Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2

by Julia Child

  Set baking sheets in upper- and lower-middle levels of oven for about an hour, or until you can gently nudge a few loose from baking surface. They will not puff up, they will not change shape, and they should remain pure white; they simply dry out. While still warm, they bend slightly; as soon as they are cool, they become crisp and fragile. Remove baking sheets from oven, push all meringues gently loose, but leave them on the baking sheets.

  3) The chocolate mousse—mousse au chocolat meringuée—about 8 cups

  12 ounces semisweet baking chocolate

  3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate

  A saucepan for the chocolate, and cover for the pan

  ⅓ cup dark rum

  A saucepan of simmering water removed from heat, large enough to hold chocolate pan

  The dessert mold from Step 1

  1 Tb soft butter

  Waxed paper

  Break up the chocolate, and place in the saucepan with the rum; cover, and set it in the pan of hot but not simmering water. While chocolate is melting, fold an 18-inch piece of waxed paper in half lengthwise, cut in two along fold, and with the 2 pieces held together, cut into blunt-ended wedges 5 to 6 inches at the wide end, 2½ inches at the blunt end, and ½ inch longer than depth of mold. Cut a circle of waxed paper to fit in bottom of mold exactly, and place it in the mold. One at a time, dot soft butter on one side of waxed paper wedge and insert against inside edge of mold, small end of wedge at bottom; butter holds paper in place. Continue around inside of mold, overlapping paper so that mold is completely covered. Refrigerate in order to set butter and keep paper glued to mold.

  The meringue mixture remaining from Step 2

  2 cups chilled whipping cream in a beating bowl

  A larger bowl with a tray of ice cubes and water to cover them

  A large (balloon) wire whip, or a hand-held electric beater with clean, dry blades

  As soon as chocolate is melted, and you have beaten it to a soft, smooth texture, whip it into the meringue mixture. In its separate bowl, set cream over ice and beat, circulating beater all around bowl to incorporate air into cream, until doubled in volume; continue beating a few minutes more, until beater leaves light traces on surface, and a bit of cream lifted and dropped back softly retains its shape. This is now crème Chantilly.

  Remove the cream from the ice, and set the chocolate-meringue mixture over it, beating for a few minutes until cool but not stiff—if chocolate is warm it will deflate the whipped cream. Then, with a rubber spatula, turn the crème Chantilly out on top of the chocolate, and fold the two together, cutting down from surface of cream to bottom of bowl with rubber spatula, and turning spatula against side of bowl as you draw it out; continue rapidly, rotating bowl as you fold. If the meringues are not yet ready, refrigerate the mousse.

  4) Filling the mold

  Not allowing it to touch sides of mold if you can help it, turn a 1-inch layer of mousse into the bottom of the mold; this will give support to the meringues you are to place against the sides. Remembering they are fragile and break easily, arrange the meringues best side out against mold and upright around its edges, spacing them about ¼ inch apart. Turn in another layer of mousse about ¾ inch thick, cover with extra meringues, and continue filling the mold with mousse and meringue layers, ending with a layer of meringues. (Do not trim off protruding ends of upright meringues at this point.) Cover mold with plastic wrap, and freeze for 6 hours at least.

  5) Unmolding and serving

  To unmold the dessert, bend waxed paper back from edges of mold, bend protruding meringue ends down over dessert, and turn a chilled serving dish upside down over mold. Reverse the two and dessert should unmold immediately—if not, reverse mold, run a knife between waxed paper and edge of mold, and reverse again. Carefully peel off waxed paper from top and sides. You need no decoration on top, unless you have baked meringue decorations for it or you wish to crumble leftover baked meringues over it.

  Optional:

  Either more crème Chantilly sweetened with confectioner’s sugar and flavored with rum or vanilla;

  Or crème anglaise (custard sauce)

  Serve the Saint-Cyr immediately, accompanied by the optional whipped cream or custard sauce.

