Guest Desserts: Brunette Torte

Have you ever dreamed of living in an exotic locale spending your days surrounded by chocolate and working as a pastry chef? Well, today's delicious reader submission is a Brunette Torte invented by Laura, a novice pastry chef living in Argentina. 

Several months ago, Laura contacted me on Twitter for some baking advice. After finishing her dessert design, she shared this picture. Last weekend, she completed her education to become a pastry chef. When Laura saw my invitation for reader submissions, she sent me one of the most gorgeous, chocolatel-y emails I've ever received. This brunette torte was Laura's final exam project to complete her training.

 

Laura and her baking partner tweaked the brunette torte recipe they invented for six weeks until it was perfect! Here, Laura explains a little bit about the process:   

 

Brunette Torte. That's the name of the gateau my classmate and I made for our final exam to become pastry chefs. The name was chosen out of it being all brown and earthy and rustic. When we first started thinking about this cake, we wanted to make something "simple" and not too creamy, since we're used to making mousses and bavaroises and all of those cream-based preparations in school.

 

We ended up doing a spiced base with sliced figs (which is a quatre quarts full of spices like cinnamon, anise, cardamom, and lots of other wonderful things). Right above that is the salted caramel, that since it's poured on the base when it's still hot, it kind of sucks into it, making it even more moistened.

Then comes the first layer of hazelnut Joconde. We didn't process the hazelnut until it was dust, [instead] we left some small pieces of it to give texture to the cake on every bite. Following you'll find the Nutella Mousseline and again another layer of Hazelnut Joconde.

 

The last preparation is a chocolates cremoux. It's made with 3/4 milk chocolate and 1/4 dark chocolate. Final touches were given by a chocolate coating made by a special "chocolate gun." We also added fresh pepper and mint water to drink with the cake. You can make this by just bringing to boil water with a few pepper seeds, mint leaves and sugar. Let it cool in the fridge and enjoy. 

Laura's instructor, Maese Chef Patissier Osvaldo Gross, gave the pair's brunette torte a 9.5 out of 10. Laura is pleased with her grade, and I must say, it's pretty impressive. Congratulations, Laura! Thank you so much for sharing. 

Fellow readers, please show Laura a little cyber love in the comments section and let know what you think of her creation. 


Have a dessert or recipe to share? Email me at info {at} shaunayounge.com. I'll be back with the next recipe in the Holiday Recipe Heaven series later today. See you soon!