Trianon vel Royal au Chocolat

Childhood memories - we all have them.  And many of them revolve around food.  This is great, because eating that particular food (if you manage to find it after all those years) works like a time machine and can teleport you back to the past, making you relive your memories.  One of my first childhood food memories is when I was 3-4 years old, and my Mother made me eggs for breakfast.  She would place a hot, peeled hard-boiled egg in a thick glass, add some salt, butter and chopped chives and mash it with a fork to a paste.  Served with a piece of bread - delicious!  I often make this myself, and it brings me back to the lovely moments spent with my Mom at home.  Signing and drawing together, her reading me books, going for walks and doing groceries (...and still being the only child at that time, with all the attention that comes with it :D ).  

Then there was kindergarten in the Netherlands, where often we would get dark bread with either pindakaas (peanut butter) or appelstroop (a Dutch specialty - highly concentrated apple preserve).  I also fondly remember salty-sweet salmiac lollypops (salmiaklollies) or coin-shaped licorice (muntdrop) we would eat during the breaks at school, while running around in the playground or climbing trees.  All memories come back.  The secret tree hut we had in the park nearby the school, with a particular thick branch sticking out, where I would always hit my head and be brought in front of the school teacher 3 consecutive time with - as scary as it sounds - "a hole in my head".  The numerous ticks I had from the constant playing in the bushes and climbing trees with the other kids - at that time nobody was even worried about Lyme disease.  I believe with tick number 6 or 7 my teacher, juffie Ria, even used me as an educational prop by explaining to the class what ticks were, asking me to stand on her desk so that everyone could see, and removing the tick from behind my knee in front of everyone.

I also remember going grocery shopping with my parents every Thursday evening - as this evening the stores were open longer in the Netherlands than on other days.  I have always been a huge fan of cheese, and I remember climbing on my toes at the cheese counter, making huge, charming eyes at the cheese vendor, who could never resist my convincing glare and would give me a slice of jong belegen cheese, cut with a traditional Dutch cheese slicer.

A bit later down the road, when I was a teenager living in Poland, I remember distinctly when we discovered the "Trianon cake".  An amazing, densely chocolaty dessert, consisting of a light, yet creamy chocolate mousse sprinkled with dark cocoa or chocolate flakes, a divine crunchy layer, and a thin sponge cake at the bottom (the latter I never liked and always scraped off - it was spoiling perfection to me). This, to me, an always hungry teenager, was a true revelation!  It was definitely the best and most sophisticated cake I had even had - there was nothing like it!  Moreover, it presented a great solution for my birthday cake, as I never liked (and until this day do not like) traditional birthday cakes with their butter cream (yuck!) and soaked sponge layers (eewwww!).  With trianon, a whole new universe opened - I could finally enjoy birthday cakes, and from now on my parents would always buy me this one to stick candles in on my special day.

Nonetheless, the trianon always kind of remained a mystery to me.  It was not like any cake my mother or grandmothers would make.  You could not find a recipe for it in any of the traditional cook books.  It seemed like something very complicated and unattainable.  But still, I decided that I will make it myself one day...  Of course, years later when i moved to Paris, I discovered that trianon (also called royal au chocolat) was not that exotic in France (after all it is French), and you could find it in several pastry shops.  It is also no longer a mystery - with everything being available online, and with my curiosity for culinary experiments expanding.

This recipe is a combination of several recipes I found online, and my own judgement and modifications to best suit my taste.  Just as when I was a teenager, I decided to again "scrape off" the sponge cake from the trianon, and replace it with a dacquoise - which is a almond meringue rather than a classic sponge.  To make the cake more fancy, I decided to go for a double dacquoise layer.  I also did not want to add any raw eggs to the chocolate mousse, as I am not a fan of raw eggs in desserts.  I made an extra large amount of the praline crunch, as for me this is definitely the best part of the cake - so despite the extensive testing/quality control I performed (so yummy!), I managed not to eat everything while preparing the cake, and to include a thick crunch layer and some additional crunchy decorations.  Finally, I added some orange zest to the chocolate mousse, as for me chocolate and orange is a divine marriage, and it was just the cherry (orange?) on the cake to finish off the trianon.

Pure decadence, you would say - I know.  It takes a long time to prepare, you would say - I know.  It's a million calories, and I will gain 5kg just looking at it, you would say - I know.  Well you know what?  Too bad, so sad - but you just need to try this.  It is worth the additional curves or even a muffin top - Y O U  H A V E  T O  T R Y  T H I S.

INGREDIENTS:

Mirror glaze:

• 60g of dark cocoa powder
• 140g of sugar
• 6g gelatin sheets
• 100ml heavy cream
• 50ml water

Dacquoise:

• 2 egg whites (from large eggs), at room temperature
• 65g of sugar
• 65g of ground almonds
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• Pinch of salt

Praliné crunch:

• Small pot of hazelnut paste (I used the pâte de pralin Sainte Lucie at 225g)
• 100g milk of chocolate
• 120g of gavottes/crêpes dentelle - in fact any thin, crunchy wafers/cones will do, or even corn flakes (though I do not like the latter here).

Mousse:

• 250g of mascarpone
• 300ml of heavy cream
• 200g of dark chocolate
• Zest of 2 oranges (I used bio/non-waxed)
• Alternatively: a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar

METHOD: 

Mirror glaze:

• Soak gelatin in water.  Bring cream to a boil.
• Bring sugar and water to a boil.  Add sifter cocoa, whisk thoroughly.  Add the hot cream and whisk together.  Finally add the squeezed gelatin and whisk thoroughly.
• Let cool and store in the fridge for at least 4h, or overnight.

Dacquoise: 

• Preheat the over to 170°C.  
• Whisk egg whites until soft peaks start forming, then start adding sugar, tablespoon by tablespoon, while continuing to whisk, until you get a glossy, thick meringue.  Gently fold in the ground almonds, flower, and a pinch of salt.  
• Draw two circles on your baking tray(s) the size of your cake pan (24cm diameter is perfect)  Distribute the meringue mixture between the two circles, making them smaller than the outline, leaving about 2cm from the side.  I made one circle slightly bigger and thicker than the other - the top layer should be slightly smaller and thinner.
• Bake for around 20-25 minutes, and let cool in the oven leaving the door ajar.

Mousse:

• Melt chocolate au bain marie and let cool.  Stir into the mascarpone.  Add zest (and sugar if using), mix together.
• Whisk cream until stiff.  Gently fold into chocolate mixture.

Praliné crunch:

• Roughly chop the gavottes.
• Melt chocolate au bain marie.  Warm hazelnut paste in a pot so that it becomes a bit more runny, and add melted chocolate.  Stir well together, add gavottes, and stir thoroughly again.

ASSEMBLY:

• Line a round baking tray (the one you used for the dacquoise - mine has 24cm in diameter) with baking paper - including the sides. 
• Place bottom dacqouise disk in tray, and spoon on top a very thick layer of the crunch, leaving only a bit for decorations (or late night snacking).
• Poor more than a half of the mousse on top.  
• Add the second dacqouise disk, press it in, and poor the rest of the chocolate mousse.
• Even out the surface with a big flat knife and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day, remove the sides of the baking tray, and very gently transfer the cake to a plate, thus removing the bottom part of the tray & baking paper as well.  This is quite tricky, as the dacquoise is only in the center and the sides are mousse - but if you are gentle and the mousse is cold and firm - it is perfectly doable.
• Pour the mirror glaze over the cake.  Decorate with remaining crunch and/or other decorations you may have (chocolate, hazelnuts, almonds etc.).
• Store in fridge before serving. 

Bon appétit!