::Whisk Wednesdays::
Welcome to Whisk Wednesdays!

Hollandaise sauce
This week it's Hollandaise sauce, another of the five mother sauces. (Velouté, Espagnole, Béchamel, and Tomato are the others.) Hollandaise is similar to mayonnaise and lemon curd, but it's served warm.

Hollandaise is basically a sabayon, which is a foamy, emulsified mixture of yolks and liquid (in this case water). If you were to add sugar and a sweet wine, you would have zabaglione. But, today we're adding a ton (only half a pound) of butter to the sabayon.

History and Tips
Hollandaise dates back to the 17th century and used to be named Sauce Isigny, which is a town in Normandy famous for its butter. However, during World War I, France could no longer produce butter so they imported it from Holland and the name stuck. (from Linda Stradley at What's Cooking America)

Hollandaise is a tricky beast and requires constant attention, sorta like kids. You must whisk constantly to ensure the eggs don't stick to the bottom of the pan and to keep the texture smooth, not grainy.

There are different ways of making hollandaise: with a double boiler or directly over the flame. With clarified butter or with cubes of unsalted butter. With a blender or just a whisk.

Today, I tried putting the yolks directly over the flame (or burner, in my case!) and whisked constantly. I also made two batches: one using clarified butter and the other using butter cubes. The sauce with the clarified butter was runnier, plus I prefer the flavor from using the milk solids from good 'ol butter (and I'm not wasting any precious butter).

Earlier this year, I made lemon curd for a lemon cream tart and at the same time tried making a hollandaise sauce following the method suggested for Dorie's The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart. It turned out great. This is yet another option for making hollandaise.

Hollandaise Trouble
Many things can go wrong with this sauce, but here are the tips I found to try to correct the problem.

• If curdled, blend in a blender although the texture won't be the same. You may just want to start over.

• If broken, try whisking in a little cream or water. The sauce may break if it becomes too hot. In this case cooling it off with cold water or an ice cube might do the trick.

• If too thick, add a little boiling water.

• If too thin, you may have added the butter too fast.

If you have the time (and an extra half pound of butter lying around), just start over! That's what I ended up doing after finding my first batch too runny. I put it back on the stove to reheat since it had been sitting out too long for the photo shoot(!), which quickly caused it to break into many pieces!

Watch a Pro
• Here is a great video showing how to make hollandaise.

• Here is another video with Alton Brown demonstrating hollandaise.

Links
I also found these cool links:

• Here's one that shows a picture of deep-fried hollandaise!

• Here's a good article with more background information about hollandaise.

Recipe: Hollandaise

You can find the recipe for Hollandaise in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the group fared (all 3 of us!) with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger!

Sauce Moutarde

For a variation, you can add Dijon mustard (or whatever mustard you want) to taste. This version tasted great on a ham roast we had. I also tried it on asparagus and the Eggs Benedict and loved it on these too.

Recipe: Eggs Benedict

Serves: 1

1 English Muffin, toasted
1-2 slices back bacon, cooked
1 poached egg
Hollandaise sauce
Freshly ground black pepper

Tasting Notes
Eggs Benedict always seemed so special when we went out for breakfast. Everyone else would order it, and I would order my French Toast. Now, though, I've discovered how much I love this heart-unfriendly breakfast fare and plan on making it more often. The hollandaise was rich and buttery, smooth and creamy, with a slight tang from the lemon. The hardest part of this dish is getting the poached egg properly poached (not too underdone and not too overdone). I still need practice on this front.

The mustard version was delicious too, perfect for a variation on Eggs Benedict or with ham and asparagus.

The best tip I learned was to use a thermos to store the Hollandaise sauce in until you're ready to serve. Brilliant, I tell you.

Next Week (June 25)
• Sauce Béarnaise (Warm emulsified sauce derived from Hollandaise sauce) on page 250

• Coeur de Filet Henri IV (Filet mignons with artichokes and Béarnaise sauce)

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $440.68 + $3.31 (Hollandaise) + $2.40 (Eggs Benedict) = $446.39

Butter used so far: 5 pounds, 29 tablespoons

. . . . . . . . . .

