recipe notes
step-by-step method
recipe card
Consider this the “Return of the Jedi” of my Top Ten posts (if you don’t get that reference, shame on you.). By now, because I’ve mentioned it like a billion times, you probably know I got an award this year (Top 10 Pastry Chefs in America by Dessert Professional Magazine) and was able to celebrate with 9 other very talented chefs, all of us whipping up some pastries for the event. This here is my third and final recipe of what I brought to the event.
The second installment of my Top Ten trilogy featured the orange caramel petit gateau, and this week I’m giving you another PG – strawberry and black pepper! I love this combo, because the bite of the black pepper balances so nicely with the sweetness of strawberry. This is actually a pretty easy PG to make, because everything is just stacked on top of each other. So if you’re new to the game or looking for a quick cake recipe, I’ve got you covered. Let’s get to it.
recipe notes
This is our first recipe at DFK that features a mousse! I. Love. Making. Mousse. I always have, and I don’t know why. To get the right texture of mousse, it’s key to whip your heavy cream to soft peaks only. Over whipping the heavy cream isn’t the end of the world, but it doesn’t blend as nicely into your mousse base. The second big key is temperature control. Your whipped cream should always be cold. If your mousse base is cream/custard based (like the one in this post) you want the temperature to be warm but not hot. Too hot and it will break down your whipped cream and you’ll lose volume. Between 30C/86F-35C/95F is a good range for your base before adding the whipped cream.
This is also the first time we’re seeing a gelee. I’ll let you know right now I hate the term gelee, mostly because it doesn’t sound very appetizing and it’s a term that gets thrown at a lot of different recipes without being very accurate. At its most traditional, a gelee is simply fruit puree, sugar and gelatin and creates a semi-solid (gelatinous) texture. I’m not a fan of traditional gelee, so I’ve changed my version to be more stable and a little creamier in texture. I still call it gelee because I don’t have a better name. If you can think of one, send it to me!
Let’s talk for just a minute about gooey butter cake. This cake comes from St. Louis and has those classic Americana origins that border on legend. Although the exact story isn’t 100% clear, one way or the other a baker screwed up a cake in the 1930’s and the gooey butter cake was born. The version I have comes from a former sous chef that had Amish roots. It’s pretty damn good. What I really like about gooey butter cake is the texture. It’s dense almost like a brownie and I really like that density to use in an entremet or petit gateau instead of lighter and sometimes drier cake.
strawberry black pepper petit gateau
sweet dough
gooey butter cake
cheesecake mousse
strawberry gelee
assembly
sweet dough
250g all purpose flour
5g salt
1g baking powder
175g butter unsalted
175g sugar
6g vanilla extract
75g whole eggs
Bring the butter and eggs to room temp. before you get started.
Combine the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a stand mixing bowl with a paddle attachment and cream the mixture.
Add the whole eggs to the butter mixture and mix until it’s well emulsified, about 2-3 minutes.
Combine and sift the all purpose flour, salt and baking powder and add it to the butter mixture.
Wrap the dough (shaping it into a rectangle will make it easier to roll out later on) and chill it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30min up to overnight.
After a good rest, roll the dough out to 1/8” thick. If you do this right the dough will be the size of a half sheet pan.
Using your rolling pin, roll the dough up and lay it onto your sheet pan, unrolling it like a breeze, right where you need it!
Place a half sheet pan frame (pan extender) into the dough and then put the whole thing back into the fridge.
black pepper gooey butter cake
450g butter unsalted
2g salt
380g sweetened condensed milk
300g light corn syrup
125g whole eggs
140 all purpose flour
8g black pepper ground
10g vanilla extract
Bring the butter and whole eggs to room temperature.
Combine the butter, salt, vanilla extract and the sweetened condensed milk in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and cream the mixture.
Add the corn syrup and mix until homogenized, then add the all purpose flour, black pepper and whole eggs and whip everything until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Spread the gooey butter cake filling over the chilled sweet dough.
