Ah, I had promised you that we would soon move on to fruit recipes! Besides, I don't know if you noticed, but I changed the site's navigation. It aims to be clearer and should allow you to find a recipe more easily. On this occasion, I realized that I had published many chocolate cakes recently, so expect fruit and citrus recipes in the coming weeks. But today, it's in the "entremets" category that we're going to add a new recipe: the strawberry cake with hazelnut and white chocolate.
It had been ages since I made a fraisier, I think my last one was from my CAP certification. I don't particularly like it (I prefer a nice box of plain strawberries) and it's a bit fragile to transport, so it's not my favorite dessert. Still, a few days ago, I felt like making a fraisier but not necessarily a classic CAP-style fraisier (but I'll detail you the recipe one day).
I'm not comfortable with the subject of revisited recipes (that and photography are areas where I'll try to improve in the coming months). I never know how to go about it and how to revisit a recipe. So I trusted the magazine Crazy about Pastry from May-June to guide me and I finally opted for Eddie Benghanem's version. Yes, I'm giving you a palace version (it's the recipe served at the Trianon Palace), we can say I really went all out for you ^^. I think I especially fell for the square aesthetic and the strawberries arranged with the "bottom" of the strawberry on the outside, I find that really modern.
The recipe is not very complicated and really accessible as long as you have a bit of time ahead of you. You'll simply need a 20×20 cm pastry frame. You can use an expandable frame but it has the disadvantage of leaving marks on the cake at the hinge level. It comes in handy when you're making large cakes to cut into very small squares, but I find that a 20×20 cm is very useful on a daily basis (I have both: an expandable one and a 20×20). I also recommend investing in a 30 cm offset spatula, it's really super practical and will save you many disasters.
In this fraisier, the traditional sponge cake is replaced by a less traditional but no less delicious dacquoise that adds texture to the cake. The mousseline cream (which is usually made by adding butter to warm pastry cream) is replaced in this recipe by a white chocolate and lime zest mousse. The ganache gives the fraisier a certain lightness that mousseline cream cannot boast of. Of course, I recommend using good strawberries (Plougastel ones for my part).
Even though I only managed to save a small portion, I really enjoyed this fraisier revisited. I'm not very satisfied with my decoration and I think my almond paste heated a bit during the photo shoot. Still, I think it really looks good and I would make it again without hesitation.
For assembly, it's not very complicated but you have to be precise. The dacquoise (which is simply a mixture of meringue, hazelnut powder and almonds) must be spread evenly so you can cut 2 squares to the size of the frame. The ganache that we'll add after the strawberries will help smooth out some imperfections, but the cleaner you are at each step, the more successful the final result will be.
By the way, for the ganache, nothing too complicated. We make a classic white chocolate and lime ganache (which we stick a bit with a gelatin leaf) and when it's lukewarm we gently add whipped cream.
For the strawberries, I removed the stems and laid them on the dacquoise as Eddie Benghanem does (whereas usually we cut them in half and put the inside of the half-strawberry facing outward on the cake). I kind of cheated on the corners, I cut slices that I inserted between two strawberries (because at the corners the 2 strawberries are perpendicular and leave an unsightly hole). I find this assembly really nice and modern.
By the way, a tip after removing the frame (or rather removing the collar in this case), take a large knife to "pare" the cake (that is, cut a very thin slice so it's straight), this will allow you to clearly see the strawberries and remove the ganache that may have gotten in between. In the end, we have a really indulgent, light and truly aesthetic fraisier.
And you, does this palace-style strawberry cake with hazelnut and white chocolate inspire you?