Check out the other posts for Whisk Wednesdays:

Grandma's Kitchen Table - Hollandaise Sauce and Moutarde Sauce
InsomniMom - Hollandaise and Sauce Moutarde

More to Explore:

• Index of Recipes
• Visual Recipe Index

This week with Dorie we’re making pâte à choux, a magical pastry that’s cooked twice (once on the stove and once in the oven), puffs, and tastes so light that you think it could be good for you! Ever since I saw a picture of choux swans, I’ve wanted to make them. And this week I had my chance.

Pâte à choux (pronounced “shoe”), also called choux paste, dates back to 1540 and comes from the word “choux”, which means cabbage in French— that’s what pâte à choux looks like when baked as traditional cream puffs, supposedly.

Traditional choux paste contains four simple ingredients: butter, water, flour, and eggs. Dorie’s recipe includes some milk, sugar and salt for extra flavor. I ended up adding a bit of extra flour (about ¼ cup) so that the batter would come together in the pot. This meant that I had to add an extra egg as well, but everything worked out fine in the end.

Pâte à choux is such a versatile recipe, and can be used for both sweet and savory dishes, such as Gougères or chouquettes, Pommes dauphine, Croquembouche, Paris-Brest, and Gnocchi à la Parisienne.

Swans
To make the swans, you can pipe teardrop shapes, which become the wings when cut in half. I used a cream puff bottom for the base of the swan. The other half of the cream puff can be cut to make wings if you don't want to pipe out tear drop shapes.

To make the neck, pipe the number "2" on parchment paper. Make sure you watch the oven when you bake these since they burn really fast. (I only had one that was photo-worthy!)

To make the eyes, use a toothpick and dot some melted chocolate at the end of the number "2".

Links
Here’s a great article about choux pastry.

Here’s a video of making choux paste swans.

Recipe: Peppermint Cream Puff Ring

You can find the recipe for Peppermint Cream Puff Ring in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours (affiliate link) by Dorie Greenspan or at Bon Appetit. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Caroline of A Consuming Passion who chose the recipe for this week (and has also posted the recipe).

Tasting Notes
The minty, fresh taste of the cream with the lightness and slightly chewy texture of the choux and the richness of the chocolate was a perfect combination of flavors. I absolutely loved it! It was worth all the pastry bags I went through to make this dessert!

My kids enjoyed some of the cream puffs filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce since their palate is not refined enough to like mint! Another favorite was the peppermint cream over raspberries. Mmm, delicious.


I also used the peppermint cream on top of lemon bars! Mint and lemon are a winning combination, and this cream is so versatile.

You can store the cream puffs in an airtight container for a week or in the freezer. This is so dangerous to have on the counter that I think I’ll have to find room in the freezer! Another winning recipe from Dorie!

Note: I just read several great posts about choux paste over at Joe Pastry. Check it out!

Recipe for Next Week (June 24)
Mixed Berry Cobbler on pages 416-417 chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life.

I love lemon desserts, but I've never made lemon bars. These are tart lemon bars that are a welcome reprieve from the sweeter dessert fare.

It's like a lemon meringue pie with a shortbread crust and no meringue. Tangy, delicious, and especially good with Dorie Greenspan's peppermint cream.

Bottom
The bottom is a shortbread-like crust that you can easily push into the pan using a measuring cup or your fingers. Ellie's has icing sugar and vanilla that might be even more flavorful. Then you bake it in the oven for a bit.

Middle
The filling is easy because you just whisk it and then bake it off (after you've baked the crust).

Top
Dust with icing sugar, and you're done. You can top with peppermint cream for even more decadence.

Recipe: Lemon Bars

You can find a video of a similar recipe for Lemon Bars here.

What a week it was! Ups, downs, and everything in-between.

• First, my brownie popsicles made The Kitchn's Seen, noted, and found delicious for June 9.

• Someone named Dorie made a nice comment about my Strawberry Tart. Could it be the famous Dorie Greenspan?

• I had to change my Blogger template since I was causing people’s computers to crash! Not good.

