You’ve seen them all over Instagram, picture perfect desserts with gorgeous layers, glossy finish, and painstakingly placed garnishes. As complicated as they look, Entremets can easily be made by beginners looking to increase their dessert skills and impress their friends. First, let’s get into what entremets are.
Long ago, entremets (French: in between courses) were small treats served to entertain guests between savory courses. They were often small, colorful, and creative sweet treats, but sometimes the entremets were a colorful performance by artists. Modern entremets are sophisticated desserts that showcase different textures, colors, and flavors that compliment each other.
Entremet Layers
The different layers of an entremets include creamy, bubbly, crunchy, spongy, and jelly. You can incorporate all of these textures or stick with just a few while you are getting the hang of it.
Creamy – Think ganaches, caramel cremeux, and custards. These layers can be thick or thin depending on the flavors used and the harmony between the rest of your layers.
Light and airy – Entremets often have a mouse element that helps hold everything together, defining the shape. Mousses are light and airy and help offset some of the elements that can be heavier.
Crunchy –Pralines and sable Breton are great choices for adding crunchy textures to your entremets. A crunchy layer will help balance the mouthfeel.
Sponge – Dacquoise, genoise, or a standard cake sponge are easy to make. Bake in a ¼ sheet pan and use biscuit cutters or a sharp serrated knife to cut the appropriate shape.
Jellies – Jellies or gelees are a great way to incorporate some tartness while including yet another texture. Jellies are easy to create with purees of your favorite fruits. Gelatin in a key component to the jellies and will help keep this layer nice and tidy.
Entremet Equipment
Depending on the shape and how complicated you wish to make your entremet, the following tools and equipment will help you achieve a professional finish.
Acetate – Acetate is a flexible, transparent material that is handy for creating chocolate decorations. Acetate is also excellent for lining the walls of pastry rings and springform pans to create clean, smooth edges.
Springform pan – You can build your entremet in a springform pan. This type of pan works well for this purpose, you just want to make sure you are prepping it properly. Line the bottom with plastic wrap before attaching the wall. You want to make sure the plastic wrap is tight, so cut a piece that is bigger than the bottom so you can pull it taught. Next, cut a strip of 6” acetate long enough to line the inside of your springform pan.
Silicone molds – Silicone molds are great for freezing your jellies and for building a smooth, solid structure, perfect for pouring flawless mirror glaze.
Mirror Glaze Tips
Pour your glaze through a fine mesh sieve several times. This will help remove air bubbles and solids that will mar your perfect finish.
Make sure that your glaze is the proper temp for pouring. If it’s too hot, the glaze will be too thin and will set unevenly. If the glaze is too cold, it will be more difficult to get a nice solid but thin layer.
To serve: Remove from fried for 20 minutes before slicing. To slice, heat sharp knife in boiling water. Wipe water from knife and slice. Heat and Wipe knife throughout service to maintain clean slices that showcase the layers.
Orange Rum Entremet with Vanilla Bean Mousse and White Chocolate Mirror Glaze
Ingredients
For Rum Cookie Layer:
76 grams salted butter
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
2 large egg yolk
½ cup sugar
53 grams all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
½ teaspoon LorAnn Rum Bakery Emulsion
For Orange Gelee:
2 teaspoons gelatin
2 tablespoons (30 ml) cold water
1 cup (250 ml) pulp-free orange juice
4 ounces raspberries
¼ cup (55 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon LorAnn Orange Bakery Emulsion
For Dark Chocolate Insert:
125 grams dark chocolate chips
125 grams heavy cream
¼ teaspoon LorAnn Rum Bakery Emulsion
60 grams roasted, salted pecans, crushed
For Vanilla Bean Mousse:
¾ cup milk
2 egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon LorAnn Organic Madagascar Vanilla Bean Paste
3 sheets gelatin
2 cups heavy cream
For White Chocolate Mirror Glaze:
1 ¼ cups water
1 ½ cups sugar
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk, 1 can
15 gelatin sheets
26 ounces white chocolate, chopped, over 30% cocoa butter
LorAnn Orange Liquid Gel Food Coloring
Directions
For Rum Cookie Layer:
- In a small bowl, sift flour and baking powder together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and salt together on low speed until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolk and rum flavoring, gradually adding the sugar while whisking, until the yolk is light and fluffy – about a minute. With the mixer on low, add the egg yolks to the butter, stopping the mixer to scrape down any butter clinging to the sides so it all gets incorporated.
