Orange Blossom Honey Entremet!

Seeing as my first adventure into French patisserie was quite the success, I decided to step it up a notch and attempt something even more challenging, and nothing screamed challenge like this Orange Blossom Honey Entremet! Comprising an orange and lemon joconde sponge, a lemon set curd, an orange blossom honey set custard, and a blackberry gelee, this entremet was the perfect opportunity for me to get some much needed practice preparing unfamiliar sponges and custards. Strap in we've got a lot to get through in this post!

A slice of the entremet in all its glory!

Every time an entremet pops up on Bake Off I'm always itching to have a go at one myself. The trouble always is I never trust my abilities enough to pull off a project such as this. However, after making Paris-Brest, it didn't take much scrolling before I came across this recipe, Sophie's Ode To The Honey Bee Entremet, from series 8 of Bake Off, and decided to continue my adventures in patisserie for just a little longer.  

This bake is full of firsts for me, as all four layers were something I'd never made before. As with the Paris-Brest I really wish I'd taken photos of each layer as I went along, but my photography skills are still quite limited, and keeping my eye on the custards was stressful enough. Hopefully I can do this bake justice through my writing alone! 

The first, and probably the easiest, layer of this entremet is an orange and lemon joconde sponge. Making a joconde sponge requires a few extra steps than simple all in one or creamed butter and sugar sponges do. For this joconde, flour, ground almonds, and half of the total quantity of sugar are mixed together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, the egg whites are whisked to soft peaks before the remaining sugar is whisked in to produce a meringue. The flour mixture is then folded into the meringue, along with orange and lemon zest, orange blossom water, vanilla bean paste, and browned butter. Seeing as this was my first attempt at a joconde, I was slightly worried that I'd overworked the mixture and knocked out some of the air from the meringue, but these worries were unfounded. The texture was incredibly light, and the cake was easily one of the nicest sponges I've ever tasted!

Getting a decent photo of this was
so difficult! 

After the sponge had cooled, the tin it is baked in becomes the mould for the entremet as a whole. While the sponge is cooling, I had to cut out a circular cardboard base to line the bottom of the tin and create an acetate collar for the sides of the tin. This step was annoyingly fiddly, but vital for maintaining the layers of the entremet!

 

The entremet still in 
its acetate collar!

Once cooled, the joconde sponge is placed into the tin and the acetate collar is secured around it, forming the first layer. The second layer, and the only layer to result in slight disappointment, was a lemon set curd. I've made lemon curds before, perhaps most notably for my White Chocolate and Lemon Drip Cake (see my Drip Cakes post for more!), but this method for making a curd required the use of agar agar, a vegetarian substitute for gelatin, whereas the curds I've made before use egg yolks as the setting agents. After this year's Bake Off final, when the bakers were required to use vegetarian gelatin in the notoriously difficult technical challenge, audiences were made aware of the fact that vegetarian gelatin needs to be boiled in order for it to work as a setting agent. Surely this little tip would give me a slight advantage...

Spoilers, it didn't, but I wasn't to know this until hours later when the curd didn't quite set. Lemon juice and agar agar is added to a pan, brought to the boil, and then left to simmer to dissolve the flakes. In a separate bowl, eggs and sugar are whisked together until smooth and lighter in colour. The hot lemon juice is then added the egg and sugar mixture, before being returned to the pan and cooked until the curd thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Cubed butter is then added to the still hot curd. Once cooled to room temperature, the curd is spooned on top of the joconde sponge, completing the second layer! This certainly wasn't a bad first attempt though, I was so close! 

Just when I thought I'd got to grips with custards and pastry creams whilst making the batch of Paris-Brest, set custards come along and through more gelatin into the mix! The third layer, an orange blossom honey set custard, presents another way to prepare a custard. After allowing the lemon set curd to set in the fridge for four-to-five hours, it was time to start the custard. For this set custard, sheets of gelatin are softened in water whilst orange blossom honey (honey produced by bees that harvest nectar from blossoming orange tree flowers) and vanilla bean paste are simmered in a pan until the honey thickens and darkens. Cream and milk are then added to the pan, and the resulting mixture is heated until smooth. As with the lemon set curd, the hot mixture is then added to a whisked eggs and sugar, before being returned to the pan and heated to thicken. Lastly, the gelatin is added, and the set custard is allowed to cool to room temperature before being poured over the lemon set curd, completing the third layer.

Impressively, the custard was set in a little under an hour! This meant I could prepare the final layer of the entremet, a blackberry gelee! To prepare the gelee, gelatin sheets are again soaked in water whilst blackberries and lemon juice are simmered in a pan until the berries are soft. The softened berries are then mashed into a thick puree, before butter and sugar is added. As with the other two set layers, the mixture is then added to whisked eggs, although for this layer the sugar is added to the fruit in the first step rather than to the eggs, before being returned to the heat to thicken. After adding the gelatin leaves, the resulting gelee is strained, cooled to room temperature, and poured on top of the orange blossom honey set custard, completing the final layer! 

When cut, it was clear that the 
lemon curd was not quite set, as
the other layers began to slide
around on top!

This bake required a lot of patience. I was so eager to finish the layers and see the final result that it was difficult to wait for the layers to be set properly. Finally, when the blackberry gelee set, the moment of truth arrived. I could remove the entremet from the tin, gently peel off the acetate collar, and see if the layers had all set correctly. Three of the four layers had set exactly as I'd hoped, and it was only the lemon set curd that was a little runny. Maybe I hadn't simmered the mixture for long enough, as some of the curd was stuck to the acetate collar. However, it's not as though the curd came pouring out of the entremet when sliced, so it had definitely set somewhat. I still see this as an absolute win!

What this bake demonstrates most to me is probably the complexity behind making custards. Each of the three set layers followed a very similar method, with hot mixtures being added to whisked eggs. Each layer has its subtle differences though, with the honey set custard containing milk and cream but no butter where the set curd contain butter as the final ingredient. All make for different tastes and textures, meaning this entremet is delight in terms of both taste and texture! I was just missing some sprigs of mint to complete the decoration on top!

I'm aware that I've rambled on for probably a bit longer than any other post so far, so here is probably a good place to leave it! If you've made it this far than thank you for sticking with me! I'm sure to attempt another entremet sometime soon, and when I do I'll try to take pictures of the various stages as I go along!

Gibby x