuit and pour it over the biscuit. Put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours. I prefer one night. Cover your cake with something like for a lid or a big saucepan, so the smell of your fridge doesn’t go into your cake.

If your guests are coming in the late afternoon, you can finish your cake in the morning. Heat the cream and melt the Toblerone in your cream. Add the gelatin after putting it in cold water. Pour the creamy Toblerone on your bavarois and let it cool again in the fridge. Don’t forget to cover it.

To serve it, it’s good to rub with a hot towel around your iron form. Take a sharp knife and cut between your cake and the border of the springform. Now you can take out your cake easily and enjoy it.

Don’t know if it’s true, but bavarian cream or bavarois should be native of Bavaria. Probably less delicious, but at least these guys are proud to be Bavarian.