Better than sex

“Out of control”

“Orgasm in my mouth”

“Better than sex”

“I’m done for the day”

For the first time, people thought my food was as good, if not better, than sex. I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but I followed step by step a recipe by Pierre Herme. I’m pasting the recipe with my comments so you can start a culinary orgy of your own.

Mozart

Cinnamon dough

[This is the most frustrating dough I've ever made...it's fragile to the point of ridiculous, and at room temperature it has the consistency of peanut butter, which makes it hard to roll...good thing the recipe yields enough to screw up several times and still get the cake done]

2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons softened unsalted butter (10.5 oz)
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons icing sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon finely ground blanched almonds
3 hard-boiled large egg yolks at room temperature and pushed through a fine strainer
2 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon dark rum
pinch of baking powder
2.25 cups all-purpose flour.

Beat the butter in a processor until creamy (or by hand). Add the sugar, almonds, egg yolks, cinnamon and salt. Mix until incorporated. Add the rum. Mix the flour and baking powder together and add it slowly. Mix until everything comes together. It will be soft and similar to peanut butter cookie dough.

Divide into three portions. Wrap each portion in plastic and press them down to a disc shape. Cool in the refrigerator at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.

Flour your work area and roll the dough to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut it like a cookie with a 22cm dessert ring (or something else if you don’t have one — but they’re cheap and handy to put the cake togther). Prick it all over with a fork. Transfer it to a piece of parchment paper

[The dough is extremely fragile. The best way to transfer it is with the removable bottom of a tart pan. Do not try to pick up the parchment paper from the sides after baking it...it will break!]

Bake it for 18-20 minutes in a 350F oven until honey brown. Let it cook on a rack, parchment paper and all. Make three discs. If you have leftovers, you can make cookies.

[Either my oven is hot or the recipe needs to be calibrated...I burnt two discs by baking them 18 minutes. Mine were done in 12 mins].

The Mousse

1 large Granny Smith or another tart apple
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp unsalted butter (0.5oz)
2 tbsp dark rum
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 cinnamon stick, broken
8oz bittersweet chocolate, 66% cacao
6 large eggwhites

Peel and core the apple. Cut it into small cubes (1/4 inch per side) and toss them with 1 tbsp of the sugar and the cinnamon. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Let the butter turn light brown and add the apples. Cook them fast. You want them to caramelize, but not to turn into apple sauce. At the end, flambee everything with the rum. Set aside and cool to room temperature.

Pour the cream into a small saucepan and add the cinnamon stick. Bring to boil. Remove from heat, cover and let it infuse for 10 minutes.

Melt the chocolate over simmering water. Strain the cream and mix it with the chocolate, making ganache.

Whip the egg whites. When they start to grow, slowly add the sugar and continue beating untl they form glossy stiff peaks.

Wait until the chocolate cools to 104F. This is important…if you mix the chocolate while it’s too hot or too cold, the mousse won’t work. Fold 1/4 of the meringue into the chocolate. Fold the rest together with the apples. Once you make the mousse, you need to assemble the cake immediately.

To assemble

Put a 22cm dessert ring on a serving platter. Put one disk of the cinnamon dough and cover with 1/2 the mousse. Put another disk and add the rest of the mousse. Finish with a last disk of dough (hopefully the one that is still complete). Press it down to set and chill for at least 30 minutes or up to eight hours.

To decorate

Remove the dessert ring by running a warm sponge on the outside to loosen it up or blowing with a hair dryer. Pierre Herme recommends that you add chocolate curls to the outside, arrange apple slices on top coated with apple jelly, dust cocoa powder and put a couple of cinnamon sticks on top. In my case, I ran out of time, so I dusted the whole cake with cocoa powder and put some gold leaf on top. The result? My cake looked like I picked it up from a swamp, so nobody expected the explosion of flavors.

There you have it, orgasm a la Mozart.