A goose breast for Present Perfect - the recipe. (It's the Danish cake 'gåsebryst') · 2:41pm Dec 10th, 2020
So Cel, what are you talking about?
A while ago, Present Perfect asked about this:
That's a 'gåsebryst', a Danish cake. It's got the strange name like this: when it was invented around 1900, there were no appliances to help with rolling marzipan - it usually ended up with a surface structure resembling the skin on the breast of a plucked goose. There's a Pinkie story here somewhere.
Anyway, I promised to find a recipe, and after forever I'm honouring that promise. Turned into a substantial translation project Danish-English, but here it is. Unless you're interested in trying to replicate this, you can stop reading now. ;)
It's artery-cloggingly delicious though. Here goes.
After this admittedly slightly intimidating recipe, there's also the easier convenience version. But I found the original how-granny-used-to-make-it fascinating.
Gåsebryst, classic version, 6 pieces
This is the original ‘good old days’ version of this Danish delicacy.
Ingredients Metric values!
All of this stuff can of course be bought ready-made. But this is actually fun and interesting. At least to me.
Plum butter
125g plums
2 dl Water
2 table spoons sugar
Vanilla cream
2,5 dl milk
3 egg yolks
75g sugar
2 tea spoons vanilla sugar
20g cornstarch
Pastry cream
3 gelatine sheets
All of the aforementioned vanilla cream
2,5 dl whipping cream
Bottom
Puff pastry. You can make this yourself, if you’re feeling masochistic. Otherwise:
1 frozen puff pastry (10×20 cm)
Marzipan cover
200g marzipan
100g powdered sugar
15g glucose syrup
Tools
Pastry bags
Freezer bag
Cutting board
Start with the plum butter
Half the plums and soak them in the water for one hour.
Add the sugar and heat them until they just start to boil. Let them simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Make sure to stir them several times and maybe add a little more water before they begin to burn. After the 15 minutes have passed, mash them with a spoon and let them cool.
Put the finished plum butter in a pastry bag and put it into the fridge.
Vanilla cream
Put the egg yolks in a bowl and whip them together with the sugar and the vanilla sugar. Bring the milk to boil in a small pot. Carefully sieve the corn starch into the mixture and mix without whipping.
Bring the milk to boil and pour the boiling milk into the egg mixture while whipping. Put the resulting mixture back into the pot and bring it to boil again while stirring continuously. Simmer it for a few minutes while whipping it vigorously – it burns very easily at this stage. It will bubble first before it begins to thicken.
Cover the vanilla cream with clingfilm (so that it touches the cream’s surface) and put it in the fridge. Wait for it to cool completely.
Pastry cream
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 20 minutes. Heat three tablespoons of whipping cream in a small pan. Take the pan off the stove. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine and put it into the pan so that it melts in the cream. Mix well and let cool until lukewarm.
Whip the remaining cream until it thickens (but not until completely stiff).
Take the vanilla cream you prepared earlier and whip it smooth. When the gelatine has cooled, take a tablespoon of cream and mix thoroughly. This is to lower the temperature so that the cream doesn’t form strings. Make sure the mixture isn’t warmer than hand warm. Carefully pour the gelatine into the vanilla cream while whipping. Mix thoroughly.
Take ¼ of the whipping cream and mix it with the vanilla cream. Be gentle and use a dough scraper or similar, so that the whipped cream stays fluffy. Repeat the process with the rest of the cream in small portions.
Fill a pastry bag with your finished pastry cream and put it into the fridge for an hour.
Bottom
Preheat the oven to 200°C centigrade (top and bottom heat only)
Let the puff pastry thaw for 20 minutes. Roll it until it’s about 12x40cm and put it onto a baking tray with baking parchment. Cover with another sheet of baking parchment, put another baking tray on top ofit and bake it in the middle of the oven for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, remove the second tray and parchment and bake for another 8-10 minutes until golden and crumbly.
Move the pastry to a grill so the moisture can evaporate and let it cool. It will shrink a bit.
Assembly!
Put the puff pastry on a cutting board that can be put in the freezer. Take the plum butter and put a broad stripe down the whole length of the pastry.
Take your pastry cream and apply it in narrow bands down the length of the pastry. This way, build a triangle shape on top of the plum butter. Smooth the sides with a broad knife or similar.
Take a freezer bag and cut open one side. Drape it over the pastry cream so that the seam follows the top of the ‘pyramid’ you built. Use your hands or a cutting board to perfect the triangle shape. (Don’t use clingfilm, it produces a very irregular surface).
Put your gåsebryst in the freezer until completely frozen (eg. overnight).
Marzipan cover
Nearing the end here…
Mix the marzipan with the powdered sugar and the glucose syrup until completely smooth. Don’t overdo it, otherwise the marzipan becomes oily.
Sprinkle the table with a little powdered sugar and roll it thin. Just make sure it’s big enough to cover your cake. Don’t turn the marzipan over, you want it to be as smooth as possible on one side.
Take your gåsebryst out of the freezer, remove the freezer bag, and cover the cake with the marzipan sheet you just made. Make sure it’s nice and even and cut it to shape at the base. Cut the frozen cake into the desired amount of slices. Serve when it’s fully thawed.
By the way, here is a site with nice pictures of the process
(the recipe description isn’t very good though)
Okay, this got way out of hand. :b
Now for the ‘modern’ version (the one Present Perfect found a high class picture of).
Ingredients (for four pieces)
2 cake bases
4 tablespoons raspberry jam
2.5 dl pastry cream (readymade or prepared as described above)
2.5 dl whipping cream
200 g marzipan
How to
Cut the cake bases into 4 rectangles. If you want, you can also split them down the middle so that you end up with 8 similar pieces and get a layered bottom.
Spread the raspberry jam evenly on each piece of cake base.
Use a pastry bag to spread the pastry cream on the jam.
Whip the cream and layer it on top of the pastry cream, forming a nice round shape.
Roll the marzipan out thinly, cut it into fitting shapes and drape it over your cakes.
Decorate or devour as is.
Then rest. You deserve it.
Neat! Though I have to boggle at teaspoons and tablespoons sneaking in here and there.
Now that's a fine bit of pastry-craft! Looks delicious.
5412919
Well, that's the way it's done around here ;)
I know, the international differences in how these measurements are expressed are really strange at times. E.g., no-one around here knows what a 'cup' of something is supposed to be.
oh my god what does this mean
That traditional recipe is terrifying, but probably totally worth it. :D You have done very well, my friend, and you have my thanks!
5412933
Electric ovens have two heating elements, one in the bottom and one in the top.
They may have additional functions, like convection or grill or intensive and combinations of those. So 'top and bottom heat' means: simply turn on the oven, no specific function.
Thank you! My pleasure (when I finally got around to it).
Oh and here is a good site for converting the units I've used into to something you might understand. ;)
Only recipe I've seen that calls for a marzipan skin.
"It puts da wotion on its skin, ow it gets da hose again!"
"Homestar I climbed out of that pit two days ago."
"Oh...wight."
Fair warning, the process has begun, but I got confused about how much whipped cream is necessary, so it won't be finished before Christmas probably.
5420164
Hey, let me know the result ;)
Merry Christmas! 🎄
5421684
It's been delayed due to a doctor appointment and the aforementioned lack of whipped cream. XD Hopefully I can put everything together tonight and fridge it.
5421684
THERE HAS BEEN A DEVELOPMENT D:
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/generic/yv9h-1608863293-img-20201224-210512-full
decalitres!?!