One of the things that makes Japanese food culture so interesting is that, unless you're eating grilled or simmered seafood, it probably originated outside of Japan. Tempura (Portuguese), Ramen (Chinese), and Karei Raisu (Indian) are just a few examples of borrowed food. For such a tradition oriented country, it amazes me how quickly they assimilate food into the national repertoire. As food migrates there, it undergoes a transformation and takes on a new life as a different dish unto itself. Purists may argue it's not authentic, but I call it the journey of food.
Baked goods, with the exception of Casutela (of Portuguese origin), come almost exclusively from France. Heck, the Japanese word for bread is "pahn" ("pain" spelled in French). Shoe Kureamu (Choux à la Crème), Kuroasan (Croissant), and Monburan (Mont Blanc) are all staples of any Japanese bakery and Kureipu (Crêpe) is a common snack on the streets of Tokyo; and if you can get past the ridiculous spelling, they're all good. Kureipu for example aren't soft and tender like a proper French one; they're sweet and crisp, shaped like a cone and filled with fruit, cream, chocolate and even cheesecake.
But this post is about Mont Blanc. No, not the tall mountain in the Alps. I'm talking about the cake. Well, actually the original is made with meringues, but like all the other dishes, this too went through some changes. While each bakery makes it slightly differently, at its heart, Monburan is a soft layer of cake with a pillowy mound of chestnut cream, all topped with strands of sweet nutty chestnut puree. It's creamy, sweet and earthy with 3 different textures in each bite. Hands down my favorite cake.
I think I've mentioned before that I'm not much of a baker, and there's a good reason for that. I hate measuring things, I'm impatient, and I like to take shortcuts. That's a classic recipe for disaster in the realm of baking, but for this cake, I made an exception. Since I've never actually made a genoise before (and have heard horror stories akin to those told about soufflés), I followed Tartelette's recipe to the letter for the cake. This was also the first time I've picked up a pastry bag since I was 10 or 11, so apologies for the shameful piping, but they taste just like the ones you'd get in a depachika bakery.
I know passing something as viscous as chestnut puree through a double mesh strainer sounds like a real pain (believe me it is), but don't skip this, and don't substitute a single mesh strainer or food mill. To get the smooth velvety consistency, it has to be passed through a very fine mesh. I found that working with small amounts and using the blade of a rubber spatula (with the handle removed) to force it through worked the best.
special equipment:
pastry bag medium round tip and a large round tip
jellyroll pan (18" X 13")
double mesh strainer (very small holes)
food processor
stand mixer
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
for genoise (from Tartelette)
- 3 large eggs
- 3 large egg yolks
- ¾ cup evaporated cane sugar
- pinch salt
- ½ cup cake flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
for chestnut puree
- 425 grams unsweetened chestnut puree
- ½ cup cream
- ½ cup evaporated cane sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 vanilla bean
for chestnut cream
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup chestnut puree (recipe above)
Instructions
Make the Genoise
- Setup a double boiler by filling a pot large enough to hold your mixing bowl and bring the water to a simmer. Move your oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 400 degrees F. Prep an 18" x 13" jelly roll pan by lining it with parchment paper and buttering the paper.
- Put the 3 large eggs, 3 large egg yolks, ¾ cup evaporated cane sugar and pinch salt in a metal mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Put the bowl in your double boiler and whisk, heating until the mixture reaches 100 degrees F (luke warm). Mount the bowl on the mixer and beat with the whisk attachment for 5 minutes. The volume will triple and pale yellow ribbons of egg will flow off the whisk when they're ready.
- Combine the ½ cup cake flour and ¼ cup cornstarch. When the egg mixture is ready, sift ⅓ of the flour mixture into the eggs and fold together. Repeat twice more, folding between each addition until you can't see any more clumps of flour. Pour into the prepared baking sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
- When it's done, slide the whole thing off the baking sheet onto a wire rack to cool.
Make the chestnut puree
- Slice the 1 vanilla bean in half length wise and scrape the seeds into a small saucepan. Add the ½ cup cream, ½ cup evaporated cane sugar and whisk in the 1 large egg yolk. Heat over low heat, continually stirring until the mixture begins to thicken. Take the pan off the heat and allow the vanilla bean to steep while the mixture cools.
- When the mixture is cool, put it in a food processor along with the 425 grams unsweetened chestnut puree. Blitz until smooth and creamy. Put a spoonful of chestnut puree in the double mesh strainer over a bowl and press through using a spatula. Strain the rest of the chestnut puree, cover and set aside.
Make Chestnut Cream
- In the clean dry bowl of an electric mixer, add ¾ cup heavy cream. Using the whisk attachment, beat until the cream holds soft peaks. Add the 3 tablespoons powdered sugar and beat until the sugar is incorporated. Add ⅓ cup chestnut puree and mix until the cream holds firm peaks being careful not to over mix.