• Tastespotting (my favorite place to procrastinate and admire) died. I’m still in mourning. But just found Food Gawker. I'm so relieved!

• I found a couple of other cooking buddies (Kayte and Shelley) who want to join me on this cooking school curriculum journey that I’m working on. (Kayte’s computer is the one that crashed every time she visited, and she’s still interested in cooking with me!) I’m calling it "Whisk Wednesdays", and if you want to join in on the fun, click HERE for more information. We’d love to have you join us! Now, we just need a cute little avatar...

• Lastly, Mara from Lick the Spatula, who has some amazing looking treats on her blog, tagged me.

The rules:

Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What was I doing ten years ago?
Expecting Baby #1.

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today? {is blogging considered “non-work”???}
1. catch up on reading other food blogs (only 360 feeds left to read!)
2. make hollandaise and eggs Benedict
3. take pictures of hollandaise
4. eat said eggs Benedict
5. write about hollandaise
Right now, everything that isn’t blogging seems like work to me. Sad, but true. I gotta get a life!!

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. carrots
2. cherries
3. plain chips and Helluva Good Dip
4. coffee cake
5. puffed wheat cake (I have been known to eat a whole pan myself in a very short amount of time)

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. travel
2. live on a beach
3. eat in all the 3-star Michelin restaurants in the world
4. eat street food in as many different countries as I could
5. hire someone to clean my house, do the laundry...

Places I've lived:
1. Madang, Papua New Guinea
2. Regina, Saskatchewan
3. Ottawa, Ontario

Jobs I've had:
1. babysitter
2. writer
3. caterer
4. mom

Béchamel (pronounced bay-shah-mel) is a thickened white sauce, also known as a milk sauce and is one of the five mother sauces. (Velouté, Espagnole, Hollandaise, and Tomato are the others.)

Although I make a mean homemade mac ‘n cheese, I didn’t know I was, in fact, making Béchamel as a starting point. I used to run home from school every day hoping we were getting macaroni and cheese for lunch and enjoying it while watching re-runs of Flintstones on TV. My daughters love homemade macaroni too, but I remember feeding it to my daughters and their friends, and their friends not finishing it because it wasn’t Kraft Dinner!

Some Notes about Béchamel
Béchamel is similar to velouté, but the liquid that’s added is milk, not stock.

If you don’t include the veal in the recipe, it’s known as Béchamel Maigre (which means lean Béchamel).

Although you don’t have to heat the milk first, doing so makes it easier to achieve a smooth sauce. Also, the sauce thickens faster since it doesn’t have to come up to temperature first. There is great debate about whether to add hot liquid to a cold roux or cold liquid to hot roux. I've done both, and as long as I've vigorously whisked it, I haven't had any lumps.

Steeping the milk with aromatics (such as thyme and bay) while you bring it to a boil enhances the flavor of the Béchamel.

The sauce should coat the back of a spoon, called nappe (pronounced nap), which means tablecloth in French.

History
Catherine de Medici's Tuscan cooks brought Béchamel to France from Italy in the 17th Century. The sauce was named after a courtier, Louis de Béchameil, marquis de Nointel (1630–1703) who was maitre d'hotel of the French King Louis XIV. (Wikipedia)

Watch a Pro
Click here to watch a pro make Béchamel.

Great articles
I found some great articles about Béchamel while researching this topic:
• A roux awakening by Peter Hertzmann
• History of Sauces by Linda Stradley at the website What's Cooking America
• Cream Sauces - Béchamel and Hollandaise by Jack Lang at the eGullet Society

Recipe: Béchamel

from Rogov's Ramblings

Makes: about 2 cups

La Palette is a small café in the heart of Paris that offers (among other things) wine by the glass, salads, croque monsieur, and this delicious but easy strawberry tart. Dorie Greenspan once ate this tart on the patio and then recreated the recipe for her book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

This recipe is super easy: strawberries, jam, and a cookie crust are the only requirements. The rest are optional.

Top
I used a homemade strawberry, peach and lavender jam that I made last summer. On the weekend, I found the strawberries at a local market, and they happened to be locally grown! Perfect.

