This cake is a pure, rich & decadent delight in a mouthful.
This cake is also so delicious because of the silky smooth coffee buttercream, spongy cake and the hard crisp chocolate "chablon" on the bottom and decorations on the top.
Coffee and chocolate work so well together and this dessert proves it perfectly. It is a little long to make but once you have all the different components, the spreading and layering really doesn't take very long. The least I can say is that it is so worth it, especially if you love chocolate!
An Opéra is composed of:
Biscuit Joconde
Crémeux au chocolat
Crème au beurre au Café
A chablon
A chocolate glaze
A "Biscuit Joconde" is a cake made with whipped eggs and ground almonds. It is usually baked in a thin layer.
A "crémeux au chocolat" is like a chocolate ganache only with milk and egg yolks added in to make it richer.
A "Crème au beurre au Café" is a coffee buttercream but a little lighter, with whipped (cooked) eggs added in to make it lighter.
A chablon is a thin layer of chocolate on the bottom of the cake to act as a barrier to keep the cake moist. It also adds a nice texture to the cake.
Ingredients
For the Biscuit Joconde:
3 eggs + 1 egg yolk
3 egg whites
150 g ground almonds, sifted
120 g caster sugar (for the eggs)
50 g caster sugar (for the egg whites)
50 g unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
60 g self-raising flour, sifted
For the Crème au beurre au Café:
100 g of unsalted butter, super soft
30 g water
100 grams of caster sugar
1 egg
1 heaped teaspoon of coffee granules mixed with 1 teaspoon of boiling water
For the crémeux au chocolat:
110 g dark chocolate
2 egg yolks
20 g caster sugar
110 ml of milk
130 ml double cream
1 small pinch sea salt flakes
Fort the chocolate glaze:
4 gelatin leaves
60 g water
110 g caster sugar
30 g cocoa powder
20 g dark chocolate, in small pieces
90 ml double cream
For the coffee syrup:
200 ml coffee
60 g caster sugar
For the "chablon" and chocolate decoration:
70 g dark chocolate for the chablon
30 g dark chocolate for the decorating
Recipe:
For the crémeux au chocolat:
Start by melting the chocolate in a bain-marie or in a Micro-wave. Leave to cool while we get on with the crème Anglaise.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks + the caster until the mixture is pale in colour (this will take about 2 minutes whisking by hand).
Place the egg yolk mixture in a saucepan with the milk + double cream and whisk on low-heat continuously until the mixture reaches 82 - 84° C.
Once the temperature has been obtained, place the crème Anglaise into a bowl and mix with a stick blender to make sure the mixture is completely smooth.
Pour the crème Anglaise onto the melted chocolate in 3 times, incorporating it with a spatula making small circles to incorporate both mixtures.
Once all of the crème Anglaise is incorporated, mix once more with the stick blender to get a smooth mixture and then reserve in a bowl covered with cling film touching the crémeux au chocolat so that it doesn't form a skin. Leave in the fridge overnight.
For the Biscuit Joconde:
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and grease + line 4 baking sheets with baking parchment.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the eggs + egg yolk with the sifted ground almonds + 120 g of caster sugar until very pale in colour and the mixture has nearly doubled in volume (this takes about 5-7 minutes)
Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites with the + salt and add in the 50 g of caster sugar little by little until stiff peaks.
Once the egg mixture is pale and doubled in volume, fold in the melted butter with a spatula to not knock out all the air. Then fold in the sifted flour.
Once the flour is nearly folded in, fold in the stiff egg whites until completely combined.
Divide your mixture amongst the 4 baking trays and spread the mixture out to make a thin rectangle (making the rectangles alike in shape). The batter should be about 1/2 a cm thick.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 10-12 minutes, until springy to the touch. (They don't need to be golden brown on the top). Leave to cool on a cooling rack. Then remove the baking parchment and if they are sticky on the top dust with icing sugar and store in a sealed box while you make the Crème au beurre au Café.
For the Crème au beurre au Café:
Start by whisking the egg in a stand mixer while you place the water + sugar in a saucepan on low heat.
Once the sugar syrup is at 120°C, pour the sugar syrup in a slow and steady stream into the stand mixer which is whisking the egg.
Leave the stand mixer to whisk the egg mixture for about 5 minutes, until the mixture has completely cooled and has thickened.
With the stand mixer on low, add in little by little your super soft butter and the coffee. If the mixture splits a little, just keep whisking and it will come back together.
Leave the Crème au beurre au Café in the fridge while you get on with the montage.
Montage:
Make a chablon by melting the chocolate and then spreading it in a thin layer to coat the whole of one side of a biscuit Joconde. Place a piece of parchment paper on top and leave in the fridge for 10 minutes for the chocolate to set.
Make the coffee syrup by placing the coffee + sugar in saucepan on low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and then leave to cool.
Take your chocolate coated layer of joconde out of the fridge and place chocolate-coated side down on a mat or bakng tray. Brush the layer of cake facing up with coffee and then spread on a little less than half of the crémeux au chocolat.
Take another piece of joconde and brush it with the coffee syrup. Place that onto the layer of crémeux au chocolat and then brush the other side of the joconde with the coffee syrup.
Spread on all of the Crème au beurre au Café making sure the cake is level.
Repeat the process with another piece of joconde, brushing both sides with the coffee syrup and then spreading on most of the remaining crémeux au chocolat (leaving a little for the end).
Place on the top the last piece of joconde, brushing only one side with the coffee syrup and place the side with the coffee syrup face down onto the layer of crémeux au chocolat.
To make the cake level, take the small amount of crémeux au chocolat you left and spread it on the top. Leave the cake in the freezer while you make the chocolate glaze.
Fort the chocolate glaze:
Place the leave of gelatin in a bowl of cold water so that they become soft.
Place the water + sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Once the syrup has reached 104°C, remove from heat and mix in with a spatula the cocoa powder + double cream + chopped chocolate + softened gelatin. Mix the mixture with a stick blender and then strain it into a jug.
Once the mixture has cooled until 35°C, take the cake out of the freezer and pour on the glaze. Tilt the cake to make the glaze go everywhere.
Leave the glaze to set on the cake in the fridge.
For the chocolate decoration:
Make a cornet out of baking parchment.
Take the opera out of the fridge and cut into slices with a large knife dipped into boiling water, cleaning the knife and dipping it into the boiling water after each cut to make sure to get a clean cut.
Melt the chocolate and place it into the cornet. Cut off the end and pipe an "o" on the slices and garnish with some dots in the corners or whatever you would like to do like decorations.
Your opera cakes are finished and ready to serve!!!
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