Chocolate Rosemary Mousse Cake

From: The ProStart First-Place Culinary Competition Team, from Newport Harbor High School, part of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa, CA.

Yield: 4 servings, 4 oz. each. Recipe source: Swiss Chalet Fine Foods Catalog, Savory & Sweet Culinary Arts Team and Chef Mentor Emiliano Nino.

MOUSSE:
4.5 oz. dark chocolate
.5 oz. granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
.75 oz. heavy whipping cream
1 gelatin sheet
.25 oz. water

GANACHE:
8.5 oz. dark chocolate
5 oz. heavy whipping cream
to taste, pepper

COULIS:
3.5 oz. granulated sugar
2.5 oz. passion fruit puree
.5 oz. butter

CREME FOUETTE:
1 oz. powdered sugar
1 oz. heavy whipping cream
.75 gelatin sheet

CHOCOLATE CAKE:
.5 oz. canola oil
2 oz. granulated sugar
1 egg
4 oz. buttermilk
1.25 oz. all-purpose flour
1 oz. cocoa powder
.08 oz. baking powder
.04 oz. baking soda
.04 oz. salt

ROSEMARY BUTTER:
2.5 oz. butter, unsalted
2 oz. rosemary

WHITE CHOCOLATE ART:
1.5 oz. ultra white chocolate
5 drops cocoa butter (green, red, yellow)

TOFFEE:
3 oz. granulated sugar
2 oz. unsalted butter
.25 oz. water

For Rosemary Butter: Heat butter in a sauté pan. Wait until foam in the butter subsides, then add rosemary. Cook until butter almost browns. Strain into a small bowl.

For Chocolate Ganache: In a small saucepan, heat heavy whipping cream until it comes to a boil. Pour the whipping cream and 8.5 oz. dark chocolate into a medium mixing bowl. Stir until chocolate is dissolved completely. Flavor with ground black pepper. Pour half of the rosemary butter mixture into the ganache.

For Chocolate Cake: In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Spray a griddle with cooking spray and place on burner over medium heat. Once griddle is hot, pour batter to make four cakes about 4 inches in diameter. Flip cakes once bubbles begin to form. Cook another minute on reverse side. Remove from heat. Using a teardrop shape mold, cut four cakes.

For Passion Fruit Coulis: Put butter, rosemary, passion fruit puree, sugar and softened gelatin sheet into a small saucepan. Reduce the mixture until the butter, gelatin sheets and sugar dissolve and thicken. Cool the mixture in an ice bath and pour into a squeeze bottle. The rest is used for crème fouetté.

For Crème Fouetté: Whip together whipped cream and powdered sugar until sugar dissolves. Add cooled passion fruit coulis to whipped cream and whip together so it is light and airy.

For Toffee: Melt butter and sugar together in nonstick pan. Once butter and sugar are melted, add water to mixture. Cook over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes until the toffee is an auburn color. Pour toffee onto a Silpat and allow toffee to cool for approximately 5 minutes, or until toffee is hard enough to crumble.

For Mousse: Separate egg and reserve yolk for mousse (place egg white in container and chill). Whisk yolk until light and fluffy. Place a saucepan filled with 2 inches of water over medium heat. Place a clean, completely dry stainless steel bowl over saucepan to create a bain-marie. Add dark chocolate to bowl and stir gently as chocolate melts. Once chocolate has melted, take off burner and set aside until ready to use. Make sure to keep chocolate hot. Whip heavy cream over ice bath until soft peak stage. To prepare the pate a bombe, place sugar and water in small saucepan and place over high heat until sugar completely dissolves. Slowly add the pate a bombe to the whisked egg yolk. Whisk thoroughly until combined. The heat from pate a bombe will cook the egg yolk. Heat 3 Tbsp. of heavy cream along with gelatin sheet in the same small saucepan as the pate a bombe until gelatin sheet is completely dissolved. Pour heavy cream and gelatin mixture into egg mixture and whisk together quickly and thoroughly. Add egg and cream mixture to the melted dark chocolate and whisk quickly to combine. Then add whipped cream to chocolate mixture in a large bowl. Whisk quickly or chips will form in the chocolate mousse. Pour chocolate mousse into piping bag for dessert assembly.

Assembly: Place teardrop mold on a metal surface covered with a transfer sheet and place one chocolate cake teardrop in the bottom of each mold. Pipe chocolate mousse around the inside edge of the mold on top of the cake. Place crumbled toffee onto the exposed cake inside the outline of mousse. Spoon crème fouetté onto toffee and top with more crumbled toffee. Place second layer of cake into the mold and pipe chocolate mousse around inside edges and on top of being sure to cover completely. Using an offset spatula, level off the mousse making sure it’s perfectly level. Cool dessert until set. Once dessert is set, place on a cooling rack and pour ganache over dessert and let excess run off of dessert.

Plating: Using an offset spatula and a bench scraper, carefully lift cake and place cake slightly off-center on plate. Position white chocolate triangles close to back of the dessert. Place white chocolate globes next to art and fill globes with passion fruit coulis. Sauce plate with design.