Chestnut cake composed of
– a vanilla biscuit,
– a chestnut cream,
– a chestnut mousse,
– a chestnut mirror icing.
Material used
– Rectangular pastry frame 20X10cm
– Ancel 210 bloom gelatin (gold quality)
Ingredients
Vanilla cake
✔65 g flour
✔1 egg
✔2 egg whites
✔65 g icing sugar
✔20 g butter
✔15g caster sugar
✔Vanilla, liquid
✔Vanilla powder
Chestnut cream
✔1 leaf gelatine 2g
✔100 ml cream
✔1 egg yolk
✔15g caster sugar
✔100g chestnut cream
Chestnut mousse
✔175g chestnut cream
✔150g liquid cream
✔2 x 2g gelatine leaves
✔Vanilla powder
Mirror glaze
✔30g chestnut cream
✔45g caster sugar
✔45g glucose
✔25g water
✔45g melted white chocolate
✔2 x 2g gelatine leaves
✔30g cream or unsweetened condensed milk
The recipe
For 5 people
Vanilla cake (the day before)
65 g flour1 egg2 egg whites65 g icing sugar20 g butter15g caster sugarVanilla, liquidVanilla powder
Make a hazelnut butter. In a saucepan, melt the butter until it takes on a nice nutty colour and smell. Set aside. In a bowl, mix the whole egg with the icing sugar and vanilla powder. Add the flour and melted butter. Mix well. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the powdered sugar. Gently fold them into the mixture with a spatula. Pour the biscuit dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake the biscuit for 8 to 10 minutes at 180°C. Remove the biscuit from the oven and allow it to cool before peeling it off the paper and cutting out a 20x10cm rectangle. Place the biscuit in the rectangular frame. Brush the biscuit with a syrup (water, sugar, liquid vanilla, rum).
Chestnut cream (the day before)
✔1 leaf gelatine 2g
✔100 ml cream
✔1 egg yolk
✔15g caster sugar
✔100g chestnut cream
For the chestnut cream, you can use ready-made cream or prepare it yourself with a jar of cooked chestnuts or better with chestnuts picked in the forest or bought to cook. Place your chestnuts in a large basin of water, those that rise to the surface should be put aside. In a large pot of boiling water, place the chestnuts, which have been scored, for 5 minutes. Peel the chestnuts and cook for a further 15-20 minutes. Drain the chestnuts. Weigh the chestnuts (previously cooked or from a jar) and put them back in a pan with the same weight of sugar. Cover with water and cook for about 15 minutes.
Blend and then strain the chestnut cream through a sieve to remove any remaining skins. You can flavour with rum.
In a bowl, mix the egg yolk with the sugar until they are slightly white. In a saucepan, bring 100 ml of cream to the boil, remove from the heat and pour the hot cream over the previous mixture. Return to the saucepan and cook over a low heat until 82ºC. Remove from the heat and add the wrung-out gelatine. Pour the hot cream over the chestnut cream and mix. Allow to cool slightly, then pour over the crumble and place in the freezer. You can crumble some pieces of marrons glacés on top.
Chestnut mousse (the day before)
✔175g chestnut cream
✔150g of liquid cream
✔2 x 2g gelatine leaves
✔Vanilla powder
Heat half the cream. Remove from the heat and add the softened and wrung-out gelatine. Pour over the chestnut cream. Mix well. Whip the other half of the cream with an electric mixer. Gently fold it into the previous mixture. Pour over the cream and place in the freezer overnight.
Mirror glaze
✔30g chestnut cream
✔45g caster sugar
✔45g glucose
✔25g water
✔45g melted white chocolate
✔2 x 2g gelatine leaves
✔30g cream or unsweetened condensed milk
In a saucepan, heat the sugar, water and glucose to 110°C. Remove from the heat and add the wrung out and softened gelatine. Pour this mixture over the melted chocolate. Stir well. Add the condensed milk and the chestnut cream. Use a hand blender to mix the mixture thoroughly. Remove the cake from the freezer. Cover the surface of the cake with the icing which has been cooled to 35/37°C.
Leave in the fridge for a few minutes until the icing has set. Carefully remove the frame and cut 0.5 cm off each side of the cake, if necessary, so that the layers are well defined. Cut out individual slices and leave to thaw in the fridge.
I decorated with a marron glacé with sugar.
