Chocolate cake by Cèdric Grolet

If you follow pastry accounts on Instagram, you must know Cédric Grolet, the best pastry chef in the world in 2017 & 2018. And one of his favorite cakes is chocolate tart!. If you like challenges, you’ll love this pie that combines the power of chocolate and its absolute indulgence. Hang on, the recipe is divine!

Ingredients

Sweet dough ingredients:
  • 150g butter
  • 95g icing sugar
  • 30g almond powder
  • 60g egg
  • 1g fleur de sel
  • 1g vanilla powder
  • 220g flour
  • 30g cocoa powder

Brownie nibs ingredients:
  • 3 eggs
  • 160g unsalted butter
  • 90g dark chocolate
  • 105g brown sugar
  • 105g caster sugar
  • 40g flour
  • 10g bitter cocoa
  • 10g cocoa nibs

Hazelnut and nib praline ingredients:
  • 60 g caster sugar
  • 40 g cocoa nibs 100 g
  • hazelnuts
  • 2 g fleur de sel
Chocolate caramel ingredients:
  • 42g of glucose (1)
  • 38g of caster sugar
  • 100g of liquid cream
  • 20g of glucose (2)
  • 1g of fleur de sel
  • 36g of milk (1)
  • 36g of dark chocolate
  • 28g of butter
  • 60g of milk (2)

Ingredients whipped chocolate and nib ganache:
  • 100g 66% dark chocolate
  • 20g cocoa nibs
  • 120g hot liquid cream
  • 220g cold liquid cream
  • 20g glucose
  • 1 sheet of gelatin

Velvet flocking ingredients:
  • 200g cocoa butter
  • 200g 72% chocolate

Assembly
  • QS cocoa nibs
  • QS fleur de sel

In the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the leaf, cream the butter with the icing sugar, salt and vanilla powder.
Add the ground almonds and then the beaten whole egg while mixing at low speed. Finally, add the flour with the cocoa powder little by little, mixing as little as possible. Just enough to obtain a homogeneous
paste. Reserve in cling film for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Once well rested and cold, spread it on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 3mm. Cut out circles 12cm in diameter and line tartlets 7cm in diameter.

Generously pierce the bottom of the pie with a fork then leave it in the freezer for 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Bake the pie shell for 30 minutes at 160°C then immediately remove it from its tray to cool on a wire rack.

TIP: For better cooking, take the pie out after 20 minutes, remove the ring so that the edges cook perfectly and put it back in the oven without the ring for the remaining 10 minutes.

 

In a saucepan, heat the “hot” liquid cream with the cocoa nibs. Once boiling, cover with cling film and leave to infuse for at least 10 minutes. Then pour it in three times over the previously melted chocolate, passing it through a sieve to recover the nibs. Press well on the nibs to extract all the taste. Make a nice emulsion with a spatula (which consists of making small circles in the center of the bowl with your spatula). Finally, add the cold cream all at once. Emulsify with an immersion blender to smooth everything and reserve in the refrigerator for 12 hours, filming on contact.

Preheat the oven to 150°C and roast the hazelnuts for 15 minutes.

With the sugar, make a caramel in a saucepan, then remove it on a silicone mat until completely cooled.

Mix together the very cold caramel, the cocoa nibs and the well-roasted hazelnuts until you obtain a very smooth paste. Remove to a bowl and add the fleur de sel. Mix to homogenize. Reserve in a piping bag.

Caramelize the glucose (1) and the caster sugar. At the same time, heat the glucose (2) with the milk (1) and the cream. Deglaze the caramel with the previous preparation (= pour the preparation over the caramel while mixing with your spatula). Cook at 105°C then let cool to 70°C. Then add the butter as well as the chopped chocolate and fleur de sel. Finish with the milk (2), mix then sieve. Reserve in the refrigerator.

Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Start by melting the chocolate with the butter, then add the sugars with the egg yolks and whisk until homogeneous. We go up next to the egg whites. Sift the flour and cocoa powder over the first mixture, mix gently with a spatula then add the whipped egg whites little by little (still with a spatula). It is poured into a sponge cake mold 1.5 cm thick and cooked for 15 minutes at 180°C. We immediately take it out of its plate to stop the cooking, and once very cold we cut out circles 6cm in diameter.

In the bottom of the pie, place a generous amount of praline.
Place the cooled biscuit. Then dig a 2.5cm circle in the center.
Then, take the ganache out of the fridge and whisk it in the food processor fitted with the whisk.
Put it in a pocket fitted with a saint honoré tip and make the shape of a flower or a whirlpool on a turntable.
Reserve 30 minutes in the freezer.

Melt the cocoa butter with the chocolate (in a bain-marie or in the microwave), mix with an immersion blender for a very homogeneous result. Once the mixture has reached 45°C, put it in the bowl of the spray gun, sifting it and sprinkle it on the very cold ganache. You must first have put the circle back around the pie so that the dough is not flocked
Then remove the circle gently from below and enjoy after letting it thaw for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Cake_Grolet

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