Strawberry Shortcake
Sponge Cake:
4 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
100 g sugar
80 g cake flour, sifted
60 g melted butter
Filling:
100 g mascarpone cheese, room temperature
50 g sugar
250 g heavy cream
Cointreau or Grand Marnier (or Kirsch)
fresh sweet strawberries, sliced (set aside some whole ones for decoration)
- To make the sponge cake: Preheat the oven to 350F and lined two 8" square pan with parchment paper
- Beat the eggs (whole and yolks) with the sugar on a med-high speed until the mixture is very thick and pale (ribbon-stage)
- Incorporate the flour in three addition and fold carefully as not to lose too much air
- Fold in the melted butter until well-mixed
- Divide the batter between two prepared pans and bake it for about 20 minutes or until done.
- Let cool on a wire rack
- To make the filling: Combine the mascarpone cheese, sugar, heavy cream, and liqueur, and beat until it forms a semi-stiff peak but still has its shine. Use it immediately
- To assemble: Put one layer of cake on a base and spread the filling on top.
- Arrange the strawberry slices and top it with the other cake.
- Spread another thin layer of filling on top and decorate all you want
- If you don't have enough filling for the top layer or to decorate it with, just simply whip fresh whipped cream with a little sugar (you can add liqueur if you want).
Strawberry Sorbet
adapted from Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse's Desserts and Pastries
750 g strawberry puree
60 g atomized glucose
120 g sugar
80 ml water
3/4 tsp sorbet stabilizer
- Put the water and atomized glucose in a sacepan and bring it to a gentle boil.
- Mix the sugar and the sorbet stabilizer, and add it to the water mixture and bring it back to a boil.
- Let cool completely (you can put this mixture in a fridge overnight)
- Mix the cool syrup with strawberry puree and let it the mixture "mature" in the fridge for 24 hrs
- Churn it in an ice cream machine
Note:
- The book says to mix everything (except the strawberry puree) without boiling them first. I boiled mine to dissolved the sugar.
- The book also suggests another alternative, which is to boil all ingredients to a certain temperature, and cool it for 24 hrs before churning.
- The mixture needs to sit for a long time to let the stabilizer develop its role, but I also read a few other recipes (not from the book) which only matures the sugar syrup overnight and churn it immediately after being mixed with the puree. Some doesn't even require maturing, just mix and churn.