  (*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTES: Dessert may be unmolded onto serving dish, covered with a bowl, and returned to freezer for an hour or so before serving; in its mold, it may remain frozen for several weeks. Leftover baked meringues should be kept either in a warming oven at about 120 degrees to prevent them from softening, or wrapped airtight and frozen; if frozen, you may need to re-crisp them in a 200-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

  Other flavorings and serving ideas for the Chocolate Mousse

  Rather than molding the chocolate mousse in a meringue-lined mold, you may wish to mold it as is, and decorate with crème Chantilly for serving; or you may turn the mousse into individual serving pots, chill rather than freeze them, and serve like the usual chocolate mousse with sweetened whipped cream on the side. Instead of using meringues, you may fold into the mousse a cup or two of pralin (caramelized almonds, or walnuts), which always gives an interesting texture and taste to chocolate mousse. There is also the richer chocolate mousse in Volume I, on page 604, with its egg yolks and butter rather than meringue and whipped cream; when you use this formula, you need not freeze the mousse, because the butter, which congeals when refrigerated, holds the mousse in form when it is unmolded.

  CHANTILLY MERINGUÉE

  [Whipped Cream with Italian Meringue—for cream fillings and ice cream]

  The Italian meringue of hot sugar syrup whipped into egg whites, so successful with the preceding Saint-Cyr, Step 1, also serves other purposes. You may use it as a base for butter-cream frosting and fillings; you may also fold it into whipped cream to give the cream more body and stability as a filling for cream puffs, cream horns, and Napoleons or mille-feuilles. Or this same Chantilly meringuée may be packed into a mold or bowl and frozen, thus becoming what can truly be called an iced cream. (Although you can fold plain beaten egg white into whipped cream and freeze it, the meringue does a better job because it completely discourages the formation of ice crystals, giving you a wonderfully soft and smooth ice cream.)

  For about 1 quart of meringue whipped cream—Chantilly meringuée

  ½ the meringue italienne called for in Step 1

  1 cup chilled heavy cream in a 2½-quart bowl

  A large bowl with a tray of ice cubes and water to cover them

  A hand-held electric mixer or a large wire whip

  1 to 2 tsp vanilla extract

  A rubber spatula

  Prepare the meringue mixture, and beat slowly until it is cold. Meanwhile, prepare a crème Chantilly as follows. Set bowl of cream over ice cubes and water. Circulate beater or whip about in cream to incorporate as much air as possible as you beat; continue beating until cream has doubled in volume and beater leaves light traces on surface. Stir the vanilla into the meringue mixture, then fold in ¼ of the whipped cream to lighten the meringue. Scoop rest of whipped cream on top and fold it in by rapidly cutting down through center to bottom of bowl and then out to side with rubber spatula, rotating bowl as you do so; repeat the movement rapidly until cream and meringue are blended and deflated as little as possible.

  TO USE AS A FILLING

  Use as is, or fold in pralin (caramelized almonds, walnuts), or shaved chocolate, or fresh strawberries, raspberries, or sliced peaches, or bits of glacéed chestnuts or glacéed fruits macerated in rum or kirsch.

  TO USE AS ICE CREAM

  Chantilly Glacée, au Chocolat

  [Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce]

  It is hard to improve on this universal favorite, and wonderful to have your own private brand.

  For about 1 quart, serving 4 to 6 people

  1) The vanilla ice cream—Chantilly glacée

  The preceding meringue whipped cream

  A 1-quart mold or metal bowl with rounded bottom

  Plastic wrap
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br />   Prepare the meringue whipped cream, turn into bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze 3 to 4 hours at least before unmolding and serving. (This will be a rather soft and tender ice cream.)

  2) The chocolate sauce—for about 1½ cups

  3 ounces semisweet baking chocolate

  1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate

  ¾ cup water

  1 Tb instant coffee

  A 6-cup saucepan

  A larger saucepan of simmering water to hold chocolate pan

  A wire whip

  1½ Tb heavy cream

  1½ Tb butter

  1½ Tb dark rum

  Pinch of salt if needed

  Break up the chocolate and combine with water and coffee in saucepan. Stir slowly over moderate heat until chocolate is melted and smooth, then set in simmering water and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Beat in the cream, butter, rum, and, if needed, a pinch of salt. Set aside. Sauce should be tepid when it goes over the ice cream; reheat to tepid, beating it, if necessary, later.

