Mango and Chocolate Entremet

I never thought I will be making an entremet, I thought it was a complicated and laborious dessert and I did not have the time to make one! But then, I participated in Subashini's Bake it Perfect event in her fondbites bake along facebook group and I cleared the 1st round. I had chosen 'Healthy Bakes' as my topic and I made Millet Cookies. For the finals she wanted us to make an entremet, and so here I am with my first ever entremet!
Update - I won the event!! I won, I won!! Hurray!! I won the first place!! I am so thrilled!! 

So what is an entremet? It is a French dessert which has a little bit of everything, something 'cakey', 'crunchy', 'moussy', 'creamy', 'fudgy', jelly! Each of these layers should come together to give you a perfectly delicious dessert. Entremet can be simple to complex, I have chosen a very simple and easy entremet that everybody can make, it only takes time to put together. Take your time and follow my schedule and you will not feel stressed making this dessert.

As I was going through countless recipes online, I found that almost every recipe was complicated, with no images. I believe pictures help you understand better so I have used a lot of pictures for better understanding. Also I found that I don't have access to half of the ingredients used and I have never heard of the other half of it!!! So my next agenda was to make an entremet with easily and locally available ingredients. 

The components of this entremet are

• Egg free Chocolate Cake
• Fresh Mango Fruit Drops
• Egg free Mango Cheesecake
• Crunchy Chocolate and Cookie Crumbs
• Egg free Chocolate Mousse
• Mango Jelly
• Chocolate Glaze

I have two small kids aged 4 and 2 years and I cannot afford to work at a stretch, so here's the schedule I followed.
Day 1 - Bake the cake in the morning and make the cheesecake in the evening or night.
Day 2 - Chocolate mousse in the morning, mango jelly in the evening and glaze at night.
Next day cut and enjoy! This way you also give each layer enough time to set very well. You can make the glaze on Day 3 too but the mango jelly is very simple to make hence I have put 3 layers to make on Day 2

MANGO AND CHOCOLATE ENTREMET
Preparation time 2 days | Makes one 9" dessert

Ingredients

I. For the Chocolate Cake

• Plain flour - 1 1/2 cups 
• Fine sugar - 1 cup 
• Cocoa - 4 tablespoons 
• Baking Soda - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Water - 1 cup 
• Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup 
• White vinegar - 2 tbsp (or lemon juice)
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• Coffee - 1 tsp (optional)

II. For the Mango Fruit Drops

• Fresh Mango - 1/2 cup, chopped
• Grape juice / Sugar syrup - 1/4 cup

III. For the Cheesecake Layer

• Paneer (cottage cheese) - 200 gms
• Condensed milk - 1 tin (400 ml) I used Amul
• Fresh cream - 200 ml (I used amul fresh cream)
• Mango puree - 350 gms (heaped 1 and 1/3 cup)
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• Gelatin - 2 tbsp (or) agar agar 1.5 tbsp (for agar agar check notes)
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - if needed add 2 tbsp (I did not add)
• Salt - 1/4 tsp

IV. For the Crunchy Chocolate and Cookie layer

• Kit kat bars or ferrero rocher or Oreo cookies-  8-10 bars, chopped

V. For the Chocolate Mousse

• Dark Compound Chocolate - 70 gms (I used Morde Compound)
• Heavy Whipping cream - 1/2 Cup ( I used Tropolite)
• Gelatin - 1/2 tbsp (for agar agar check notes)
• Water - 2 tbsp
• Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

VI. For the Mango Jelly

• Mango puree - 3/4  cup
• Gelatin - 3 tsp (or) agar agar 2.5 tsp (for agar agar check notes)
• Water - 3 tbsp

VII. For the Chocolate Glaze

• Dark Compound Chocolate - 2 cups (I used Morde Compound)
• Fresh cream - 2 Cups ( I used Amul )
• Butter - 1 tbsp

(DAY 1)

I. CHOCOLATE CAKE LAYER

Method

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 9 inch round pan.

1. In a large bowl, beat the oil and sugar. Add the vinegar and vanilla extract and beat again.

2. Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

3. Dissolve the coffee powder in the water and mix well.

4. Add the coffee mixture little by little and mix the sifted flour with the wet ingredients.

5. Do not overmix, fold gently. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

6. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then remove and cool completely.

II. FRESH MANGO FRUIT DROPS

1. Prepare a 9 inch springform pan. Build the sides of the pan with parchment paper. Butter the bottom and sides of the pan/parchment paper.

2. If you don't have a springform pan, use your normal cake pan. Line the regular cake pan with a clingfilm. Line the bottom and sides together without cutting the clingfilm so that you can easily lift the dessert out when it's set. But it might be difficult to remove it at the end! My suggestion, invest in a springform pan!

3. Once the cake has cooled down, trim the outer edge of the cake, about 1 cm. This is because we want the cheesecake layer to flow along the sides of the cake tin.