Bake the cake at 165C/330F for 20 minutes or until the cake has puffed up and browned (it will look darker than you think when it’s done). Let the cake cool at room temperature for about 20min and then place it in the refrigerator, keeping the frame on until the cake has cooled completely.
cheesecake mousse
150g whole milk
30g egg yolks
90g sugar
7g gelatin 160 bloom
360g cream cheese
12g lemon juice
120g heavy cream
30g crème fraiche
First, setup a half sheet pan lined with acetate or a non-stick baking mat and a half sheet cake frame.
Hydrate your gelatin in cold water and reserve.
Combine the heavy cream and crème fraiche and whisk them in a stand mixer with a whip attachment to a soft peak stage. Reserve the whipped cream in the cooler until needed. Because this recipe only uses a small amount of cream and I have a big mixer, I decided to just whip this up by hand. Chilling the bowl and whisk for 5 to 10 minutes in the fridge first will make it a lot quicker and easier to do.
Bring the whole milk to a simmer. While the milk is heating, combine the egg yolks and sugar, whisking well to incorporate the sugar quickly into the egg yolks.
Temper the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture and then bring it back onto the stovetop.
Cook the mixture, whisking continuously, until it reaches 82C/180F (you’ve just made crème anglaise). Squeeze the excess water from the hydrated gelatin and add it and the lemon juice to the hot crème anglaise, whisking well until homogenized.
Chill the crème anglaise over an ice bath to 30-35C/86F-95F. Add the creme anglaise to the cream cheese in small additions, whisking well between each addition. This will help avoid lumps of cream cheese, just like in a cheesecake recipe!
With the first addition of creme anglaise, you’ll just be breaking up the cream cheese.
Another addition or two and the cream cheese starts to smooth out.
Here all of the creme anglaise has been added and you can see the smooth, thickened texture. The lines pulled with the whisk are visible which is a good indication the mousse base is on point.
Bring the soft peak whipped cream back out of the fridge and give it a whisk by hand to firm it back up. Fold the whipped cream into the cooled crème anglaise in two additions. Fold the first addition of whipped cream with you whisk, not a spatula. Fold the second and last addition of whipped cream again folding with a whisk, and then give a fold with a spatula to ensure all of the base on the edges of the bowl are homogenized.
Cast the mousse into the half sheet frame, spread it evenly with an offset spatula and then freeze it. (I don’t have much room in my freezer at home, so I let the mousse set solid in the fridge first and then move it to the freezer, so if it has to sit at an angle, the mousse won’t drift and then set at an angle.)
strawberry gelee
443g strawberry puree
14g low methoxyl pectin
100g sugar
11g gelatin 160 bloom
22g lemon juice
Hydrate your gelatin in cold water and reserve.
Combine the sugar and pectin, mixing the two together well to avoid lumps.
Whisk the sugar mixture into the cold strawberry puree, then transfer it to a stovetop in a sauce pot and bring it up to a boil.
Boil the mixture while whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes.
Squeeze the excess water from the hydrated gelatin and add it and the lemon juice to the hot strawberry puree.
I like to chill the gelee slightly over an ice bath, whisking for just a minute or two before casting it.
Cast the gelee over the frozen cheesecake mousse. Instead of using an offset to spread the gelee out, it should be thin enough that if you’re quick you can simply turn and tilt the gelee to spread it out over the mousse. Once you’re done, place it all back into the freezer until solid. You can also set the gelee in the fridge first, just like the mousse, so you don’t freeze anything at an uneven angle.
assembly
Start by unmolding the cooled gooey butter cake, then spread a very thin layer of strawberry jam over the top of it.
Trim the edges of the cake, using the raised edge all around the cake as a guide for where to start cutting (you want to get rid of the raised edge, so cut just inside that). Be sure to make clean 90 degree angles at the corners so you know your future cuts will be aligned properly. With practice and time you can just eyeball this, but use a ruler or other guide if you’re new to the technique.
At this point you can cut your little cakes into any size you’d like. I cut mine 1”x4” because I think it’s a good portion size and I like the longer, thinner look of the slice.
Cut the cheesecake mousse and strawberry block into slices just slightly smaller than the cake base. Again, this size is up to you but you want to leave a “shelf” of cake and with that in mind I cut those slices at least ¾”x 4 ¾”. The cheesecake mousse will be brittle when you cut it frozen (and you have to cut it frozen), with jagged edges no matter what you do. Don’t worry! We’ll cover those up when we decorate the finished petit gateau.
