RECIPE: REC: Julia's Bombe aux Trois Chocolats

RECIPE:

michelleinil

Well-known member
Bombe aux Trois Chocolats

From Julia Child’s Menu Cookbook

I find it best to make the mousse first, so it can set a little bit, yet be soft enough to spoon into the lines mold. While

the fudge cake is baking and cooling, you can cut out the template, or pattern, that will guide you in lining your bowl

or mold with the cake. The recipe here is for a 6-cup (11/2-L) bowl of about 8-inches top diameter, which fortunately

just works out for the standard rectangular jelly-roll pan that is about 11- by 17-inches. A charlotte mold or even a

flowerpot could be used, of course, and either is fine because they are both tall enough for drama.

For the Mousse:

Make Mousse, Chocolate from page 342. If made and chilled in advance, leave out at room temperature until it has

softened.

Kate’s Great Chocolate Fudge Cake:

For a jelly-roll pan about 11- by 17-inches:

• 1 stick unsalted butter

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened, cut into 8 pieces

• 2 cups (14 ounces) sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour

• Butter and flour for baking pan

1. Preliminaries. Preheat oven to 350!F. Butter the jelly-roll pan (so the paper will stick to it), cut a sheet of wax

paper to fit it with 2-inches of overhang at each end, and press into pan. Butter and flour the paper, knocking

our excess flour. Measure out all your ingredients.

2. Melting the chocolate. Set the first stick of butter and the chocolate in a double boiler, and melt while you

continue with the next step.

3. Preparing the batter. Cream second stick of butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by

one, and the vanilla and salt. Stir in the warm melted chocolate mixture, then gradually sift and fold in the flour.

Spread the batter evenly into the jelly-roll pan.

4. Baking and cooling. Bake on the middle level of oven for about 25 minutes, until set but top is still spongy.

A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out with a few specks of chocolate on it. It should be chewy

when cool, and you want it to bend a little so that you can mold it into the bowl; do not let it overcook. Remove

from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Then turn pan upside down over a cake rack and unmold the cake,

gently pulling off wax paper. Cool 10 minutes more.

May be baked in advance. When cool, cover with wax paper, reverse back into baking pan, and cover airtight; store in

the refrigerator for a day or 2, or freeze.

Brownies. When cool, cut the cake into 3- by 11/2-inch rectangles. Serves as is, or you may glaze them with the

chocolate and nuts suggested at the end of the bombe recipe.

Assembling the Bombe aux Trois Chocolats:

• 4 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate

• 1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate

• 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1. The template—or cut-out pattern. Whatever you have chosen as a container for molding the dessert, you will

need a pattern of cut-outs to guide you in fitting the cake into the container. This is the system we for our round

bowl: a small cake circle for the bottom of the bowl; 7 wedges of cake to rest on the circle and touch the top of

the bowl all around with a little space between each wedge, allowing the mousse to peek through its encircling

walls of fudge cake. We also have a large circle to cap the mousse, and all scraps of fudge cake go into the

center, giving the bombe a little extra sturdiness for its life out of the mold.

2. Molding the bombe. Before cutting the fudge cake, slice off a 1/2-inch border all around the rectangle, since the

edges tend to be brittle—these cut-offs make nice little cookies bits to serve another time. Then cut around the

pattern. Line the bowl with plastic wrap (for easy unmolding), and arrange the cake pieces in the bowl, pressing

gently into place, best side out. Pile half the mousse into the bowl, cover with scraps of the cake (leftovers from

cutting patterns). Fill with the remaining mousse and place the large circle on top, pressing it down to force the

mousse into the bowl and around the cake. Cover and chill at least 6 hours or overnight.

3. Unmolding. Loosen the bombe from the mold by pulling up on the plastic wrap, then fold wrap down the

outside of the bowl. Center the serving platter (with doily if you are using one) over the top of the mold and

reverse the two, unmolding the bombe onto the platter. Melt the chocolate over hot water, and pour over the top

of the bombe, letting the chocolate drip lazily and unevenly down the sides. Top chocolate, while still warm,

with a sprinkling of the chopped nuts.

4. Serving. Cut into wedges, like a round cake. Can be served with whipped cream.

Bombe may be refrigerated for several days. It may be frozen, and thawed before serving—several hours at room

temperature, or a day or more in the refrigerator.

JULIA CHILD'S CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

8 Ounce Sweet or semi sweet baking

chocolate -- melted with

1/4 Cup Strong coffee

3 Ounce Unsalted butter (6 Tb)

3 Egg yolks

1 Cup Heavy cream (make sure it's

the heavy variety)

3 Egg whites

1/4 Cup Instant (finely ground)

sugar

OPTIONAL----Whipped cream

Beat the soft butter into the smoothly melted chocolate. One by one, beat in

the egg yolks. Beat the cream over ice until it leaves light traces on the

surface. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. While beating,

sprinkle in the sugar by sp

oonfuls and continue beating until stiff shining peaks are formed. Scrape the

chocolate mixture down the side of the egg-white bowl, and delicately fold in

the whipped cream. Turn the mousse into attractive serving bowls. Cover and

chill several hours.

You may wish to decorate the mousse with swirls of whipped cream, or to pass

whipped cream separately.

Julia Child - The way to cook. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright

1989 by Julia Child. Isbn 0-394-53264-3.

 
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