Here’s an ultra-indulgent recipe, I warn you! While browsing the blogosphere, I stumbled rather by chance upon Julien’s little individual lemon cakes (Les desserts de Julien) and I was won over by the look.
However, I chose warm flavours for these little individual cakes: hazelnut, gianduja, vanilla, tonka with a little touch of pure praline. I told you it was indulgent!
I stayed fairly faithful to Julien’s look, so I rolled the little cakes in desiccated coconut after coating them with neutral glaze. So yes, this flavour surely goes less well with hazelnut than with lemon. It’s up to you to see what tempts you — this step isn’t essential. You could just as well roll them in chopped hazelnuts to stay faithful to the different flavours of the dessert.
In the end, you get a little dessert that isn’t very difficult to make (but which nevertheless involves several steps) and that goes down a treat. In any case, it was a huge success with those around me.
Ingredients & method
7 components · Full recipe
Hazelnut Praline (can be made ahead)
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Click here to see the recipe.
2
Simply replace the almonds with hazelnuts to make a 100% hazelnut praline.
Hazelnut Streusel
Ingredients
- 60 g (2.1 oz) butter
- 60 g (2.1 oz) brown sugar
- 75 g (2.6 oz) ground hazelnuts
- 60 g (2.1 oz) flour
- 0.5 g (0 oz) fleur de sel
- zest of 1 lemon
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan.
2
Mix together the butter, brown sugar, flour, ground hazelnuts and fleur de sel. Add the lemon zest.
3
Roll out the dough to 3–4 mm thick and cut out 8 cm (3.1 in) diameter circles (keep the entremets rings for baking).
4
Place them on a silicone mat set on a perforated baking sheet.
5
Bake for about 15 minutes.
6
While the streusel is baking, prepare the hazelnut soft sponge.
Hazelnut Soft Sponge
Ingredients
- 75 g (2.6 oz) whole eggs
- 30 g (1.1 oz) egg yolks
- 80 g (2.8 oz) caster sugar
- 130 g (4.6 oz) ground hazelnuts
- 30 g (1.1 oz) flour
- 60 g (2.1 oz) warm melted butter
- 60 g (2.1 oz) egg whites
- 45 g (1.6 oz) sugar
Method
1
Melt the butter in the microwave.
2
Whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks and caster sugar.
3
Add the ground hazelnuts, flour and warm melted butter.
4
In a small bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the sugar in 3 additions.
5
Gently fold 85 g (3 oz) of this meringue into the first mixture.
6
Once the streusel has baked for 15 minutes, leave it to cool slightly then pour the hazelnut sponge batter on top, filling the rings to halfway (about 55 g (1.9 oz) of batter). Bake at 160°C for 20–25 minutes.
7
Remove from the oven and unmould the sponge rounds.
Vanilla Tonka Whipped Ganache
Ingredients
- 90 g (3.2 oz) + 160 g (5.6 oz) heavy cream
- 90 g (3.2 oz) white chocolate
- 1 vanilla pod
- a little grated tonka bean
Method
1
Break the white chocolate into pieces in a bowl (you can melt it slightly in a bain-marie or microwave).
2
In a saucepan, heat 90 g (3.2 oz) of cream with the split and scraped vanilla pod and a little grated tonka bean, bringing to a boil. Cover and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.
3
Remove the vanilla pod, then reheat the cream.
4
Pour one-third of the cream over the white chocolate and stir with a spatula to create an emulsion. Add the second third, then the third, until you have a smooth, homogeneous mixture.
5
Add the remaining cold cream and mix again. Blitz for a few seconds with a hand blender to fully homogenise.
6
Cover with cling film pressed to the surface and refrigerate for several hours (ideally overnight).
Custard (for the gianduja cream)
Ingredients
- 125 g (4.4 oz) heavy cream
- 125 g (4.4 oz) milk
- 50 g (1.8 oz) egg yolks
- 25 g (0.9 oz) sugar
- 2 g (0.1 oz) gelatine (1 sheet)
Method
1
Soak the gelatine sheet in cold water.
2
In a small saucepan, heat the milk and cream.
3
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.
4
Pour the hot milk mixture over the yolk-sugar mixture, whisk well and return everything to the heat.
5
Cook to 83°C, stirring constantly with a spatula in a figure-of-eight motion. Do not let it boil (risk of scrambling the eggs).
6
Off the heat, add the well-drained gelatine. Pass through a fine sieve and set aside, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.
Gianduja Cream
Ingredients
- 125 g (4.4 oz) milk chocolate gianduja
- 125 g (4.4 oz) custard (recipe above)
Method
1
Chop the gianduja and melt it in a bain-marie or microwave.
2
Pour the hot custard over the melted gianduja in 3 additions, as for a ganache, using a spatula.
3
Emulsify using a hand blender.
4
Pour into a dish and cover with cling film pressed to the surface. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Assembly of the Individual Cakes
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Transfer the gianduja cream to a piping bag fitted with a 15 mm plain nozzle.
2
Transfer the praline to a piping bag without a nozzle.
3
Whip the ganache until very soft and creamy. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with an F8 nozzle.
4
Using a pastry brush, coat the sides of each sponge round with neutral glaze, then roll in desiccated coconut.
5
Using a cupcake corer, remove the centre of each hazelnut sponge to create a cavity for the praline.
6
Pipe praline into the cavity.
7
Top with a generous swirl of gianduja cream.
8
Pipe the whipped ganache over the gianduja cream in a spiral.
9
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
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