If you need to, freeze the cheesecake mousse and gelee for 15 to 20 minutes so they are firm before placing them onto the cake bases.
You can see the jagged edge from cutting the cheesecake mousse while frozen. Unfortunately if you let it thaw fully before cutting it will stick to itself and smear. But don’t worry! We will cover those edges with the next step.
Finely chop pistachios to use as garnish and place those around the little jam shelf of the cake.
Top the cake with slices of strawberry and coriander blossoms (if you can find them). I look for the tiniest strawberries and cut them into 1/8 slices or dice them depending on how I’m feeling.
Today was a slices kind of day.
It’s amazing to think how simple this petit gateau is based on the final presentation and that’s my favorite kind of recipe!
- 250 g All-purpose flour
- 5 g salt
- 1 g baking powder
- 175 g butter unsalted
- 175 g sugar
- 6 g vanilla extract
- 75 g whole eggs
- 450 g butter unsalted
- 2 g salt
- 380 g sweetened condensed milk
- 300 g light corn syrup
- 125 g whole eggs
- 140 g All-purpose flour
- 8 g black pepper ground
- 10 g vanilla extract
- 150 g whole milk
- 30 g egg yolk
- 90 g sugar
- 7 g gelatin 160 bloom
- 360 g cream cheese
- 12 g lemon juice
- 120 g heavy cream
- 30 g creme fraiche
- 443 g strawberry puree
- 14 g pectin low methoxyl
- 100 g sugar
- 11 g gelatin 160 bloom
- 22 g lemon juice
- Bring the butter and whole eggs to room temp.
- Combine and cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a stand mixing bowl with a paddle attachment.
- Add the whole eggs to the butter mixture and mix until it’s well emulsified.
- Combine and sift the all purpose flour, salt and baking powder and add it to the butter mixture.
- Wrap the dough and rest it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30min up to overnight.
- Roll the dough out to 1/8" thick and the size of a half sheet pan. Place the dough into a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat.
- Place a half sheet pan extender into the dough and return it to the cooler.
- Bring the butter and whole eggs to room temp.
- Combine and cream the butter, salt, vanilla extract and the sweetened condensed milk in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.
- Add the corn syrup and mix until homogenized, then add the all purpose flour, black pepper and whole eggs and whip everything until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Spread the gooey butter cake filling over the chilled sweet dough.
- Bake: convection; 165C/330F for 15-20 minutes. Let the cake cool.
- Before starting the recipe. Prepare a half sheet pan lined with acetate or a non-stick baking mat and a half sheet cake frame.
- Hydrate your gelatin in cold water and reserve.
- Combine the heavy cream and crème fraiche and whisk them in a stand mixer with a whip attachment to a soft peak stage. Reserve the whipped cream in the cooler until needed.
- Bring the whole milk to a simmer. While the milk is heating, combine the egg yolks and sugar, whisking well to incorporate the sugar quickly into the egg yolks.
- Temper the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture and then bring it back onto the stovetop.
- Cook the mixture, whisking continuously, until it reaches 82C/180F (crème anglaise) and remove from the heat. Continue to whisk the mixture off of the heat for 1min to cool it slightly.
- Squeeze the excess water from the hydrated gelatin and add it and the lemon juice to the hot crème anglaise, whisking well until homogenized.
- Chill the crème anglaise over an ice bath to 30-35C/86F-95F.
- Whisk the soft peak whipped cream back to soft peaks and add it to the crème anglaise in two additions.
- Cast the mousse into the half sheet frame and then freeze. If necessary, allow the mousse to set in the refrigerator and then transfer to the freezer.
- Hydrate your gelatin in cold water and reserve.
- Combine the sugar and pectin, mixing the two together well to avoid lumps.
- Whisk the sugar mixture into the cold strawberry puree, then transfer it to a stovetop in a sauce pot and bring it up to a boil.
- Boil the mixture while whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Squeeze the excess water from the hydrated gelatin and add it and the lemon juice to the hot strawberry puree.
