Pannacotta Lamington
Hola! How’s everybody doing?
I’m here, well and alive. Well, ‘well’ may be a stretch but I’m alive! Haha, kidding! Let’s just quickly address the elephant in the room and then we can get back to our recipe? The reason I’ve been ‘away’ for a month is because I have recently started working full-time and the holiday crunch time is real in hospitality so it’s been incredibly busy at the restaurant. Hence, I have minimal to no time on my hands at the moment. However, I have managed to get this recipe working as promised and here it is! Apologies for the delay friends. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the good things in life aka Lamingtons (yum!).
If you’re from Australia or have ever visited this gorgeous (and huge!) country, you’re all too familiar with this sweet treat. It’s pretty fantastic really. I mean, if I had to describe it for you, it’s basically a super light vanilla sponge, sandwiched together with some good ol’ fashioned jam, dunked in some luscious chocolate sauce and then coated with shredded coconut. Sounds pretty darn good, doesn’t it? Oh and yes it is, indeed! Ever since moving to Australia, I have absolutely loved Lamingtons. This particular recipe is extra special because we are taking it up a notch and soaking our sponge in some pannacotta to make it extra delicious! This is inspired by a super famous bakery here in Sydney, Flour and Stone and their amazing pannacotta lamingtons. It makes the sponge so moist and adds a really nice flavour throughout. It does add an extra step to the whole process but the results are so worth it. The first bite into this soft, pillowy, velvety sponge with chocolate, jam and coconut running through….ahhh bliss! Are you sold yet? Yup? Amazing, let’s just get to it then I guess!
#NerdAlert
Let’s break this down a bit, so that you’re really understanding the concepts behind the recipe and will help you achieve the best results.
The sponge that we are using in the recipe is called Genoise (pronounced jen-waaz). It’s one of the most popular and versatile sponges in French baking. Genoise is a super simple enriched sponge that is made with only 4 ingredients- eggs, sugar, flour and butter. It gets its volume and aeration from whisking the eggs and sugar to a thick ribbon stage which makes it super light and fluffy. Note that it is an enriched sponge because of the addition of butter, adding a nicer mouthfeel and flavour. The most basic French sponge is only made with three ingredients- eggs, sugar and flour.
The trick to making a beautiful and light genoise is really whisking your eggs and sugar to get that aeration and then gently folding in the butter and flour to retain as much air as possible.
To get your Lamingtons to look perfect, the best trick is to freeze your sponge after sandwiching with jam and portioning it. When dunked in chocolate sauce, the sponge will not slide off and you’ll get a clean looking lamington.
I also like to use a small amount of coconut at a time for coating, for my lamingtons to look as clean as possible as the chocolate will stain the coconut and by the time you’re on your last sandwich square, it’s going to look super messy. So my advice is to keep adding small batches of coconut to your bowl for minimal mess and staining.
Let’s get you in the kitchen and baking because this is one hell of a recipe! It’s also really time efficient as you can space out each step over a few days if you’re on a busy schedule. You can make it ahead and freeze until you actually need it so works perfectly for a dinner party or gathering. Just gotta finish it off on the day and you’re all set to impress! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I loved creating it for you. Bon appetite and happy baking! xx
Recipe
Serves: 8
Ingredients
For the sponge:
200g eggs ~ approx. 4 eggs
100g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract/ 1/2 vanilla bean
125g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
25g unsalted butter, melted
For the pannacotta soak:
100g coconut milk
100g pure cream
20g castor sugar
1/2 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 leaf gelatine, titanium (or substitute 5g of any other leaf gelatine)
15g dark rum
For the chocolate sauce:
8g good quality cocoa powder
25ml milk
88g hot boiling water
75g good quality dark chocolate, (I use 60% cocoa solids)
25g good quality milk chocolate (I use 41% cocoa solids)
50g icing sugar, sifted
Assembly:
Store bought/homemade raspberry jam
75g dried shredded coconut
75g dried shaved coconut*
Method
For the sponge:
Preheat oven to 180C (fan-forced) or 190C (conventional oven).
Grease an 8” square baking tray with butter and line with baking paper. Keep aside.
Using a stand mixer or a hand held electric beater, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla together at medium to high speed to a thick ribbon stage, about 8-10 mins. The mix should be pale, quadrupled in volume and should fall in thick ribbons, holding its shape for a few seconds.
Meanwhile, sieve the flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl. Keep aside.
Once the egg mix is ready, transfer the mix to a large mixing bowl. Gently fold in the flour using a spatula until no lumps remain, careful to retain as much air as possible.
Lastly, add about a couple tablespoons of the batter to the melted butter and whisk together. Then pour this in with the rest of batter and gently fold until no butter streaks remain.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking tray and bake for 15-20 mins or until golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean when tested. Let it cool. Do not remove the cake from the cake tin.
For the pannacotta soak:
While the cake is in the oven, prepare this soak.
Soak the gelatine leaf in a bowl of cold water. Let it bloom for 5-10 mins. Once soft, squeeze out the excess water and save the bloomed gelatine for use.
In a small saucepan, heat together the coconut milk, cream, scraped vanilla bean and sugar until almost boiling.
Remove from heat, add in the bloomed gelatine and mix until the gelatine has completely dissolved.
Add in the rum and keep aside to cool to room temperature.
Once the pannacotta has cooled, poke holes all over the cake and pour over the cake in 2-3 parts, letting it completely absorb after each addition.
Cover the cake and refrigerate overnight.
Assembling the layers: The next day
Remove the cake from the cake tin onto a chopping board. Cut the cake in half and spread a thin even layer of raspberry jam on one half of the cake.
Flip the other half of the cake over on top so that you are left with a big lamington sandwich with the jam sandwiched between two sponges.
Trim the edges slightly and then divide the sandwich into 8 portions of 4.5cm squares each. You can go larger if you wish, with fewer portions.
Freeze the cut squares while you prepare the chocolate sauce.
For the chocolate sauce:
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and milk until completely smooth.
Add in the boiling water and whisk.
Add the dark and milk chocolate and whisk until the chocolate has completely dissolved and no lumps remain.
Lastly, add the sifted icing sugar and whisk to get a smooth luscious chocolate sauce.
For a better emulsion, you can also stick blend the sauce at this point (optional). Transfer the chocolate sauce to a jug or a deep bowl so that you can completely submerge the sandwich squares when coating. Keep aside.
Final assembly:
Mix together both types of coconut. Transfer only half of this mix to a shallow bowl.
Prepare your mise en place to have the chocolate sauce and coconut ready. Also have a wire rack ready to place the lamingtons.
Remove the sandwich squares from the freezer. Dip each square into the chocolate sauce and place on the wire rack to let excess chocolate drip.
Once all the squares are dipped, start coating each of them in the coconut mix to cover all the sides. Keep topping up the coconut bowl with fresh mix for minimal staining of coconut.
Place the finished lamingtons in the fridge to set for half an hour. Serve with a cuppa joe or tea and enjoy!
Notes:
*- If you cannot find shredded and shaved, you can simply substitute one for the other. The two types of coconut used are for textural and appearance purposes.
If you enjoyed that and tried it at home, please tag me at @myyummyspatula on Instagram so that I can see all your bakes! For more BTS stories, updates and fun, you can follow long here:
