The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a biscuit joconde imprimé to wrap around an entremets dessert.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you will know that generally speaking I make tiny tiny amounts of the Daring Bakers’ recipes because I really don’t need huge amounts of dessert around the house. So when I saw this challenge, I immediately set about Googling individual-sized entremets. Lost in a sea of gorgeous images and complicated patterns for the biscuit joconde imprimé, I happened upon a recipe for raspberry dacquoise from the lovely Clotilde at Chocolate & Zucchini inspired by a frozen dessert that I totally remember eating (ahem… a few times, shall we say?) when I lived in France and whilst it’s not the challenge per se, it’s an entremets dessert that I knew I had to make.
Entremets, according the the Larousse Gastronomique is:
The sweet course, which in France, is always served after the cheese (the word is also used to mean a specific dessert). Formerly, all the dishes served after the roast, including vegetables and sweets, were called the entremets. (The word literally means “between dishes”). In restaurants, the word still embraces the vegetable dishes as well as the entremets de cuisine (soufflés, savoury pancakes and fritters, pastries, croquettes and omelettes) and the desserts. The latter are subdivided into three categories – hot, cold and iced entremets.
This dessert – a dacquoise – falls under the cold entremets category. I planned on making three small round desserts in tiny springform pans. My biscuit/cake base was a little uneven as my jelly roll pan was too large and all my other smaller pans were not deep enough but once I cut them out it was fine. This was chewy and sweet without being too sweet and strong enough to hold up to putting mousse-cream in the middle without going soggy too quickly.
The mousse layer is made from plain Greek yoghurt (strained) since we can’t find fromage blanc here in Canada and soe whipped cream, sugar, vanilla and gelatin. This was absolutely incredible and I made the full amount though I didn’t need it which we enjoyed for breakfast the following day with some of the leftover berries 🙂
I used blackberries and raspberries and even though I packed them tightly around the edge of the molds, the cream kind of leaked over them and they moved apart. I guess it’s easier to line them up uniformly with no gaps in a square or rectangular mold.
I covered up the messy tops of the biscuit part with icing sugar and noone was any wiser 😉
This was a (semi) elegant dessert that tasted fabulous. The mousse was light and fluffy and even though I served halves, I could totally have eaten a whole one! So delicate. I wish I would have had enough of the cake to add an extra layer in the middle. That might be a project for next time…
Also, next time, I promise I will try the biscuit joconde imprimé…
(Whilst I was writing this post, it’s true, I delved into the Larousse Gastronomique. And spent quite a long time there. If you don’t own it and you like food, you should. Check it out on Amazon and Amazon.ca.)
Don’t forget to enter my RestaurantWare.com giveaway (you’re eligible wherever you live and you definitely will love these products – they make fabulous blog props!). Click here to read the post and enter! Contest closes Friday January 28th at 6pm EST.
(update: The contest is now closed – thanks for entering and congrats to Winnie from Healthy Green Kitchen!)
I think it’s absolutely gorgeous Mardi…I’m ready to dive into one. I saw this at Clotildes too and wanted to make it, but got distracted as usual. Love the mousse!
Yes I will be making the mousse again as part of other desserts or just on its own – it was SO good!
it looks great . 🙂 I love making this type as well when you can see the fruit , with no wrapper. and yes, it counts as an entremet…but i thought trying to explain all the entremets to the DB;s would be too exhausting ! ..
Thank you so much for reassuring me that it was ok to make this 🙂
WOW!! Amazing!! Looks and I bet tastes heavenly good!
Your entremet looks astounding and I love how you added fresh berries inside it. Great work on this challenge.
Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
Wow – thanks Audax! High praise indeed!
They look so sophisticated. I love the fruit peeking out of the sides just begging to be eaten. Lovely job.
Absolutely beautiful!
They turned out great! I love how you used the biscuit on the bottom and top!
I love how you made your entremets! It looks so creamy and delicious! I also chose to make a tiny entemets, just right for two! Nice work on this challenge.
Tiny is definitely the way to go!
Oh Mardie, it’s beautiful! Not only do your pictures “pop” (they always do) I always learn something from you just by reading your posts. I think I’m the only one who made theirs in a trifle dish. Is that cheating? I’ll be posting mine later this morning.
See I love the idea of this made in a trifle dish!
Definitely beautiful – looks so light and sweet.
Mardie, it’s amazing! i really like it i ‘ll defiantly try thanks for sharing.
Very elegant and your photos make me feel that I could do it too. Thanks for the reminder about your giveaway.
I love the little individual desserts and the fresh berries. It looks scrumptious!
Those are so cute, and look absolutely delicious!! The fresh berries look so refreshing, and the whole dessert looks light yet decadent! Great job.
Decadent and light is a perfect way of describing it!
Oh goodness, that dessert sounds ammmmazing! The individual size would not be enough for me… I’d eat it all, down to the last crumb.
Well see if you make small ones, you can have more, right? 😉
WOW I have never seen anything like this!!! I wish I could fly to Paris this instant (or your kitchen!) and gobble one up. Thanks for sharing such an exquisite recipe!