I’ve been saving a Framboise I picked up at Puddicombe Estate Winery in Southern Ontario last year, so I had the makings of a 100-mile dessert. After practicing last week with flambéing, I did it again this week with the strawberries and Framboise. It added an extra flavor boost to the berries.

Bottom
The tart shell is simple too, and one that I’ve made before for The Most Extraordinary Lemon Tart. It’s a firm crust, more cookie than pastry that holds up well as finger food. I rolled it out on the removable bottom of the tart pan with a sheet of wax paper on top. Then I lifted the bottom and placed it carefully in the ring and patched the sides as needed.

Side
Following Dorie’s advice, I made a crème fraiche using the recipe I’ve used before from this article to serve alongside the tart.

Recipe

You can find the recipe for La Palette’s Strawberry Tart in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or at Serious Eats. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! 

Carrie over at Carrie's Kitchen Creations gave me a "Blogging with a Purpose" award, and I'm so flattered and honored! Thank you so much, Carrie! Carrie has a great Tips section on her blog, beautiful pictures of food, and is a fellow member of the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group. Now, I get to pass on the blog love.

1. Nominate 5 blogs which haven’t had this award before.
2. Each of the blogs must have a purpose.
3. The nominated blogs must make a link back to this page.
4. The logo from the award must be put on their blog and it must link back to this blog.

Here are some of my favorite blogs and a blurb about how they blog with purpose:

a whisk and a spoon - To show us how beautiful food can be
Cakespy - To inform and entertain
Ezra Pound Cake - To share a smile and some delicious cake
Kitchen Wench - To share her family's Korean recipes and other tasty treats
Playing with Fire and Water - To experiment and teach

Check them out! Thanks again, Carrie!

I always thought demi-glace (pronounced DEHM-ee glahs) was stock reduced by half. If only it were that simple and "basic" as the title suggests!

A simple stock reduction refers to glace de viande (pronounced glahs duh vee-AHND). Traditional demi-glace is much more involved, literally means half glaze, and requires even more hours in the kitchen babysitting stock. It is half stock and half Espagnole (pronounced ehs-pah-NYOHL) sauce that are then reduced by half. This traditional method is a little passé according to an article on StyleForum, which suggests that reductions are hot and roux is not. But some believe that the time spent on making demi-glace the traditional way using both brown stock and Espagnole sauce is well worth it.

Espagnole Sauce
So, what is Espagnole sauce? Espagnole sauce is the most basic brown stock in French cuisine, has the distinction of being one of the five mother sauces, and has a Spanish name. You can credit the Spanish cooks at Louis XIII’s wedding who added Spanish tomatoes to the brown sauce and everyone loved it. I'm sure these cooks would have given the Iron Chefs a run for their money with their Spanish tomatoes!

Espagnole sauce is made with brown roux and brown stock. Bacon, the usual aromatics (onions, celery, carrots, a Bouquet garni), and tomatoes are added. Also, Madeira or sherry is sometimes added, although the recipe I used didn’t call for it.

Process for Demi-glace
So, here’s the process to make classical demi-glace:

1. Make brown stock.
2. Make Espagnole sauce.
3. Make demi-glace.

Since I have a freezer full of stock, I just had to prepare the Espagnole sauce to get to step 3.

Thomas Keller’s Veal Stock (affiliate link) and Demi-glace

When I made veal stock, I made several versions. To make the demi-glace, I used one of the veal stocks that I roasted with tomato sauce. As I was working through this recipe, it occurred to me that Thomas Keller’s veal stock (affiliate link) involved a similar 2-step plus reduction process. His doesn't have a whiff of flour in it nor does it have bacon, but other than that I wonder if you might be able to classify it as demi-glace.

So, you can try the following three ways to get yourself to demi-glace status:

• You can reduce veal stock. This is more common these days since roux is passé and reductions save time in the kitchen. But, for the purist, this is not the path to flavor nirvana.

• You can follow the Keller way, which is to make a "veal stock #1", and then make a "veal stock #2". Then you can reduce that down to make a demi. (Keller’s stock has a more tomato-y flavor, and if you want the smoky flavor that an Espagnole sauce has, you could add the bacon in the last step.)

