Easter shortcake with Advocaat mousse

on

Today I want to share a simple recipe for a festive dessert. This time we'll prepare a traditional Easter shortcake, enriched with blackberry jam and Advocaat mousse.


Pleasantly buttery shortcake base goes perfectly with lightly sour blackberry jam, while light-as-a-cloud Advocaat mousse is subtly sweet, and it brings a bit of character to the whole dessert. You can taste alcohol, so it's more of an adult dessert, but we can treat ourselves from time to time too, can't we?

You'll find the list of ingredients, method and approximate nutritional value below.

Turn on CC to watch the video.


List of ingredients (18 x 28 cm baking tin)

Shortcake base

  • 300 g (~2 cups) flour
  • 100 g (~1/2 cup) sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 200 g butter, cold
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste

Advocaat mousse

  • 6 g gelatine + 60 ml hot water
  • 150 g whipping cream (36 %)
  • 150 g mascarpone cheese
  • 30 g icing sugar
  • 100 g egg liqueur

Also

  • 70 g lightly sour jam
  • Decoration, eg. Easter chocolates, chocolate eggs, nuts, grated chocolate, dried fruits

Method

  1. Prep work starts with shortcake base. Transfer 300 g wheat flour, 100 g fine white sugar and a small pinch of salt into a large bowl. Stir through the dry ingredients shortly with a whisk, until everything is evenly distributed.
  2. Add 200 g cold cubed butter to the dry ingredients. Incorporate fat into the contents of the bowl until they start to resemble wet sand. You can use a confectionery knife, a regular knife, a kitchen robot or simply your fingertips. In the last case be careful not to warm up the butter too much.
  3. Add one large egg yolk and 1 tsp vanilla paste to the dough. If you don't have vanilla paste at hand, you can also use vanilla extract or vanilla sugar. In the last case add it to flour together with regular sugar. Stir through the contents of the bowl with a wooden spoon, only until flour absorbs all moisture. Start kneading dough with your hand next until the dough comes together. Transfer dough onto a worktop next and knead it shortly until a smooth, compact ball forms. Shape dough into a small log and divide it in 3:1 ratio. Wrap the smaller piece tightly with plastic wrap and put it into a fridge for a while.
  4. Tear the larger part of dough into smaller bits, arrange them in the bottom of a baking tin lined with baking paper, 18 x 28 cm and press them down. Try to arrange the dough pieces evenly as it will be important while baking the base. Once you've got at even base prick it densely with a fork across the whole surface. This will let steam escape while baking, which will prevent the shortcake from raising and cracking. If you want to be even safer, you can weigh down the base with baking beans or dry rice.
  5. Take the smaller part of dough out of a fridge and tear small pieces from it. Form small logs, about 1 cm thick, and stick them to the side of the baking tin. Once you've created a frame this way put the baking tin into a fridge for 30 minutes to cool dough down.
  6. Next, bake the shortcake base in an oven preheated to 180 deg C, no fan, for 20-22 minutes, until beautiful and golden. Take the cake out of the oven after this time and set it aside in the baking tin to cool completely.
  7. Put 2 tbsp of lightly sour jam on top of a cool shortcake base and spread it evenly across the whole surface.
  8. Pour 60 ml hot, freshly boiled water into a small bowl and add 6 g powdered gelatine. Stir through the contents of the bowl shortly, only until gelatine dissolves and uniform liquid forms. Set the bowl with dissolved gelatine aside for a moment to cool lightly.
  9. Meanwhile, work on remaining mousse ingredients. Put 150 g cold mascarpone cheese, 150 g cold whipping cream (36%) and 30 g icing sugar into a large bowl. Beat the contents of the bowl with an electric mixer 3/4 of the way, that is until cream becomes fluffy and increases in volume, and mixer beaters start leaving visible marks. I recommend starting at low mixer speed and increasing it gradually as cream increases in volume.
  10. Once you've got the right texture, add 100 g cold egg liqueur. Do it slowly, in a slow trickle, while mixing cream at medium-high speed. Initially cream will become thinner, but it should become thick and structured again after a moment.
  11. Add 1 tsp Advocaat mousse into cool gelatine solution and mix it shortly until uniform and smooth. Once you've tempered gelatine this way, add it to Advocaat mousse. Do it slowly, in a slow trickle, while mixing the contents of the bowl at medium speed. This will make it easier to distribute gelatine in cream and avoid unpleasant lumps. Once you've added all of liquid continue mixing mousse for 30-60 seconds and make sure with a silicone spatula that everything combined as it should.
  12. Transfer mousse onto the shortcake base and distribute it evenly across the whole jam-covered surface. Try to even out mousse layer as evenly as you can.
  13. Decorate the cake, for example with Easter chocolates, roughly chopped Easter eggs, nuts, grated chocolate or dried fruits and almond flakes. Put the decorated cake into a fridge for a few hours, or best overnight, for mousse to set.
  14. Enjoy!

Approximate nutritional value

100 g

  • 456 kcal
  • Carbs: 46 g
  • Fat: 28 g
  • Protein: 6 g
  • Fibre: 1 g

1 slice (recipe makes 16 slices)

  • 266 kcal
  • Carbs: 27 g
  • Fat: 16 g
  • Protein: 3 g
  • Fibre: 1 g

Comments

Post a Comment