Gourmet Chocolate Peach Tonka Cake (Entremet)
Taste of London is an amazing culinary festival that I had the pleasure of attending. It brings together some of the most famous chefs in the world: Gordon Ramsay, the Roux brothers, Rocha, and many others.
Chef Sergio Sanz Blanco, the head chef of Ametsa at the Halkin hotel in Belgravia, was one of the festival’s guests and it was he who inspired me to choose this wonderful recipe.
His specialty is chocolate sweets, and his favorite, chocolate fondant, is a dessert with intense chocolate flavors.
Sergio Sanz Blanco is currently head chef at Ametsa in London, a restaurant that earned a Michelin star within its first year of opening. His talent and the culinary experience he gained with Arzak made the perfect combination that launched his success.
His passion for chocolate, his determination, his culinary talent, and the distinctiveness of his creations motivated me to try my hand at crafting the perfect chocolate dessert. The result is my peach, ginger, chocolate, and tonka entremet, the French term for cake.
The cake begins with a sponge: a fine, delicious sponge with the rich taste of chocolate and chopped walnuts…
Note: Tonka bean is illegal in some countries, including in the US and the UK, as ingesting large amounts can be toxic to humans. Here’s more information on the topic.
Chocolate Peach Entremet
Ingredients
Sponge:
- 3 large eggs
- 3 egg whites
- 100 g butter
- 100 g sugar
- 50 g 80% dark chocolate
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 50 g walnuts
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 20 g starch
- 50 g flour
Chocolate cremeux:
- 150 g dark chocolate
- 150 ml whipping cream
- 100 ml whole milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 50 g brown sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 2 tonka beans
Peach mousse:
- 200 g peach pulp
- 150 g Greek yogurt
- 2 tsp grated ginger
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 50 g powdered sugar
- 4 gelatin sheets
- 250 ml natural whipping cream
Peach jelly:
- 100 g peach pulp
- 250 ml water
- 100 g sugar
- 50 g liquid glucose
- 2 gelatin sheets
Chocolate mousse:
- 300 ml natural whipping cream
- 100 g dark chocolate
- 2 tbsp powdered brown sugar
Chocolate decorations:
- 200 g dark chocolate
Instructions
Sponge:
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over a low heat, stirring from time to time. When the mixture is smooth, turn off the heat and set aside to cool.
- Put the 3 eggs and the sugar in a mixer bowl and mix for 10 minutes until they triple in volume.
- Combine the flour with the starch and then fold the mixture into the egg cream. Incorporate it slowly, with upward movements. Do the same with the melted chocolate.
- Mix the egg whites in another bowl until you get a firm foam. Incorporate the egg whites into the mixture with gentle upward movements.
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C ( 356 °F) and line a 25/35 cm (10×14 inches) baking tray with parchment paper.
- Coarsely chop the walnuts. Add them to the mixture, stirring gently. Pour the mixture into the tray and level it.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test.
- Remove the tray from the oven and flip the cake over onto a wire rack. Remove the parchment paper and leave the cake to cool.
Chocolate cremeux:
- Crush the tonka beans in a mortar and pestle. Coarsely chop the chocolate and put it in a bowl with the finely ground tonka.
- Mix the egg yolks with the sugar until lightly whitened.
- Place the cream and milk over a low heat in a double-bottomed saucepan. When the milk is hot, pour it gradually over the yolks. Mix well. Put the mixture back into the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring gently, until it thickens. The cream should not boil.
- When the cream is ready, pour it over the chocolate and stir well.
- Cut the cake into a 20/30 cm ( 8×12 inches) rectangle and transfer it to a removable mold of the same size.
- Pour the cream on top and spread it over smoothly. Cover the pan with cling film and refrigerate.
Peach mousse:
- Boil the water with 50 grams (1/3 cup) of sugar and a vanilla pod split in two.
- Remove the pits from the peaches, add them to the water and boil for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat and cover the pot.
- Cut 300 grams (1 1/4 cup) of peaches into chunks. Add a drizzle of lemon juice and blend them. Once you have a fine peach purée, strain it through a fine sieve.
- Set aside 100 grams ( 2/3 cup) of the purée for the jelly. Heat up the remaining purée along with the grated ginger.
- Hydrate the gelatin sheets in cold water. After 5 minutes, add it to the peach purée. Mix well.
- Next, add the vanilla and Greek yogurt and mix until fully incorporated. Refrigerate.
- When the peach cream begins to thicken in the refrigerator, add the powdered sugar to the whipping cream and mix until it becomes firm. Then incorporate it into the peach cream.
- Pour 2/3 of the mixture over the cake and place the cake in the refrigerator.
- From the acetate sheet make 2 rolls, 30 cm (12 inches) long and 1.5 cm (1/2 inches) in diameter.
- Put the remaining mousse in a piping bag and fill the two rolls. Close the ends with foil and slide them into the freezer.
Peach jelly:
- Place the water, sugar, and glucose over a medium heat. Boil for 6 minutes, timed from when it beings to boil, to slightly reduce the liquid.
- Strain the peach purée and mix it with the syrup.
- Hydrate the gelatin in cold water. After 5 minutes, add it to the peach juice. Mix well and leave to cool.
- Cut out 6 rectangles of acetate foil of 7/5 cm (3×2 inches) and spread the cooled jelly over the top.
- Remove the mousse rolls from the freezer. Peel off the foil and quickly cut them into 7 cm (3 in) pieces. Roll each piece of mousse in the jelly-covered foil. Secure the rolls with tape and return them to the freezer.
Chocolate mousse:
- Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, then leave it to cool, making sure it doesn't harden.
- Mix the sugar and whipping cream until you get a firm whipped cream. Incorporate it into the cooled chocolate with upward movements. Put the cream in the piping bag.
- Cut the cake into 6 pieces. Decorate each piece with chocolate cream and slide them back into the refrigerator.
Decoration:
- Put two-thirds of the chocolate in the bain-marie and leave until it has melted, around 60 °C (140 °F). Add the rest of the chocolate and stir well to melt and reduce the temperature to 40 °C (104 °F). Turn off the heat. The chocolate is now ready to use.
- Cut one 16×14 cm rectangle and six 7×14 cm (3×6 inches) rectangles from the acetate sheet. Cover the large rectangle with chocolate, spreading it evenly and set aside.
- On the small rectangles, make 7 or 8 chocolate lines, lengthwise. On the short edges (7 cm/ 3 in), draw smaller lines, one on each edge. Then, join the short edges so that the lines are on the inside. Leave the chocolate circles to cool. Follow the procedure shown in the pictures.
- Cut the large sheet of chocolate into rectangles of 2×7 cm (1×3 inches), using a thin knife. Clean the blade after each cut. Put the rectangles in the refrigerator.
Assembly:
- Arrange two chocolate rectangles on each piece of cake, positioning them diagonally.
- Gently peel off the acetate foil around the chocolate spiral and transfer it to the top of the cake.
- Remove a peach mousse roll from the freezer. Peel off the foil and position it in the center of the chocolate spiral. Repeat this step with the remaining 5 pieces.
- Now the cake is ready! Full of flavors, textures, layers, but especially chocolate… waiting for you to taste it.
Enjoy!
Notes
Related: Fraisier Cake (French Strawberry Cake)
Related: Chocolate Cake With Coffee Mousse
Related: Caramel Strawberry Cake
Related: Pistachio Strawberry Cake (Gluten-Free)
Related: Opera Cake (Gâteau Opéra)