- Cast the gelee over the frozen cheesecake mousse and place it back into the freezer until solid.
- Unmold the cooled gooey butter cake and spread a very thin layer of strawberry jam over the top of it.
- Trim the edges of the cake. Cut the slices to 1"x4"
- Cut the cheesecake mousse and strawberry gelee to 3/4"x3 3/4" pieces.
- Place the cheesecake mousse pieces onto the strawberry jam, centering them.
- Decorate the assembled petit gateau with sliced strawberries and chopped pistachios.
Hi Scott
Congratulations on your award. I am going to make this but I would like to know the exact measurements of the pan extender. Thank you in advance. Best
Hi Donna,
Thanks! That’s great you’re going to try the cake out. Any size half sheet frame will work as long as you use it for each component. The one in my blog post happens to be Matfer brand and is 10.75″/27.3cm x 14″/35.56cm x 1.8″/4.6cm. Hope that helps!
Cheers – Chef Scott
Since you are adding sugar to the gelee do you omit sugar in making the strawberry purée or do you feel you need to add a small amount to extract the juice? Similarly are you adding water while making the purée to achieve a certain consistency? Finally, strain the seeds out of the purée?
Thank you for an illustrative post.
Hi Rod!
Good questions. 1. Generally I don’t add sugar to my puree unless it’s an especially acidic fruit like passion fruit or currant. To extract juice from the fruit I freeze it slowly (any home freezer will freeze slowly enough) and let the formed ice crystals tear the cell walls of the fruit. When the fruit thaws, much of its juice is released. Blending the puree at that point finishes the job.
2. I never add water to my puree either.
3. I don’t strain the puree either. Occasionally I will strain raspberry puree since it has especially large seeds but I feel that too much pulp and fruit product is left behind, even when using strainers, etc. at work.
Truly all I do is find very ripe fruit, in some cases freeze and then thaw it, and blend it as finely as I might want. Done!
Thanks for checking out the post and the questions!
Cheers – Chef Scott
Thank you.
Hoping to make this during this year’s strawberry season! Does the purée have to prepared in that method of freezing/blending? I had cooked some to softness, then blended, while I was cooking down another batch for jam.
Hi Joanna,
Strawberry season is the perfect time to make this recipe! Personally I use cold process puree methods (you don’t have to freeze the berries first, I just like that step since it extracts the juice and softens the berries) as opposed to adding heat since heat will eliminate some of the fresh berry’s natural acidity and brightness, and increase the perceived sweetness. That being said, you could always try both methods of creating puree and then making the recipe separately with each (if you were feeling truly ambitious!) to compare the two. Maybe you’d find you prefer the heating method of pureeing!
Hope that helps, good luck with your recipe!
Cheers – Chef Scott
Oh thank you so much for that explanation of how the methods differ! & the reassurance it’s OK to use the batch I’d heated/blended. 😉 I probably won’t have time to make it twice separately (I wish, ha!), but it turns out I didn’t have as much leftover purée from the jam as I was hoping, so I just bought another local quart today, will try the cold method, & will at least do a spoonful taste test!
I’m actually finding the heat method isn’t bringing out the sweetness, so far – for separate batches both of strawberry and rhubarb purée, with simply heating then blending, I’m finding it quite acidic to the taste afterwards, so perhaps I just am finding fruit that’s on the sour side. Do you have ideas on how to make a deeper & more aromatic flavor with these purées? I know a little rose water can help – I added a teaspoon to some strawberry purée I used for another recipe’s gelee – but I’m wondering about other options too.
Thank you again!!
Hi Joanna,
That’s the beauty of pastry, whatever method or trick works for you is the right one! If the heating method seems to work, I’d say stick with it 🙂 If you wanted deeper flavor to the puree, most of it will be a result of the quality/ripeness of the berry. That being said, you could add a little sugar (I wouldn’t add more than 3% by weight) and a little vanilla extract. Good luck with your next recipe project!