• You can follow the traditional method and make a stock, make an Espagnole sauce, and then make a demi.

Recipe: Espagnole Sauce

Adapted from La Varenne Pratique (affiliate link)

Makes: 1½ cups

Brownies were “Born in the USA” but no one quite knows who can take credit for this treat.

• Was it Fannie Merritt Farmer who published a recipe for the brownie in her 1906 edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book?

• Was it Fannie’s protégé Maria Willet Howard who published a recipe for brownies in 1907 in Lowney’s Cook Book that contained an egg?

• Was it a housewife in Bangor, Maine who forgot to add baking powder to her chocolate cake who can take credit for the brownie we know today?

What we do know is that it is a favorite and well-loved treat.

Cake or Fudge?
Dorie’s version is more on the fudge side of the brownie scale than the cake side. More butter and chocolate and less flour means a more fudgey brownie.

The chocolate you use is important so use one you like. The better the chocolate, the better the brownie. I used semi-sweet Callebaut Callebaut(“approved by Belgian chocolate makers” and Ottawa foodies alike), and it was delicious. If you want to use a bittersweet chocolate, you may want to use half bittersweet and half milk chocolate.

Links
I found a great article about the brownie written by Cookwise author Shirley O. Corriher.

The Nibble has an article that talks about the origin of the brownie.
Playing Around
I was inspired by the Daring Bakers’ cheesecake pops to give brownie popsicles a go. I used this popsicle pan once before for my daughter’s birthday party, so it was time to dust it off and try brownies in it. Although they look cute for the photo op, I wouldn’t recommend it. This recipe was too delicate for the popsicle angle. A more cakey one would be better suited to it.

Recipe: French Chocolate Brownies

You can find the recipe for French Chocolate Brownies at this blog Di’s Kitchen Notebook or in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours (affiliate link) by Dorie Greenspan. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger!

Fannie Merritt Farmer’s original 1906 version of brownies
I have a favorite brownie recipe that is more like cake that I usually make, but I was curious about Fannie Merritt Farmer’s (affiliate link) original 1906 version of brownies. Although I have a little cookbook by Fannie, it didn’t have the brownie recipe in it. Thanks to the internet, I found the recipe and baked up a batch for comparison. I used the same Callebaut chocolate that I used in Dorie’s version. I also cut the brownies into “shapely” pieces as recommended by the recipe! These brownies were good, but more chewy, fudge-y, and had a crisp top. But, it wasn’t as chocolate-y as Dorie’s version.


Tasting Notes
Dorie’s French Chocolate Brownie is a delicious fudgey treat that melts in your mouth. Personally, I loved the rum-soaked raisins in these bars. They added a richness to the chocolate, but some of my tasters threw a tantrum upon tasting it, begging me, through their tears, to make a new batch sans raisins. Kids these days! I will definitely be making these again (both with and without raisins).

Recipe for Next Week (June 10)
La Palette’s Strawberry Tart on page 374.

More to Explore:

• Index of Recipes
• Visual Recipe Index

Click to enlarge image
Joconde
The cake part of Opéra Cake is made up of a sponge cake called a joconde, named for the Mona Lisa (La Joconde in French). Some spell joconde as “jaconde”, but joconde is the proper way to spell it. The married name of Lisa Gherardini, who is believed to be the subject of da Vinci's portrait, is Giocondo, which means cheerful and full of good humor in Italian, as does “jocund” in English. Perhaps it's the lightness of the sponge cake that gives joconde its name.

Divide the oven into thirds by positioning a rack in the upper third of the oven and the lower third of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 425˚F (220˚C).

Line two 12½ x 15½- inch (31 x 39-cm) jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and brush with melted butter.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a handheld mixer), beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the granulated sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy. If you do not have another mixer bowl, gently scrape the meringue into another bowl and set aside.

In another bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a handheld mixer), beat the almond flour (or chestnut flour), icing sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and voluminous, about 3 minutes.