  3) Unmolding the ice cream, and serving

  A chilled serving dish

  A basin of cold or tepid water

  At serving time, set frozen mold in basin of water for several seconds to loosen the ice cream. Run a knife around edge of dessert; turn serving dish upside down over bowl, and reverse the two to unmold the ice cream.

  Spoon the tepid chocolate sauce over the ice cream, letting it drip down the sides so that some of the white shows through. Serve immediately.

  Other sauces and flavorings

  Instead of chocolate sauce, serve the fresh raspberry or strawberry purée in Volume I, pages 592–3, and surround the dish with fresh berries, as well, if you wish. Or spoon over the ice cream 2 cups of chilled, fresh, sliced peaches macerated in sugar, lemon juice, and light rum or kirsch; the apricot sauce (confit d’abricots en sirop) in this volume is another possibility. Still another would be to fold half a cup of walnut brittle into the cream after it has begun to set; after pouring chocolate sauce over the ice cream, decorate it either with a sprinkling of brittle or with the caramelized whole walnuts (mousse glacée, pralinée aux noix, Step 1). Bits of glacéed chestnuts or glacéed fruits macerated in rum or kirsch would also be attractive.

  Bombe Glacée

  Frozen Chantilly is a perfect filling for bombe glacée, just as it is, or with any of the preceding flavor suggestions. Mold in a bowl or bombe lined with chocolate, coffee, or strawberry or raspberry ice cream following the directions for the bombe glacée à l’abricot.

  LA SURPRISE DU VÉSUVE

  [French Baked Alaska Flambée]

  Vesuvius erupting is the French version of our baked Alaska ice cream dessert that is spread with meringue and browned quickly in a hot oven. Here the meringue is sprinkled with powdered sugar; the volcano is contained in half an egg shell thrust crater-like into the center of the Vesuvius, and filled with flaming liqueur that courses down the mountain slopes like molten lava. Use any ice cream formula you wish, either from the preceding recipes or store-bought; the cake, which forms the base, may be your own génoise, the sponge cake or almond and orange cake from Volume I, pages 669 or 676, or a store-bought sponge cake.

  For a 14- by 8-inch dessert, serving 8 people

  1) Preliminaries—to be readied before dinner

  1½ quarts sherbet or ice cream frozen in a melon-shaped mold about 12 inches long

  A génoise or sponge cake, such as a round one 8 by 1½ inches

  A flameproof serving platter or tray 16 to 18 inches long

  ⅔ cup Cognac, kirsch, or rum (whatever flavor will go with your sherbet or ice cream) in a small saucepan

  10 egg whites (1⅓ cups) at room temperature, and in an egg-beating bowl in time for Step 2

  An electric mixer

  2 pinches salt

  ½ tsp cream of tartar

  1½ cups sugar, “instant” superfine if possible

  1 tsp vanilla extract

  An uncracked eggshell half with saw-tooth edge (cut with scissors)

  1 cup confectioner’s sugar in a fine-meshed sieve

  Matches

  (All the ingredients listed must be measured out, laid in easy reach, and ready for use when you are ready, at the last minute, to beat the meringue, unmold the ice cream, assemble the structure, and brown it rapidly in the oven. Although you can beat the meringue an hour before serving, and re-beat it at the last minute, the beating takes but a few minutes in an efficient mixer and your guests should not mind a short wait.)

  Slice the cake into half-inch layers; cut the cake layers in such a way that you can form a large oval ½ inch thick and 1 inch larger all around than your ice cream mold. Arrange the oval on the platter, sprinkle with 2 to 3 Tb liqueur, cover airtight with plastic wrap, and set aside. Be sure oven is preheated to 450 degrees in time for Step 2.

