A sweet twist on a trusted snack, these caramel cakes draw flavourful inspiration from a breakfast mainstay. You’ll find this inventive recipe from Maxine Scheckter’s new book Pâtisserie Made Simple.
This gâteau is inspired by all the delicious toasty flavours that come from brown butter. As well as using brown butter in the cake and in the bavarois, we are also using dulce de leche and caramelised white chocolate. These are both created by caramelising the milk solids in their respective mixtures – the same thing that happens when butter is browned, giving us a mouthful of toasty goodness.
Makes 30
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the tin.
- Melt the butter in a small pot and cook over a medium heat, whisking constantly, until you get a nutty brown butter. Pour into a bowl, being careful as the butter will be very hot, and leave to cool for 10 minutes before continuing.
- Whisk the sugar into the butter, followed by the egg, then the milk, oil and vanilla. Once well combined, whisk in the flour and baking powder.
- Pour into the lined tin and bake for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden and the cake is just set to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before making the bavarois.
- Pour the bavarois over the cooled cake and level off with a palette knife.
- Freeze overnight, or until solid.
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Advertise with NZME.- Portion the gâteau into 15 pieces that are 5 x 5cm squares, then cut each in half diagonally to create 30 triangles.
- Store in the freezer until ready to finish.
- Melt the chocolate and oil together, stirring until smooth.
- Use the chablon when its temperature is between 30 and 35°C, or as directed in the recipe. All chocolate brands contain differing amounts of cocoa butter, so sometimes the chablon can be too thick for dipping with only 30g of oil.
- Add more oil as needed to get the chocolate to a smooth, pouring consistency.
- Follow the instructions below for dipping the gâteau in chablon, leaving the top exposed, so that the chablon looks like the crust on toast.
- Return to freezer and store until ready to finish.
Note: There are two different ways I apply chablon. For both methods, first pierce each portion with a toothpick, and use the toothpick to dunk the gateau into the chablon. The first method is to dip the entire gateau in the chablon mix, coating the sides, top and bottom. Because your gateau is frozen, it will immediately start to set the chablon. You will need to work quickly: dunk your gateau in and allow any excess to drip off for a few seconds. Scrape the base on the edge of the bowl to get as much of the liquid chocolate off as possible. You’ll then need to scrape the base across a sheet of baking paper, to allow more of the chablon to drip off, leaving you with as thin a layer as possible. The second method is almost exactly the same, but instead you leave the top of the gateau exposed, and only dip the sides and base. Then repeat the scraping as above. For both methods you may need to reheat your chablon occasionally while using it, as if it gets too cold your coating will start to become very thick.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a tray of any size with baking paper.
- Rip the sourdough into small pieces about the size of your fingernail.
- Toss the bread in a bowl with the butter and sugar until well combined.
- Spread on the tray and bake for 10–15 minutes, until golden brown, stirring every few minutes.
- Allow to cool and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.
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Advertise with NZME.- Spoon the dulce de leche into a piping bag.
- Cut a 0.5cm hole in the bag and pipe a thin layer of dulce de leche on top of each toast, swirling it as you go to try to make it seem like it’s been spread with a knife. It’s very important the toast triangles are still frozen at this point otherwise the bavarois will smush around everywhere when you try to pipe the dulce de leche on top.
- Place a few sourdough crumbs on top.
- Sprinkle some salt on top of each piece of toast and decorate with some gold leaf.
- Allow to defrost fully before serving.
Edited extract from Pâtisserie Made Simple: The Art of Petits Gâteaux by Maxine Scheckter, $69, published by Bateman Books.
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