To make almond flour, you mix 50% ground almonds with 50% icing sugar. This is called "Tant pour Tant" ("that much for that much"). You can do this with chestnuts too, but I was able to find both almond and chestnut flour at a specialty grocery store. I tried joconde twice: once with almond flour and once with chestnut flour. Although both sponge cakes were delicious, the almond played a better supporting role for the other layers.Add the all-purpose flour and beat on low speed until the flour is just combined (be very careful not to overmix here!).

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the meringue into the almond mixture and then fold in the melted butter. Divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly to cover the entire surface of each pan. A tip I read was to run your thumb against all sides of the pan to prevent over-baking at the edges.

Place one jelly-roll pan in the middle of the oven and the second jelly-roll pan in the bottom third of the oven. Bake the cake layers until they are lightly browned and just springy to the touch. This could take anywhere from 5 to 9 minutes depending on your oven. Do not over-bake. It should only take a little color.

Put the pans on a heatproof counter and run a sharp knife along the edges of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Cover each with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, turn the pans over, and unmold.

Carefully peel away the parchment, then turn the parchment over and use it to cover the cakes. Let the cakes cool to room temperature.

Note: The joconde can be made up to 1 day in advance and kept wrapped at room temperature.

Syrup
Stir all the syrup ingredients together in the saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Note: The syrup can be made up to 1 week in advance and kept covered in the refrigerator.

Buttercream
Combine the sugar, water and vanilla bean seeds or extract in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.

Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225˚F (107˚C) on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Once it reaches that temperature, remove the syrup from the heat.

According to Joe Pastry, the baking guru I like to consult, “eggs must be warm before you begin. Why? The answer is that a cake batter is an emulsion, which is to say, a matrix of tiny fat blobs dispersed in a watery medium. That emulsion plays a critical role in leavening the cake, and in maintaining its soft, creamy texture.” So, warm those eggs before starting this buttercream.

While the syrup is heating, begin whisking the egg and egg yolk at high speed in the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk them until they are pale and foamy.

When the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature and you remove it from the heat, reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin slowly (very slowly) pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl being very careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment. Some of the syrup will spin onto the sides of the bowl but don’t worry about this and don’t try to stir it into the mixture as it will harden!

Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the eggs are thick and satiny and the mixture is cool to the touch (about 5 minutes or so).

While the egg mixture is beating, place the softened butter in a bowl and mash it with a spatula until you have a soft creamy mass.

With the mixer on medium speed, begin adding in two-tablespoon chunks. When all the butter has been incorporated, raise the mixer speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thick and shiny.

At this point add in your flavoring and beat for an additional minute or so.

Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes).

Note: The buttercream can be made up to 1 month in advance and packed in an airtight container. If made way in advance, you can freeze the buttercream. Alternatively you can refrigerate it for up to 4 days after making it. To use the buttercream, simply bring it to room temperature and then beat it briefly to restore its consistency, if needed.

Mousse
Melt the white chocolate and the 3 tablespoons of heavy cream in a small saucepan. Stir to ensure that it’s smooth and that the chocolate is melted. Add the tablespoon of liqueur to the chocolate and stir. Set aside to cool completely.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate to form a mousse.

If it’s too thin, refrigerate it for a bit until it’s spreadable. If you’re not going to use it right away, refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

Note: The mousse can be made ahead and refrigerated until you’re ready to use it.

Glaze (ganache)
Note: Make the glaze when you’re ready to finish the cake.

Melt the white chocolate with the heavy cream. Whisk the mixture gently until smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes and then spread over the chilled cake. Using a long metal cake spatula, smooth out into an even layer.

Place the cake into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.

Assembling
Note: The finished cake should be served slightly chilled. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 day (but I stored it for more than a week, and we still enjoyed every crumb!).

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.

Working with one sheet of cake at a time, cut and trim each sheet so that you have two pieces (from each cake so you’ll have four pieces in total): one 10-inch (25-cm) square and one 10 x 5-inch (25 x 12½-cm) rectangle.

Place one square of cake on the baking sheet and moisten it gently with the flavored syrup.

Spread about three-quarters of the buttercream over this layer.

