COLD HEART, DARK SHELL ENTREMET

Written By Kimia

Notes:

Vegetarian Advantage: Unlike traditional entremet cakes that rely on gelatin (derived from boiling animal skin, tendons, and bones) for stability, this recipe uses Pomona’s Universal Pectin (available on Amazon, iHerb, etc.). Pectin sets faster than gelatin so you’re working time is shorter, but the recipe accounts for this. By subbing pectin this recipe is 100% vegetarian while maintaining a stable, professional set that can handle being frozen and thawed. Pectin is used in most fruit jams and jellies to thicken them and is naturally derived from fruit 🙌 And what goes better together than chocolate and strawberries? Maybe chocolate, strawberries and cheesecake… Damn, these are good.

Tip: Use a high quality dark chocolate bar for the ganache. Chocolate chips often have emulsifiers added and/or are dusted with corn starch or silicon dioxide to prevent them from sticking together. You’ll still get a decent ganache with chips, but high quality chocolate bars will provide an even smoother finish. I tried both ways and the ganache made with 72% dark chocolate chips turned out much thicker and less pourable the ganache made with 70% dark chocolate bars.

Total Time: Start these the night before you need them and then finish them in the morning. Preparing the gel hearts, chocolate sablé biscuits, and cheesecake base takes 3-4 hrs. The hearts need 2+ hours to freeze, so most of that time is waiting for the hearts to freeze; after they’re frozen you can insert them in the cheesecake base and then freeze the entremets. The following morning you make the ganache, glaze the frozen entremet bases and place them on the biscuits, which takes about 1 hour.

Yield: Makes 8 entremet with the molds I used. You will easily have 16+ chocolate sable biscuits with the biscuit recipe so you can double the rest of the recipe if you want to make 16 entremet.

Equipment:

Ingredients:

Strawberry Compote (Flavor Base)

  • 325g Frozen Strawberries (if your strawberries are covered in ice from sitting in a freezer too long then use 350g)

  • 3 tablespoons Granulated Sugar

  • 2 teaspoons Cornstarch (whisked with 1 tablespoon water to form slurry)

  • 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

  • 1 pinch Sea Salt

Strawberry Soft-Gel Hearts

  • 100g Smooth Strawberry Compote (from above)

  • 3/4 teaspoon Pomona’s Pectin

  • 1 tablespoon Granulated Sugar

  • 3/4 teaspoon Calcium Water (calcium packet comes with the pectin)

Chocolate Sablé Biscuit Base

  • 140g All-Purpose Flour

  • 43g Guittard Cocoa Rouge (Cocoa Powder)

  • 25g Almond Flour

  • 135g Granulated Sugar

  • 113g Cold Butter, cubed

  • 2 large Egg Yolks

  • 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon Salt

Velvet Strawberry Cheesecake

  • 390g Cream Cheese, room temperature

  • 165g White Chocolate, melted

  • 295g Heavy Whipping Cream, cold

  • 117g Smooth Strawberry Compote (from above)

  • 1.5 teaspoons Pomona's Pectin

  • 1.5 tablespoons Granulated Sugar

  • 1.5 teaspoons Calcium Water

  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt (I like using pink salt, but you can also use kosher)

Sleek Chocolate Ganache

  • 220g 70% Dark Chocolate, finely chopped

  • 257g Heavy Whipping Cream

  • 51g light Karo Syrup (approx. 3 tablespoons)

  • 1 pinch Salt



Directions:

1. Prepare the Strawberry Compote

In a medium saucepan, combine strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Simmer over medium heat until the berries soften. Use a whisk or spatula to vigorously break down the strawberries into a thick, uniform pulp. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and boil for 1 minute to thicken. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, and set aside to cool.

2. Cast the Gel Hearts

Whisk 100g of the compote with the calcium water in a small pan. In a separate bowl, mix the pectin and sugar. Bring the compote to a rolling boil, then whisk in the pectin-sugar mixture. Boil hard for 90 seconds. Pour into silicone heart molds and freeze until rock-hard (at least 2 hours, but longer is better).

3. Bake the Chocolate Sablé

Pulse dry ingredients and cold butter in a food processor until the mixture looks like sand. If you don’t have a food processor use a pastry cutter or large forks to cut the dough into a sandy texture. Add egg yolks and pulse until a dough forms. Roll the dough between parchment paper to a 4mm thickness then cut into squares just slighty larger than the base of your silicone cube mold. *Don’t separate the dough after cutting, leave it intact. Chill the cut dough for 20 minutes. Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 10–12 minutes. While still warm and soft, recut the squares and let cool before separating.

4. Assemble the Strawberry Cheesecake Cubes

Don’t start this portion of the recipe until the strawberry gel hearts have finished freezing.

The following steps need to be completed one after the other, no waiting in between. Don’t stress yourself out, just set everything up so you can do them in sequence: In a large mixing bowl whisk the room-temperature cream cheese, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Then, in a small mixing bowl melt white chocolate using the microwave tempering method and whip it into the cream cheese mixture. In a small sauce pan, boil 117g of compote with the calcium water. Whisk in the pectin-sugar and boil for 60 seconds. Whisk this hot fruit mixture into the cheese base (I mixed the hot strawberry compote in two additions). Finally, whip the cold heavy cream in a separate bowl to medium-stiff peaks and beat/fold into the strawberry cream cheese/chocolate mixture.

Fill your cube molds with strawberry cheesecake about 3/4 full, insert a frozen gel heart into the center, and top with more cheesecake. Scrape the tops flush and freeze at -5°F overnight. *Keep track of the orientation of the hearts after insertion so you know which way is front-to-back (important for getting that heart cross-section when you cut them in half).

5. Glaze with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Heat heavy cream and light Karo syrup until simmering, then pour over the dark chocolate. Let rest for 3 minutes. Stir gently, then use an immersion blender (kept fully submerged) to emulsify the mixture into a mirror-like gloss. Transfer to a spouted pitcher (or measuring cup) and let cool slightly to 34°C (93°F).

Place frozen cubes on a wire rack. Pour the ganache in a square spiral, starting from the edges and moving inward. Do one confident pass to ensure a smooth, professional finish.

6. Final Assembly

Once the glaze has set slightly but the cubes are still structurally firm from the freezer, transfer each entremet to a trimmed Chocolate Sablé biscuit. Pro-Tip: Gently slide a butter knife under the entremet to lift it from the wire rack and slip it onto the biscuit base (you will need to use a finger or second butter knife to delicately support this movement). This minimizes handling and keeps the ganache finish flawless (hopefully). Optional flourish: Add a piece of gold leaf to the corner of each entremet. Allow the entremet to thaw for 45 minutes before slicing for the perfect heart cross-section.

Kimia
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