Black Sesame Entremet

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My dessert or cake trials start like an adventure. I often try out recipes that taste wise come close to my favorite flavours (caramel, praline, pistachio, citrus fruits or other fresh fruits, chocolate), but more often my trials involve ingredients (or techniques) that I haven’t tried before. To me, this kind of tests are what allow me to learn more and especially develop my taste buds. Sure, sometimes they succeed and get included in a class or end up on the blog, other times they fail and never see the daylight again (just saying this for the drama, but theoretically, a failed recipe can happened for so many reasons that is good to often give it at least one more chance… which I usually do, especially if my mind is really set up on making it work).

This Black Sesame Entremet ‘s idea started long time ago when I used to make tahini at home and read about this black sesame paste. I saw it so often used in desserts that it made me wonder how it tastes like. What seemed more interesting to me was the color though – the dark grey speckled with black pieces of sesame looked mesmerizing. So years passed by and these desserts kept popping on my Instagram feed from so many pastry chefs. There must be something there, I said.

After a bit of research, I ended up making this black sesame entremet containing a black sesame mousse with a raspberry compote and a vanilla cremeux. Keep it simple with bold flavors the rule says! Plus, apart from pairing well, these flavors also bring contrasting colors so the effect at the end is quite interesting!

The final test however was going to be the tasting! My first bite told me this black sesame entremet was a success, but I wasn’t gonna settle with that because black sesame is such a rarely used ingredient in Romania that I felt the need to approach other people to taste it as well. I just needed more opinions. I think it was one of the most interesting experiences ever – to give a piece of cake to 20 people at once at a class and ask for a feedback. The result was as diverse as one can expect – some loved it, some only liked it, some hated it, some didn’t even try it. What I realised however is that one can never please everyone, especially with new flavors since there is no taste memory they can appeal to. In case of chocolate for instance, since everyone had chocolate or a dessert containing it at least once (who am I kidding?! .. countless times) in their life, once you taste a dessert, your taste memory immediately connects it with your previous experiences and you know what to expect, you feel secure and in control. But with something this new, there is a certain fear, the „not knowing what to expect” kind of situation, the weirdness of the experience in itself. Also, a proper testing requires trying the product at least three times before deciding if you actually like it or not – and it makes so much senses. Because flavors and how they develop on everyone’s taste buds is so easily influenced not just by past experiences, but also by what you ate before tasting, your mood that day (I am not talking here about professional testers, of course, just usual, regular people).

Final opinion? Yes, I will be making this cake again. Will it be the same?! Probably not, since I always try to improve. But for now this is the recipe and I wish you would make it and write back about the taste. Let’s take this tasting test to another level!

Black sesame is such an interesting ingredient! It's so fun to use in dessert, although rather difficult to pair with other flavors. It does shine next to vanilla and raspberry though.

Servings :2 cakes

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 1

Chilling 12

Ingredients

Chocolate sponge:

100 g egg yolk
100 g white sugar A
100 g dark chocolate 70% (melted)
170 g egg white
100 g white sugar B
120 g all-purpose flour
1 g salt
100 g butter (melted)

Vanilla cremeux:

125 g milk
125 g heavy cream
1 vanilla pod (split lengthwise)
60 g egg yolk
45 g white sugar
2 g gelatin + 12g water

Raspberry compote:

120 g raspberry puree
100 g frozen raspberry (thawed (or fresh if you prefer))
45 white sugar + 3g pectin NH
10 g lemon juice
2 g gelatin + 12g water

Black sesame mousse:

300 g milk
1 vanilla pod (split lengthwise)
85 g egg yolk
80 g white sugar
100 g black sesame paste
8 g gelatin + 48g water
310 g heavy cream (whipped)

Instructions

Chocolate sponge:

Mix the egg yolk and sugar A until light and pale.
Add the melted chocolate with a spatula.
Separately, mix the whites and sugar B until you get a stiff and shiny meringue.
Fold the meringue into the egg yolk base, adding the flour sifted with salt at the same time.
The last going in is the butter.
Spread the batter at 4mm thickness and bake at 170C for 10-12 minutes.
Cool down then cut 2 discs of 14cm. Place them aside.

Vanilla cremeux:

Combine the milk, cream and vanilla pod in a pot and heat them up. Place aside and cover with foil. Infuse for 10 minutes.
Take out the vanilla pod.
Mix the egg yolk and sugar in a bowl. Slowly pour in the hot infusion then place on heat and cook until 82C.
Remove from heat and stir in the bloomed gelatina.
Pour into 2 14cm cake rings. Freeze.

Raspberry compote:

Combine the raspberry puree and whole raspberries and heat up to 40C.
Mix the pectin with the sugar and add it to the raspberry mix.
Bring to a boil then cook for 1 minute more.
Take away from heat and stir in the lemon juice then the bloomed gelatin.
Pour into 2 14cm cake rings and freeze.

Black sesame mousse:

Bloom the gelatin.
Heat up the milk with the vanilla pod and infuse for 10 minutes covered with foil. Take out the pod.
Mix the sugar and egg yolk then pour in the hot milk.
Return back on heat and cook until 82C.
Take off heat and stir in the gelatin then strain over the black sesame paste and blend well.
Allow this base to cool down to 30C then fold in the whipped cream.

To assemble the cake:

Seal 2 16cm cake rings with foil on one of the sides and place on a tray or cake board.
Place acetate on the sides of the cake rings.
Fill the rings 1/4 with black sesame mousse then place the raspberry inserts. Cover with a bit more mousse, followed by the vanilla cremeux inserts. The final batch of mousse is next, followed by the chocolate sponge cake.
Freeze the cakes at least 8 hours.
Unmold then cover with glaze or velvet spray as you wish. Decorate according to your imagination. I used black velvet spray and chantilly.
Allow to stay in the fridge for 4-5 hours before serving.

Keyword Black sesame paste, Entremets, Raspberry, Vanilla

Black Sesame Entremet