Welcome to How To Cook That I'm Ann Reardon and today we're going to be
making an incredibly decadent chocolate mousse cake with salted caramel. I
actually filmed two versions of this video... this one which is a normal one
with close-up shots of all the food and all of the instructions on how to make
everything and then a face to camera version in Virtual Reality so you can
look around and we had some extra surprises in that video for you to look
at too so you can check that one out after. In a bowl put cornstarch salt
flour sugar and cocoa powder and then turn on your mixer and mix those
together. Once they're combined pour in the melted butter and all these recipe
quantities are on the howtocookthat.net website for you and I'll put a link to
that below. Continue to mix until you get a crumbly dough that looks like this.
this cookie crumb recipe is actually from Christina Tosi a pastry chef in New
York. We are actually pulling together ideas and bits and pieces from all over the
place to make this cake today. Sprinkle them onto a baking tray in chunks and
then bake them in the oven for 20 minutes. When you first get them out of
the oven they will be hot of course but they'll also be quite soft but if
you just leave them they'll get crisp as they cool. Once they are firm tip half of
them into a bowl of melted chocolate. it doesn't need to be tempered just melted
is fine. just make sure you stir it around until they're really well coated
and you can't see any of the crumb anymore and then spread that out onto a
tray. With the other half of the uncoated
crumbs just place them in an airtight container until we need them. Next you're
going to need to make two trays of my rich chocolate cake recipe and again
that recipe is on the howtocookthat.net website. For the salted caramel you'll
need sugar glucose or corn syrup cream milk and of course salt to taste. Add
about a quarter of a cup of water to the sugar and the glucose syrup and give it
a good stir and heat that up over high heat. Once it's all mixed together wash
down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to get off any of those
sugar crystals that might be on the sides of the pan. If you don't get those
off it can cause the caramel to crystallize at the end so then it will
turn into more of like a fudge which is not what we're after today. Then you can
leave that to boil unstirred ... at first it will thicken and you'll start to hear those
bubbles slow down and then it will start to go golden. Once it's a nice caramel
color add in the milk a bit at a time just careful that you don't get any
steam on your hands there and then add in the cream as well. Now at first the
caramel will set because the liquid is cold but just keep stirring and as the
milk and cream heat up it will dissolve back into the mixture. Now we need to
transfer this into a larger pan so that it doesn't boil over I'm making a double
quantity because I'm making this cake twice of course once for this video and
what's for the VR one. And because VR 180 is so wide ... it's 180 degrees ... I added a
juggler to one side of me and Matthew opening surprises on the other side of
me it was a lot of fun to make that video make sure you watch it I'll link
to that at the end. Add a candy thermometer and let this caramel boil
until it comes to about a hundred and seven degrees centigrade and this takes
quite a while. Once it gets there just strain it through a sieve to get rid of
any little bits that may have caught on the bottom of the pan. Add in your salt
and stir that through, now of course you'll need to resist the urge to taste
this because it's hotter than boiling water so don't dip your finger in don't
that leave it to cool 🔥 To make the mousse that goes between the layers we need
milk glucose syrup egg yolks chocolate cream gelatin and water to put the
gelatin in. So you just put these sheets in one at a time and we're just going to
leave those to soak so they can soften. Then you want to add the milk in with
the glucose syrup and we're going to put that in the microwave until it is
boiling. You need to see it bubbling. Whisk the egg yolks and add in a little
bit of the hot milk mixture, whisk it through and then add that back into the
rest of the hot milk and stir it around. Now we're going to put that back in the
microwave for about fifteen more seconds. That's looking good now grab the gelatin
sheets out of the water and give them a squeeze to get rid of as much of the
liquid as you can and then just dump that into the hot mixture and stir it
around until the gelatin is melted. Pour that over the chocolate ... I'm using half
milk and half dark chocolate and you want to leave that for a couple of
minutes so the chocolate can melt and then you just stir it around until you
have a nice homogeneous mixture. Now you want to leave that to cool to room
temperature before we fold in the cream. While that's cooling level your cakes and
use a cake ring to cut two circles from each tray. I'm using an 8-inch cake ring
for this cake. Then you're going to need a 10-inch board or a plate that you can
put it on and then you'll need your cake ring and then you want to line that
with some acetate that is taller than the height that you want your cake to be.
Start of course with a layer of cake just drop that right down the bottom
and check that it's central on the board. Then grab some milk on a bent spoon and
put a little drizzle of milk on the cake this just makes sure that it's super
moist when you're eating it you don't need heaps about three spoons will be
plenty. Once you've done that add some chocolate crumb and sprinkle that over
the top and the reason why I coated crumbs in chocolate is so they don't
absorb the moisture from the mousse and go soft and soggy. I want them to give
a crunch when you're eating this cake. Then drizzle on some of that beautiful
salted caramel and let that just ooze over the cake ... thinking is there some on
everybody's slice? You don't want it all on one slice so if it is just spread it
out there a bit. Whip your cream and fold it in with the chocolate mousse mixture
that we just made that should be cooled by now and keep folding it until it's
all mixed together. Then add two and a half cups of that mousse mixture on to
the cake. This is my own mousse recipe that I
developed for this cake to make sure it was just the right consistency and just
the right flavor nice and chocolatey and not too sweet between the layers of the
cake. Continue to layer it up all the way to the top, drizzle on some more of that
salted caramel and top with some more mousse to stop the top layer of cake
from drying out. This will need to go into the fridge for a few hours at least
to set or you could leave it overnight before we decorate it. Chop a chocolate
bar into triangular chunks ... we're going to use that for decorating on the top at
the end. Now you can just remove that acetate and add some caramel around the
top edge of your cake and let some of it just drip down on the sides just be
quite deliberate about where you want those drips to be. Then pile up some of
the cake off cuts into the center. This style of cake is inspired by Andy Bowdy a
pastry chef from Sydney. I like the overindulgent look of his
cakes. Add some of the crunchy cookie crumb to each side and then spoon on
some Italian meringue on top. If you don't know how to make it I'll link you to
a really old video of mine that shows you how to make Italian meringue at
the end. Take a blowtorch and gently toast that meringue you don't want to
burn it you just want it to look a little bit brown just define it a bit.
And then add some chunks of whatever chocolate bar you want into that
meringue on top. A couple more and then you can add edible flowers or some cut
strawberries for that little pop of color. With thanks to my patrons and
especially my gold patrons whose names are listed here if you'd like to support
this channel too head on over to patreon.com/h2ct or check out the new merch
that we have in this shop. Click here to watch the VR video here for the Italian
meringue and here to subscribe. Make it a great week and I'll see you on Friday 💕