- Mix in sifted flour and baking powder until just incorporated.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days.
- Grease and line 5-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
- Press dough into cake pan, being careful to keep the dough even. Place cake pan in freezer.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Whisk egg and water together.
- Remove cake pan from freezer and score top of cookie dough with knife.
- Brush with egg wash and place on center rack of oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.
For Orange Gelee:
- Grease 5-inch cake pan and line with plastic wrap, taking care to make sure wrap is smooth.
- In small bowl, add cold water. Sprinkle gelatin on top, forking into water to make sure it is completely saturated, and allow to bloom 5-10 minutes.
- In small saucepan, add orange juice, raspberries, sugar, and orange flavoring. Bring to simmer, mashing raspberries, and taking care to dissolve all sugar, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Put medium sieve over bowl and pour mixture through to strain out seeds. Press to make sure all liquid is pushed through sieve.
- Add bloomed gelatin and stir until fully dissolved.
- Pour into prepared pan and place in freezer to set.
For Dark Chocolate Insert:
- In a small bowl, add chocolate pieces.
- In small saucepan, bring heavy cream to simmer.
- Pour heated cream over chocolate and allow to sit for a few minutes.
- Add rum flavoring and stir until chocolate is fully incorporated into the cream.
- Pour into prepared pan.
- Sprinkle pecan pieces over top and press into ganache.
- Place in freezer to set.
- Once the three internal components are completed and fully set, you can move on to making your mousse and assemble.
For Vanilla Bean Mousse:
- Bloom gelatin sheets in small bowl of very cold water for at least 5 minutes.
- In small saucepan, add milk and vanilla bean paste. Place over med/low heat until it begins to boil.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Once milk begins to boil, remove from heat and quickly whisk in egg and sugar mixture. Allow to continue cooking in pan, stirring often until mixture thickens.
- Stir in gelatin and pour through strainer into clean bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature, stirring often to prevent skin from forming.
- Once the milk/egg mixture is cool, add heavy cream to chilled bowl of stand mixer.
- Using the whisk attachment, whip until cream begins to thicken.
- Slowly add the milk/egg mixture and continue whipping until it is the consistency of a firmer whipped cream.
- Pour ¾ of the mousse into a round 8-inch (2 ½ inches deep) silicone pan.
- Remove and unwrap ganache insert and place into mousse, pecan side down. Make sure it is in the middle of the dish and don’t press all the way down. You want to have a layer of mousse on top of the ganache.
- Place orange-raspberry gelee insert on top of ganache.
- Evenly spread a thin layer of mousse over the top of the orange gelee, making sure the gap between the side of the pan and the gelee is also filled.
- Add the cookie, round side facing the bottom of the pan.
- Fill in any gaps with mousse and level.
- Place in freezer, overnight. After freezing overnight, you will prepare the mirror glaze.
For White Chocolate Mirror Glaze:
- Place gelatin sheets in large bowl of very cold water. Allow to bloom for 5 minutes.
- Add chocolate to a large, heat-safe bowl and set aside.
- Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, add water, sugar, and condensed milk. Bring to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
- Wring excess water from the gelatin sheets and add to sugar mixture.
- Pour sugar mixture over chocolate and let sit for several minutes to allow the chocolate to soften.
- Add orange liquid gel food coloring.
- Use an immersion blender to completely mix sugar mix, color, gelatin, and chocolate. Make sure you keep the blender in the mixture. Lifting it up will incorporate air bubbles which you want to avoid.
- Using a large sieve, transfer mixture back and forth between two bowls. This will help remove air bubbles that may have formed.
- Place layer of plastic wrap over the top and allow to cool to 96°F.
- Let glaze cool.
Assembly
- Once the glaze is cool enough to pour, remove the entremet from the freezer. Prepare an area to pour the glaze by setting a bowl, smaller than the entremets but big enough to be a supportive base, onto a large cookie sheet.
- Pop the entremet out of the pan and place cookie side down onto the inverted bowl.
- Starting in the middle, slowly and evenly pour the glaze over the entremet, taking care that the sides are being covered.
- Once the flow of the glaze has slowed down, use knife to remove any drips.
- Using two spatulas, carefully lift entremet off the bowl and place onto serving dish.
- Place back into fridge for at least 4 hours.
- Once glaze has set, garnish the top with your choice of toppings including: candy coated pecans, chocolate shards, macarons, fruit, or whatever you like!
