THE DARING BAKERS’ JANUARY, 2011 CHALLENGE: BISCUIT JOCONDE IMPRIME/ENTREMET

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe from the Blog, accro. Accro is French for addicted.
She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.
Joconde imprime /entremets. A joconde imprime (French Baking term) is a decorative design baked into a light sponge cake providing an elegant finish to desserts/torts/entremets/ formed in ring molds. A joconde batter is used because it bakes into a moist, flexible cake. The cake batter may be tinted or marbleized for a further decorative effect.
This Joconde/spongecake requires attentive baking so that it remains flexible to easily conform to the molds. If under baked it will stick to the baking mat. It over baked it will dry out and crack. Once cooled, the sponge may be cut into strips to line any shape ring mold.
Entremets (French baking term)- an ornate dessert with many different layers of cake and pastry creams in a mold, usually served cold. Think Trifle in a mold vs. a glass bowl.
A joconde imprime is the outside cake wrapper of the Entremets dessert.
Equipment required:
 Silpat
 ½ baking sheets or a 13” x 18” jelly roll sheet (rimmed baking sheet)
 Mixer (optional)
 Bowls
 Knives
 Offset spatula
 Regular spatula
 Pastry comb (optional)
 Rulers
 Spring form pan
 Biscuit cutter (or ring mold, or cut PVC pipe, or whatever else you can think of to mold individual desserts)
 Torte/ Entremets mold/ Springform pan/ Trifle dish (for larger desserts)
 Cling wrap
 Parchment paper
 Gel, paste or liquid food coloring (optional)

Joconde Sponge
YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan
Ingredients:
¾ cup/ 180 ml/ 3oz/ 85g almond flour/meal - *You can also use hazelnut flour, just omit the butter
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/ 150 ml/ 2⅔ oz/ 75g confectioners' (icing) sugar
¼ cup/ 60 ml/ 1 oz/ 25g cake flour
3 large eggs - about 5⅓ oz/ 150g
3 large egg whites - about 3 oz/ 90g
2½ teaspoons/ 12½ ml/ ⅓ oz/ 10g white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar
2 tablespoons/ 30 ml/ 1oz / 30g unsalted butter, melted

Directions:
1. In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
2. Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)
3. On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light. (If using a stand mixer use blade attachment. If hand held a whisk attachment is fine, or by hand. )
4. Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
5. Fold in melted butter.
6. Reserve batter to be used later.

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste
YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan
Ingredients
14 tablespoons/ 210ml/ 7oz/ 200g unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups plus1½ tablespoons/ 385ml/ 7oz/ 200g Confectioners' (icing) sugar
7 large egg whites - about 7 oz / 200g
1¾ cup/ 420ml/ 7¾ oz/ 220g cake flour
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid
COCOA Décor Paste Variation: Reduce cake flour to 6 oz / 170g. Add 2 oz/ 60 g cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture.
Directions:
1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand)
2. Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.
3. Fold in sifted flour.
4. Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation.
Preparing the Joconde- How to make the pattern:
1. Spread a thin even layer of décor paste approximately 1/4 inch (5 millimeter) thick onto silicone baking mat with a spatula, or flat knife. Place mat on an upside down baking sheet. The upside down sheet makes spreading easier with no lip from the pan.
2. Pattern the décor paste – Here is where you can be creative. Make horizontal /vertical lines (you can use a knife, spatula, cake/pastry comb). Squiggles with your fingers, zig zags, wood grains. I spread the chocolate paste quite thin and dragged it with a toothed pastry thingy I have.
3. Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard. Approx 15 minutes.

4. Remove from freezer. Quickly pour the Joconde batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern of the Décor paste.
5. Bake at 475ºF /250ºC until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, approx. 15 minutes. You can bake it as is on the upside down pan. Yes, it is a very quick bake, so watch carefully.
6. Cool. Do not leave too long, or you will have difficulty removing it from mat.
7. Flip cooled cake on to a powdered sugared parchment paper. Remove silpat. Cake should be right side up, and pattern showing! (The powdered sugar helps the cake from sticking when cutting.)

I used this for a cake for my daughter in laws baby shower.
I made a quarter of the decor paste and half the joconde sponge recipe to make the my tray full and then used the finished sheet of joconde to line a 9" springform tin.
Next I used a recipe from Renata's blog Testado,Provado e Aprovado for Tangerine Cake I didn't have any tangerines and I wanted to make a lemon cake so I substituted lemon for the tangerine. I didn't have any of the peel and I just used grated lemon rind. I also added a 1/4 teaspoon of natural lemon flavour as the lemons weren't as tasty as I would have liked.
Renata used a ring tin, I didn't want a ring tin as my plan was to cut the cake into layers so I used a 8 1/2" tin which was a perfect size to fit in the 9" springform tin after it was lined. One quantity of this cake was perfect.

I also used lemon curd, lemon pannacotta and in the center there is a layer of almond dacquoise. This used up the whites from the lemon curd.
The finished result is from the bottom up - a layer of lemon cake, a layer of lemon pannacotta, a layer of lemon curd, the almond dacquoise, lomon pannacotta, lemon curd, lemon cake, lemon pannacotta, lemon curd, joconde on the top and sides, yes I did make it upside down.
I didn't make enough of the joconde to line the sides of the ring properly. I patched together the bits. After the layering I covered the whole lot in gladwrap and let it set overnight. The last step was to turn it out and cover the sides of the cake with white chocolate ganache and ran lines of dark chocolate over it too echo the top which is the plain joconde.
Daring Bakers in a great web group, I have made things I haven't made before and things I have made and screwed up I have made successfully with the guidance of the wonderful members of this group