Mont Blanc: Chestnut, My new favourite ingredient

 As I went to Japan in Autumn, and I had a chance to taste many sweet that made from chestnut and it makes me fall in love with this ingredient again.

And when taking about Chestnut, the first thing that I think about is Mont blanc ^^. I made it before (a long, long time ago), and it's a simple recipe. only meringue, cream and chestnut cream. But now I wanted something more, or to put it right, I wanted to play with it more than before.
So I started imagine! What I wanted it to be, the texture, the taste and the look. I wanted my Mont blanc to be soft, not to sweet and packed with chestnut flavour. Because using commercial chestnut cream can make the finished Mont blanc very, very sweet, I used roasted chestnut (with no sugar added) to add chestnut flavour to my Mont blanc.
The base of the Mont Blanc is roll cake, very soft moist genoise, filled with rum loaded cream ^^ and pieces of roasted chestnut. A piece of meringue adds sweet and nutty taste to the cake, it's very delicious so making a lot of it and eating them on their own is recommended!
Because I want more chestnut flavour but not it texture so I turn roasted chestnut into rum chestnut cream to use it as a filling, but if you don't want to spend time making it, place whole piece of roasted chestnut instead (it will be delicious too).
I know that I pour a lot of rum into everything , haha, and yes, I love it but you can use less (or more, if you think it's not enough, hehe), it's your cake anyway!
Piping the chestnut cream is very tricky, it's my second times -*-, and I think I have to make it more often so I can pipe it more beautiful next time.


Recipe: Mont blanc
สูตรภาษาไทย: มองบลังค์

日本語のレシピ：モンブラン 
Youtube: มองบลังค์, Mont blanc, モンブラン 

 Mont Blanc

Makes 10 

Genoise Sponge ( 23 x 23 cm cake pan)
35g ............................ Cake flour
15g ............................. Unsalted butter
15g ............................. Milk
1 ................................ Egg
2 ................................ Egg yolks
1/2 tsp ....................... Vanilla extract
10g ............................. Honey
35g ............................. Granulated sugar

Roll cake filling
100g .......................... Whipping cream
5g .............................. Icing sugar
2 tsp .......................... Rum
...................................Whole Roasted Chestnuts (no sugar added), cut into small pieces

Meringue (you will need only 10 pieces)
50g .............................. Egg whites
7g ................................ Granulated sugar
42g .............................. Icing sugar (A)
30g .............................. Icing sugar (B)
30g .............................. Almond powder

Chestnut filling
70g ............................... Whole Roasted Chestnuts (no sugar added)
42g ............................... Unsalted butter
7g ................................. Milk 
1 tsp ............................. Rum
1/2 tsp ......................... Granulated sugar

Chestnut Cream
300g ............................. Whole Roasted Chestnuts (no sugar added)
150g .............................. Chestnut cream
60g ............................... Unsalted butter
60g ................................ Whipping cream
1 tbsp ............................. Rum

Rum cream filling
250g .......................... Whipping cream
12g .............................. Granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp .................... Rum

Decoration
..................................... Icing sugar
.................................... Whole Roasted Chestnuts
.................................... Edible gold leaves

Preheat an oven to 170C
Line 23x23cm cake pan with baking paper.

 Sift the flour, and set aside.

 Put milk and butter into a bowl, and heat in a microwave (600w) for 30 seconds or until melt.
Keep it warm.

 Put egg, egg yolks, vanilla, and honey into a bowl.
Beat until foamy.

 Add the sugar gradually.

 Beat until thick ribbon stage (you can draw with the batter).

 Fold 1/2 cup of the batter into the melted butter bowl.

 Set aside.

 Fold sifted flour

 In 2 additions.

 Fold the melted butter and batter back into the bowl.

 Until smooth.

 Pour into the prepared pan.
Tap lightly to remove large air bubbles.

 Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the top spring back when touch lightly.
Remove from the oven, cover with a piece of baking paper, let it cool completely.

 Slice the edge of the cake to make sloping edge.

 Beat roll cake filling ingredients (except the chestnut) until soft peaks formed.

 Spread the filling over the cake, and place chestnut pieces on top.

  Roll the cake.
 Press with ruler and pull the paper to tighten it.

 Refrigerate until set.

Make meringue:

Preheat an oven to 150C
Line baking sheet with baking paper.
 Beat the egg white until foamy.

 Add the granulated sugar gradually, then add the icing sugar (A) gradually.

 Beat until firm peak formed.

 Sift icing sugar (B), and almond powder into the bowl.

 Fold to combine.

 Put in a piping bag, and pipe into 3.5-4 cm rounds.

 Bake for 50-60 minutes, let them cool completely.

 Make the chestnut filling:

 Put all the ingredients into a bowl of a food processor.

 Process until smooth.
Put into pipping bag with round nozzle.

Make chestnut cream:

 Chestnut cream

 Put all the ingredients into a bowl of a food processor.

 Process until smooth.

 Put into pipping bag with Mont blanc nozzle.

Make Rum cream filling:

 Beat all the ingredients for the rum filling until firm peaks formed.

Assemble:

 Cut the roll cake into 1.5 cm thickness.

 Spread the rum filling over the cake.
Place 1 piece of meringue on the filling and pipe chestnut filling over the meringue.

 Cover the top and side of the cake with rum filling.

 Pipe the chestnut cream over the filling.

Sprinkle with icing sugar, decorate with chestnut and gold leaves.

Mont Blanc: Chestnut, My new favourite ingredient