4. Place the trimmed cake inside the prepared cake tin.

5. Brush the cake with sugar syrup, I used grape juice. Do not soak too much.

6. For the sugar syrup, add 1.5 tbsp sugar to 1/2 cup of water and boil it until the sugar dissolves, cool completely and then use.

7. Spread the chopped mango pieces all over the cake.

III. MANGO CHEESECAKE LAYER

Method

1. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of gelatin in 1/2 a cup of water and mix. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then heat it in a microwave or sauce pan for 30 seconds. Let it cool. It will become a clear solution.

2. Chop the mangoes and take 350 gms puree (1 and 1/3 cup) and set aside

3. Grate or chop the paneer and add it to a blender. Add the condensed milk, vanilla extract and salt and blend till smooth. Very smooth.

4. Add the fresh cream and blend again. Add the mango puree and blend again. Make sure you blend well to get a very smooth mixture.

5. Pour it into a bowl. Add the cooled gelatin and mix very well.

6. Pour the cheesecake mixture onto the cake, tap well. Cover the pan and leave it in the refrigerator to set well. 

7. Let the cheesecake set for 6 hours. I left overnight. 

(DAY 2)

IV. CRUNCHY CHOCOLATE COOKIE LAYER

1. Entremet usually has a crunchy layer, mostly a praline is used but I opted for something simple and went for a chocolate/cookie. Chop the kit kat bars or ferrero rocher or cookies into small pieces and spread over the set cheesecake layer. 

2. Once done, put the cake back into the refrigerator until we are ready with the next layer.

V. EGG FREE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE LAYER

Method

1. Take 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream in a stainless steel bowl. Chill the bowl and beaters for 15 minutes.

2. Chop the chocolate and melt it using a double boiler or microwave. Set aside to cool. Stir often so it doesn't harden again.

3. Sprinkle 1/2 tbsp of gelatin in 2 tbsp of water and set aside for 5 minutes. Then microwave for 30 seconds. Let it cool. Stir often so a layer doesn't form on top of the cooling gelatin.

4. Bring the chilled bowl with cream from the refrigerator and add the vanilla extract. Beat for 5 minutes until soft peaks are formed. Add the cooled gelatin.

5. Whip again for a minute. Now add the cooled, melted chocolate and beat again for 2 minutes. 

6. Spread the mousse over the chopped chocolate and spread evenly with a spatula or back of spoon.
7. Cover and refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

VI. MANGO JELLY

Method
1. Sprinkle 3 tsp gelatin over 3 tbsp of water and set aside for 5 minutes. Microwave for 30 seconds and let it cool completely.

2. Puree chopped mangoes and set aside 3/4 cup of mango puree. Add 2 tbsp of sugar if your mango is not sweet. Mix well.
3. Add the cooled gelatin over the mango puree and mix well.

4. Bring the pan from the refrigerator and pour the mango puree over the set mousse.
5. Spread evenly. Again cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.

VII. CHOCOLATE GLAZE

Method
1. Chop 2 cups of chocolate and set aside. In a heat proof bowl, heat 2 cups of cream in a microwave for 1 minutes but stop the microwave after 30 seconds and then heat for another 30 seconds, otherwise the cream will overflow.

2. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate. Add the butter
3. After five minutes, start mixing until a homogeneous emulsion is formed. Let it cool slightly.

4.In the meantime, remove the springform pan ring gently. Remove the parchment paper also gently. Do not remove from the base of the springform pan, you can serve along with it.

5. Place the cake on a plate/stand/newspaper and pour the chocolate glaze over the mango jelly and allow to flow all over. No need to spread, just let it flow. Make sure you keep something under the cake as the glaze will flow down otherwise it will spill over and spoil your counter.
6. Refrigerate again until the glaze is set.

Once set, garnish as desired, cut and enjoy! Phew!!! 
  

Notes
1. If your family or guests are not fond of cheesecakes, then halve the cheesecake layer and double the chocolate mousse layer. Or simply halve the cheesecake recipe and make a smaller entremet.
2. Instead of the chocolate cake base, you can make a fudgy brownie too.
3. While heating the gelatin, use a large or tall bowl otherwise the gelatin will overflow and you will have less amount and your layers may not set well.
4. For agar agar - While making the cheesecake, make the mango+paneer mixture and then start making the agar agar. If you make the agar first, it will set by the time you finish the mango mixture. Add the agar agar to warm water and heat it up, bring it to a rolling boil. Agar agar needs a rapid rolling boil to activate. Let it cool to almost room temperature. Keep stirring often so that the agar agar does not form lumps as it cools down. Then add it to the mango mixture, mix well and pour into the tin. Follow the same method for the glaze as well. Please Note - I have never used agar agar, use as per your discretion.

And last but not the least, this is an extremely rich and huge dessert, if you want your hips to stay small, make it only when you have lots and lots of guests coming over!! 
 

Until next time,

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