Well it’s nothing like as beautiful as the lovely things you find in Paris but I was impressed with how it turned out!
You did an amazing job, Mardi! I should have followed your creativity. My joconde came out a disaster and broke into many pieaces…Next time I’ll try a dacquoise instead!
Well let’s wait and see how a joconde turns out if I make one, shall we? 😉
Ok…what a exquisite dessert…and very DARING indeed. So glad I found your site!
Thanks so much for stopping by – hope you will be back!
Really daring! looks gorgeous and heavenly.
Well not as daring as it *should* have been but a first for me anyway!
OMG! I love to have this right now!
What a great job you did!! I’m loving the raspberries peaking out from the sides 🙂
I love the raspberries poking through. Beautiful!
This looks great! I love raspberries and blackberries. Congrats on making a beautiful challenge.
Beautiful job! Your entremet looks delicious!!!! I love how you filled it with fresh fruit and that cream just looks stellar! I really wish I could scoop out a fingerful! 🙂
Ah but see you would start with a fingerful and then just have to eat the whole lot!
Absolutely lovely!
It definitely looks elegant! And I do like individual serves even though they take more time to put together.
I got myself a copy of Larousse Gastronomique last year and envisage myself, one day, not cooking from it, but just reading it from cover to cover for pure enjoyment and nothing else.
I *heart* my Larousse too 🙂
A total success. Your entremet is beautiful and that dacquoise sounds amazing. This was indeed a challenge and an educational experience.
Totally educational – I love learning new things!
Your entremet looks to light! And the berries are just so fabulous in there, hinting at the real treat you created! Thank you for sharing!!
Yes it was incredibly light – I was so happy with how it turned out!
Where to begin, photos are amazing, cake looks so good, fantastic job:)
OK, now I feel like a rube. I didn’t know what you were talking about up top, so thanks for the vocabulary lesson. And it’s a beautiful looking dessert, beautifully photographed. (And I usually have such a dependable grasp of vocabulary.)
Oh I do not hold it against you at all – I bet many were looking up some cooking vocabulary!
I am luvin’ the peek-a-boo raspberries
I just wish they would have been more evenly distributed!
A beautiful dessert. Since, my household is small, I’m always finding ways to reduce recipe portions. Other times, it’s a good excuse to reach out to neighbors and friends to share the extra calories.
Beautiful and I am sure delicious – not too heavy or too sweet!! This is a great challenge and I will bet that it’s fun to have an excuse to read up on the desserts. It’s great to have an “excuse” to try things that you normally wouldn’t make!
I loved that they were not too heavy – looked a lot more indulgent than they actually were!
Gorgeous idea!! I need to get little baking tins as well. There are only 2 of us.
I love the fresh berries, and I’m always for individual sized portions! I saw some cute ones in the bakery case at the local grocery store, but I wasn’t sure what form I could use to get them that small. Nice job on the challenge!
I used tiny (maybe 5″) springform pans…
So happy to see how wonderfully your entremets turned out, Mardi, well done!
Clotilde, thank you so much for coming over to comment. I will definitely be making this again 🙂
Beautifully done and simple look, yet it looks a lot harder than one might think.
Paul
It was actually very easy, surprisingly so!
The point of the exercise was to do the decorative cake outside. Why did you skip that?
If you read the beginning of my post, I did explain my thought process behind my decision.
What a stunning dessert!
I love that you always make them mini…. I need to take a few hints from you because I always make gigantic desserts and then end up with lots of leftovers (not to mention that they are so much prettier when they are mini).
Oh I bring plenty of stuff into work for my colleagues but they would get mad if there were too many tempting treats!
Oh these look wonderfully refreshing. Love that you did individual servings for this challenge.
I am *all* about the mini servings!
LOVE the berries in your DB challenge…so fresh and lovely! Excellent job 🙂
Yes it was fresh and bright tasting too! Thanks.
Wow, this looks exquisite ! Beautiful job!!
All I am going to say is that this is wicked! I applaud your restraint in making small amounts. I go wrong there too often…
Jason
It’s all about the Math for Baking, my friend!
I really enjoy reading your posts, your food looks so beautiful! I want to learn more about French cuisine, and my dream is to work with a chef in France:) I was excited to find French Friday’s and The Daring Kitchen on your blog. I look forward to reading your posts, and learning more about French cuisine from you:) I just started French lessons, so I am working on my first of three goals!
Take care,
Terra
French cuisine and the French language – two of my favourite things in the world!
I don’t know why you call it semi-elegant. It looks lovely to me, and any dessert which has fresh fruit in it is a winner to me.
Well there’s always room for improvement, especially when it involves me and baking!
YUMMO!!
Out of the 5 – 600 cookbooks I own, my 20 year old Larousse Gastronomique probably makes the most appearances. Wonder how the latest edition compares??
I love my Larousse 🙂
omg that looks great!
Those look quite elegant to me (not just semi)! The mousse sounds divine … I love the Greek yogurt in it.
these are gorgeous and i’ll bet they were as delicious as they were pretty!