  2) Assembling, browning, flambéeing, and serving—about 10 minutes—oven has been preheated to 450 degrees

  beating the meringue:

  Start beating the egg whites at moderate speed until they are foaming, beat in the salt and cream of tartar, then gradually increase speed to fast until egg whites form soft peaks. Gradually beat in the sugar, sprinkling in ¼ cup at a time, beating half a minute between additions. After all has gone in, add vanilla, and continue beating for several minutes at high speed until egg whites form stiff, shiny peaks.

  assembling Vesuvius:

  Set ice cream mold in a basin of tepid water, run a knife around edge, and unmold the sherbet or ice cream upon the cake in the platter. Immediately spread the meringue over it with a spatula, starting at bottom of cake and bringing it up to a peak at the top of the dessert—meringue should be about 1 inch thick over the sherbet or ice cream, in order to insulate it from the heat of the oven. With spatula make vertical striations from bottom to top, which will allow flaming liqueur to flow down the sides. Insert eggshell half in peak of mountain. Sieve confectioner’s sugar all over surface of meringue, making a layer about 1⁄16 inch thick.

  browning:

  Set in upper-middle level of preheated 450-degree oven for 3 to 4 minutes, to brown meringue lightly. Meanwhile, heat the liqueur.

  flambéeing and serving:

  As soon as meringue has browned remove from oven; ignite the hot liqueur with a lighted match, pour into the eggshell, letting excess drip down sides of meringue, and bring flaming to the table.

  FRUITS, FLANS, AND CUSTARDS, A FRENCH SHORTCAKE, AND A FLAMING CHARLOTTE

  GRATIN DE POMMES, NORMANDE—CLAFOUTI AUX POMMES

  [Sliced Apples Baked with Rum, Raisins, Eggs, and Cream]

  This is every bit as good as the finest apple tart, but not quite as filling because the apples are baked in a dish rather than in a tart shell.

  For a 10-inch dish, serving 8 to 10 people

  1) The rum and raisins

  ½ cup currants (small, black, seedless raisins) in a small bowl

  ¼ cup dark rum

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Soak the raisins in the rum until you are ready to use them.

  2) Baking the apple slices

  ¼ lb. (1 stick) melted butter

  A baking pan with raised edges, such as a 10- by 16-inch jelly-roll pan or a 14-inch pizza tray

  ½ cup sugar

  6 to 7 medium-sized apples (about 2 lbs.) that will keep their shape during cooking (Golden Delicious, Rome Beauty, York Imperial)

  A flexible-blade spatula and a rubber spatula

  A lightly buttered 6-cup baking-and-serving dish, such as a round one 10 by 1½ inches

  More sugar if necessary

  Spread half the butter in the pan and sprinkle over it half the sugar. Wash apples thoroughly but do not peel. Quarter them, core them, and cut into lengthwise slices about ⅜ inch thick. Arrange in one overlapping layer in the pan, sprinkle on the remaining sugar, and dribble the remaining butter over all. Bake about 25 minutes in upper-third level of preheated oven until apples are tender but still hold their shape. Tr
ansfer apple slices to baking dish in one crowded, overlapping layer. Scrape cooking juices over apples. Taste, and sprinkle on a little more sugar if you think it is needed.

  (*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: May be prepared to this point a day in advance. Cover when cool, and refrigerate. Preheat oven in time for Step 4.

  3) The rum and egg topping

  The raisins in their rum

  A sieve over a bowl

  3 “large” eggs

  ½ cup sugar

  An electric mixer

  ¼ cup all-purpose flour (measure by scooping dry-measure cup into flour and sweeping off excess with a knife)

  ½ cup liquid (2 to 3 Tb rum maceration plus light cream)

  ¼ tsp cinnamon

  Drain the raisins, pressing rum out of them lightly. Sprinkle half the rum over the apple slices. Beat the eggs and sugar for 3 to 4 minutes at high speed with mixer until they are thick and pale yellow. Beat in the flour, liquids, and cinnamon. Fold in the raisins, then spread the topping over the apples.