Howdy readers! How are we doing? It’s been a minute since I last shared a recipe here- you can thank IG reels for that.

Nonetheless, I’ve got a banger of a recipe for you. This is a very simple, yet not so simple recipe, but as always, it is 100% delicious & sure to woo you and/or your audience. There’s a lot happening so strap on and keep up :))

First and foremost, let’s look at the flavours & the components of this glorious cake. We’ve got:

Sable breton
Vanilla whipped chantilly
Plum compote
Pistachio praline
Pistachio Dacquoise
Rose & plum jelly

Yup, lots happening. Don’t be turned off by the sheer number of components. In actuality, each of these components are incredibly easy and I’m not kidding, when I tell you that it only took me 2 hours of active work, true story. Like I said, each component is incredibly simple and you’ll go on to see what I’m talking about.

So as you can see, pistachio & plum are our champs for today. Pistachio with any stone fruit in general is a brilliant combination as it is so I’m not going to spend time raving about how delicious this tastes, because c’mon, we are no amateurs here. I wouldn’t be sharing it with you otherwise. However, what makes this cake interesting are the textures. Lots of fun textures going on here.

If you’ve been following MYS for a while, you know I’m an ardent texture fan. Pastry is all about textures and the better the textures, the better your dessert tastes. To dissect this from bottom up, we’ve got sable breton at the very base of it, which has got a delicate, crumbly texture that melts in your mouth. The vanilla chantilly has the smoothest, velvety mouthfeel. You’ve got pistachio praline which is just delicious & envelops the flavours of plum & vanilla together due to its fat content (nuts being high in fat). Plum compote is really light & tangy with a slight bite due to chunks of plum in there. Then there’s pistachio dacquoise which is a French style meringue sponge that is chewy when fresh but absorbs the moisture from the cream after sitting overnight, making it nice and soft. And lastly, we’ve got rose & plum jelly, which well, is how jelly should be. Imagine biting into this, ah heaven!

Oh, I forgot the chocolate garnishes. I mean, who doesn’t love a bit of chocolate feathers on their cake hehe.

If you’re new to French Pastry and words like sable breton & dacquoise sound alien to you, don’t you worry, I’ve got you. Time to put on your smart hats!

Sable breton

Sable breton is one of the types of pastries that is incredibly delicate and crumbly in texture. They are also really light, with slight flakiness to them. Sable literally translates to sandy in english, giving it the characteristic sandy, crumbly texture that melts in your mouth. It’s similar to a pate sucree (sweet shortcrust pastry), except it’s more delicate and uses a touch of baking powder for its lightness.

Dacquoise

Dacquoise, pronounced as dack-waas, is a type of French sponge, that is crisp and chewy when fresh but gets soft as it absorbs the moisture from the frosting/cream. Dacquoise is a nut meringue sponge, giving it its signature chewy texture. Typically made with almond meal, but it is incredibly versatile and you can use any nut meal (powdered nuts) to make your dacquoise. In this particular recipe, I’ve used half & half pistachio and almond meal but you can easily do a 1:1 substitution if you prefer.

Plum compote & jelly

Lastly, let’s talk about this plum compote and jelly. I have first poached the plums and then cooked them down to a compote. The reason? Stone fruits are very mild in flavour so cooking them twice helps to bring out as much flavour as possible. Plus, poaching allows you to subtly infuse the plums with any additional flavour, without it bearing overbearing or too strong.

Not only does poaching bring out more flavour, the poaching liquid is then used as the base for our jelly, double bonanza!

Beautiful, now that we are familiar with what’s what, let’s move on to the recipe so that you can recreate these in your kitchens as soon as possible! I’ve also included my personal recommendation of how I would approach the recipe, along with the timeline. Bon appetite xx

Recipe

Serves: 6

Ingredients

For the sable breton:

125g plain flour
5g baking powder
63g unsalted butter, at room temperature
50g castor sugar
25g egg yolks, at room temperature
2g salt

For the pistachio dacquoise:

87g icing sugar
40g pistachios
40g almond meal
87g egg whites, at room temperature
30g castor sugar

For the plum compote:

125g castor sugar (a)
125g water
1/2 cinnamon quill
2 strips of orange peel
200g plums, halved & seed removed
10g castor sugar (b)
3g gelatine leaf

For the vanilla chantilly:

300g heavy cream
15g liquid glucose (optional)
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla pod
3.5g gelatine powder
18g cold water
50g mascarpone
70g white chocolate

For the plum & rose jelly:

140g poaching liquid (reserved from plum compote)
2 tbsp dried rose petals
5g gelatine leaf
60g pistachio praline for assembly *

Method

For the sable breton:

Prepare the dough on day 1: In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until soft and slightly pale ~ approx 2-3 mins. (You can do this either by hand using a spatula or use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment)
Add the egg yolk and salt and mix to combine properly.
Sift together the flour & baking powder. Add to the butter-egg mix and mix until the dough just comes together. Do not over-work.
Personal suggestion: Mix until the flour is hydrated and then turn out the dough onto your work surface and use your hands to bring the dough together, without over-kneading it. Cover with cling wrap & refrigerate for minimum 2 hours or preferably overnight.
On Day 2: Roll out the dough to 4mm thickness. Chill for 15 mins.
Preheat the oven to 160C (fan-forced) or 170C (deck oven).
Use a 14cm cake ring to cut out a circle and bake the sable with the ring for 10-15 mins or until golden brown. Let cool completely.