Cheers – Chef Scott
when I was making these PG, I did set up a little experiment – the heating method vs the freezing method (which is temptingly no-fuss), then trying a taste with rosewater vs a taste with Chinese 5-spice (got the idea for strawberry intensifier from BraveTart). I didn’t end up having a favorite, I could see how all of them were different, tasty in their own way, and would complement different other ingredients. thanks for encouraging exploration – but also reassuring us that whatever works, is OK. 😉
Welcome back Jedi,
first of all let me tell you, that you are one of my fav Chefs, especially after the article in so good magazine #14, when I made your Noir recipe and fell in love with it 😉
I am so glad you started this blog, so we can learn from the Best. And your award is so well deserved!
I have to question, and a request. First one is in Europe we don’t have some of the ingredients like cake (pastry) flour. Or we consider cake flour the one with raising agents (I have question about that too, but will right down in orange caramel petit gateau). So instead of corn syrup, can I use glucose syrup?
Also is pectin low methoxyl equal to NH pectin?
My request is to see more petit gateau, esp like Noir with that beautiful combination of blackberry and violets. With a hope to see something with lychee 😉
May the force be with you Jedi! 🙂
Hi Tiho,
Haha thanks for such awesome comments! You’re the best! I’m really glad you liked the product I put out in So Good. I hope to work with them again soon. And I will definitely be doing more petit gateau and entremet in future posts. Pastry is such a huge world I try and spread the love around with my post topics, but petit gateau and entremet are one of my favorites so there will be lots.
To answer your other questions – you can use glucose in place of corn syrup, the only real difference will be in relative water content, so you’ll ad slightly less glucose than corn syrup (maybe 5%-10% by weight?)
You can substitute NH pectin for yellow pectin. Technically they’re different but NH will work.
Lychee sounds like a great idea for an ingredient to use soon!
May the force be with you, padawan
Chef Scott
Thank you Master!! All make sense now. I have to experiment with the glucose syrup. Assume 20 or 30 grams less will be fine.
Also I have yellow pectin, but thought it is medium set one. Sometimes I am getting so confused with so many gelling agents 🙂
BUT
As Yoda says: “Always pass on what you have learned.” Thank you for sharing your knowledge Jedi!
Hello chef!
Finally got around to make the cake today but had a few questions along the way.
Can the gooey cake be made without a pound of butter and all the sugar (condensed mils and corn syrup)?
I also had to cook my cake for 40 minutes to get some kind of colour on it.
Half of it spilled all under and around the frame mostly due, I guess, from all the butter in the mix.
How do you go about making sure it doesn’t happen?
Thank you so much for such a beautiful website and please post more exquisite and challenging recipe.
Cheers!
Driss
Hi Driss,
That’s awesome you got to try out the recipe! You could change the formula to remove some of the butter and sugar, but it wouldn’t really be gooey butter cake anymore (not necessarily a bad thing, you may end up with something even better!). All the butter and sugar is just part of the gig, but that’s why I always try and keep things in moderation.
An adjustment of bake time is pretty normal, depending on the oven you’re using, etc. The key is to do just what you did and use your baking instincts to know when the cake is done.
Sorry to hear the batter leaked. Did you make and par bake a crust base first? That’s part of why I have that component, it keeps the batter from leaking. If you wanted to skip the crust then I would just add a base of tinfoil to the baking frame, curling the tinfoil up around the outer edge, to keep the batter in its place.
You’re so welcome for the recipes! Lots more to come, and thank you for the feedback! It’s great to hear so I can try and make the site better.
Cheers – Chef Scott
Hi Chef,
I am reading all of the instructions again and it doesn’t state that the pate sucree should be cooked first, just to chill it back into the fridge.
Am I missing something?
Thanks
No, you’re absolutely right! Sorry, I have a lot of recipes, and sometimes the method gets mixed up in my head! The raw crust in the bottom of the frame should be enough to withhold most of the batter from leaking while baking. If there’s an excessive amount of batter leaking it could be an issue of oven temp. being too low or a misscale and too much butter being added. Do you have a way to calibrate your oven to find out the exact temp.? Also make sure the batter is well mixed and the mixing bowl is scraped well so that no pockets of butter lie hidden to melt out when baking. Hopefully one of those things will fix the issue! As a last resort you could chill the whole thing – crust and batter in the frame – before baking, which will give everything time to react before the butter fully melts. Let me know!
Cheers – Chef Scott