Top with the two rectangular pieces of cake, placing them side by side to form a square. Moisten these pieces with the flavored syrup.

Spread the remaining buttercream on the cake and then top with the third square of joconde. Use the remaining syrup to wet the joconde and then refrigerate until very firm (at least half an hour).

Prepare the mousse (if you haven’t already) and then spread it on the top of the last layer of the joconde. Refrigerate for at least two to three hours to give the mousse the opportunity to firm up.

Make the glaze and after it has cooled, spread it over the top of the chilled cake. Refrigerate the cake again to set the glaze.

Serve the cake slightly chilled.

Makes approximately 20 servings.

Tasting Notes
We enjoyed both the almond and chestnut Opéra Cakes, but preferred the almond one just slightly. One of my daughters even wanted this for her birthday cake! Each part was delicious: the syrup, the sponge cake, the buttercream, the mousse, and the ganache. So together, how could it go wrong? I kept stealing tastes as I was assembling it. I think one of the tricks to making a perfect layer cake is to put a ton of buttercream in-between each layer, which might level it out better. I’m going to have to make this over and over again to improve my layering skills, but I don’t think anyone will mind!

Someday, maybe mine will look more like these:

• A perfect Opéra Cake from Bonbini
• Dalloyau's (pronounced doll-why-oh) in Paris, considered by pastry chefs in the know to be the best according to Paris Breakfasts
• Green Tea Opéra Cake from Nordljus

I’m looking forward to seeing the variety of Opéra Cakes from the Daring Bakers this month!

More to Explore:

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Pecan Honey Sticky Buns are a delicious brioche version of cinnamon buns. I made brioche for the first time earlier this year and wrapped it around sausage. But I think this cross between a pastry and a bread is much better suited to cinnamon buns and breakfast treats!

A good cinnamon bun is hard to come by in these parts. They're often covered in a too-sweet icing, have an artificial, almost tinny taste, usually don't have any raisins, and taste more like biscuits with cinnamon sprinkled here and there.

I used to love coming home after school, opening the door, and smelling the sweet scent of homemade cinnamon buns. My mom's (and my aunt's) cinnamon buns are still one of my favorite treats. For awhile, there were cinnamon bun cafés popping up everywhere (Cinnamon Inn and DJ Cinnamon are two places I remember going to on Sundays after church) where the cinnamon buns tasted almost as good as homemade. Now, they’ve been replaced with Starbucks or other trendy coffee shops.

Variations
I followed Dorie's instructions and made a full batch of brioche dough using my stand mixer. And, even though Dorie recommends not cutting the brioche dough in half, I did and threw it in my bread maker on the sweet dough setting to see what would happen. I also wanted to compare this version of cinnamon buns to the ones I usually make using my family's cinnamon bun recipe.

The results?

• Brioche with the stand mixer: This sticky bun turned out perfectly. The crumb was tender and rich. They were tall and bursting with sticky goodness. These were one taster's favorite, and commented how they melt in your mouth. It must be all the butter!

• Brioche with the bread maker: These buns didn't rise as much, and the dough was more chewy, but I liked them a little better than the ones with the stand mixer. They were closer in texture to the cinnamon buns I'm more familiar with. One taster couldn't tell the difference between this bun and the one made with the stand mixer. And how easy it is to just throw it in the bread maker on the dough setting!

• My family's cinnamon bun recipe: Guess what. This was my favorite. I think this is because it's what I grew up with. Brioche wasn't on the menu at my house in my formative years.

More Playing Around
I also tried smearing Dulce de Leche instead of butter on some of the sticky buns. And on another batch I spread both Dulce de Leche and melted chocolate for a real decadent treat. Both turned out to be a nice variation, although the Dulce de Leche didn't taste significantly different from regular cinnamon buns.

Recipe
You can find the recipe for Pecan Honey Sticky Buns at this blog Madam Chow’s Kitchen or in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours (affiliate link) by Dorie Greenspan. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger!

Recipe: Aunt Joyce's Recipe for Buns, Bread, or Cinnamon Buns

Makes: 4 loaves or 80 small buns

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