For the pistachio dacquoise:

Prepare on Day1: Preheat the oven to 170C (fan-forced) or 180C (deck oven). Trace two circles of 14cm each on a baking paper. Grease a baking tray (mine is 25x38cm) with oil, and line with the traced baking paper. Keep aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, start whipping the egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy.
Once foamy, gradually start adding the castor sugar in two parts and whip to a medium-stiff meringue.
Meanwhile, while the meringue is whipping, blitz together the icing sugar and pistachios to fine crumbs. Add the almond meal and blitz for a few seconds. You should have a lump free nut-sugar mix. Keep aside.
Once the meringue is ready, gently fold in the nut-sugar mix in two parts, careful not to deflate the meringue.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a 9mm nozzle and pipe over the traced circles. If you have leftover mixture, feel free to pipe all of it.
Bake at 170C for 10-15 mins or until the dacquoise is dry to touch. Take it out of the oven and use the 14cm cake ring to cut the dacquoise to size again. Return the tray to the oven and bake for another 5 mins or until nice and crisp. Turn off the oven & let the dacquoise sit inside to dry out completely for another 10 mins or so. Cool completely.
If making on Day 1, once completely cooled, wrap the tray well with cling wrap and leave at room temperature overnight.

For the plum compote:

Prepare this on Day 1: In a small pot, add the castor sugar (a), water, orange peel and cinnamon quill and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to very low and add in the halved, de-seeded plums. Poach for 20-30 minutes.
Remove the plums from the poaching liquid, and dice them to 1/2 cm cubes. Strain & reserve this poaching liquid for the jelly later.
Add the diced plums to the pot, along with castor sugar (b) over low heat and cook to a compote.
Meanwhile, soak the gelatine leaf in cold water for 10 minutes until soft. Squeeze the excess water and keep the bloomed gelatine aside.
Once the compote is ready, remove from the heat and add in the soaked gelatine. Stir to melt and mix. Let cool completely. Refrigerate until use.

For the vanilla chantilly:

Prepare on Day 1: Soak the 3.5 g gelatine powder in 18g cold water and keep aside to bloom for 10 mins.
Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate.
Heat the heavy cream along with the liquid glucose & vanilla until warm (40°C). Add the bloomed gelatine to the warm cream & mix.
Pour the cream over the melted chocolate in three parts, stirring well after each addition.
Add in the mascarpone and mix well. Use an immersion blender to emulsify well. Place cling wrap on the surface of the chantilly mix and refrigerate overnight or minimum 8 hours.
Whip to medium stiff peaks the next day and transfer to a piping bag. Use immediately in assembly as instructed below.

Assembly: Day 2

Line a 14cm cake ring with acetate paper (7cm in height). Place the sable breton at the base of the ring. (If needed, use a microplane to smooth out the edges to ensure that it fits into the ring)
Pipe 120g of whipped chantilly on top of the sable and smoothen using a palette knife. Pipe another 30g of chantilly, this time as a dam to stop the compote from spilling out.
Pipe a layer of pistachio praline inside this dam.
Next, add 100g plum compote inside the dam and smoothen out using a palette knife.
Place a layer of pistachio dacquoise on top and press down lightly to ensure there are no air pockets. (Use the microplane trick if the dacquoise doesn’t fit as easily)
Repeat the chantilly process, along with the pistachio praline & plum compote.
Place the second layer of pistachio dacquoise on top and press down lightly.
Pipe a thin layer of chantilly (roughly 75-100g) on top and use a palette knife to smoothen and even out the top as much as possible. Freeze the cake for 30 mins.

For the plum & rose jelly:

While the cake is freezing, make the jelly: Soak the gelatine leaf in cold water for 10 mins or until soft. Squeeze out the excess water and keep aside the bloomed gelatine.
Warm up the poaching liquid in a small pot. Add the dried rose petals and infuse for 10 mins.
While the liquid is still warm, add the bloomed gelatine and mix to melt completely. If it doesn’t melt completely, put the pot on the heat for a few seconds.
Let the jelly cool down to 35°C and pour over the cake. Freeze again for 1 hour or refrigerate overnight.

Final decoration: Day 3

Once the jelly is well set, remove the cake ring and the acetate. If using a chocolate collar, carefully place the collar around the cake.
Decorate with gold leaf, if using. Refrigerate until ready to serve.**

Notes:

*- You can use either store bought pistachio praline, or make your own. I make my own using 60g of lightly roasted pistachio, 45g sugar & 10g water. Caramelise the sugar & water together until golden brown. Add the roasted pistachios & cook for 30 seconds, stirring continuously. Transfer to a silpat and cool completely before blitzing to a nice paste.

**- The dacquoise benefits from staying in the fridge overnight. So it’s better to serve the cake the day after it is assembled.

I want to become a better baker

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