Assemble the Mont Blanc
- When it's completely cooled, separate the cake from the parchment paper and trim off the edges. Cut out eight 2" x 1.5" rectangles and put them on a platter.
- Put a large round tip on a pastry bag and fill with the chestnut cream (not the puree). Pipe 3 layers of cream onto each piece of genoise, making each layer smaller, giving it the shape of a barn roof.
- Put a medium round tip (about the size of cooked spaghetti) on another pastry bag and fill with the chestnut puree. Starting at the bottom corner of one of the cakes and pipe chestnut puree in one continuous stream going over the top, down the other side, then looping back up and over again. Ideally you'll cover the whole thing with one continuous stream of puree, but if it breaks, just start back from where it broke and continue piping.
Sara says
These are adorable!
Marysol says
First time with a pastry bag? I don't believe you.
But the cake looks absolutely decadent.
Marysol says
First time with a pastry bag? I don't believe you.
But the cake looks absolutely decadent.
Lick My Spoon says
kudos, marc, these look fantastic and i'm not even a fan of chestnut...it must be residual sentiment from years of getting chestnut cream filled birthday cake from the chinatown bakeries when i was a kid. all i wanted was an ice cream cake from carvel full of chocolate crunchies.
We Are Never Full says
whoa. i give you credit for making your own chestnut puree. these look worth the sweat. gorgeous!
Lick My Spoon says
kudos, marc, these look fantastic and i'm not even a fan of chestnut...it must be residual sentiment from years of getting chestnut cream filled birthday cake from the chinatown bakeries when i was a kid. all i wanted was an ice cream cake from carvel full of chocolate crunchies.
We Are Never Full says
whoa. i give you credit for making your own chestnut puree. these look worth the sweat. gorgeous!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella says
Bravo, these look magnificent. I adore Mont Blanc and always order it from the cake shop. They look fantastic, just like from a cake shop (or better!) 😀
canarygirl says
I loved this post, Marc! It brings me back to my college days while studying Japanese. I always found it funny that "curry rice" was "karei raisu" and "coffee" was "cohee." Your cakes look just scrumptious, whatever their origin. 🙂 ps...I miss the Japanese language. I wish I could study it again.
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella says
Bravo, these look magnificent. I adore Mont Blanc and always order it from the cake shop. They look fantastic, just like from a cake shop (or better!) 😀
Marc Matsumoto says
That's a good question. Honestly I don't know, although beef wasn't commonly used in Japan before the 1950's. In fact eating beef was prohibited before the late 19th century, so I suspect it may have some foreign influences.
Marc Matsumoto says
LOL I don't know if I'd describe Jinglish (or in this case Jrench), as utsukushi, but too each his own:-P
Marc Matsumoto says
It's not just food there either. The language is always changing and every time I go back I need to learn new words (thankfully I can usually figure it out because it's usually English that's been abbreviated and mispronounced).
canarygirl says
I loved this post, Marc! It brings me back to my college days while studying Japanese. I always found it funny that "curry rice" was "karei raisu" and "coffee" was "cohee." Your cakes look just scrumptious, whatever their origin. 🙂 ps...I miss the Japanese language. I wish I could study it again.
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks:-) Though I don't know if I'll ever be able to produce confections as beautiful as yours.
Marc Matsumoto says
Let us know what you think:-)
Peter says
I like the parallels and foods mutations you touched upon and I embrace it!
The dessert looks wonderful, you're being too hard on yourself.
Shari says
Thanks for the tip about using duck fat for pommes frites. I'll have to try that! Cheers!
Shari says
These look BOTH beautiful and delicious! Sounds like a lot of work but the finished product looks like it is worth the effort. Mmmmmmm,
Peter says
I like the parallels and foods mutations you touched upon and I embrace it!
The dessert looks wonderful, you're being too hard on yourself.
Jude says
Looks interesting and I like the makeup pics.
Is sukiyaki borrowed, too?
Shari says
Thanks for the tip about using duck fat for pommes frites. I'll have to try that! Cheers!
Shari says
These look BOTH beautiful and delicious! Sounds like a lot of work but the finished product looks like it is worth the effort. Mmmmmmm,
Shelby Ruttan says
This looks so great - I have never seen anything like it before! Thanks!
Jude says
Looks interesting and I like the makeup pics.
Is sukiyaki borrowed, too?
noble pig says
Very nice, I am extremely impressed Marc.
Shelby Ruttan says
This looks so great - I have never seen anything like it before! Thanks!
Heather says
One of my favorite parts of Japanese culture and cuisine is their affinity for outside influences, and how they're informed by their openmindedness.
The Mont Blanc (I still love repeating "Monburan" in my head) - utsukushi desu.
noble pig says
Very nice, I am extremely impressed Marc.
Heather says
One of my favorite parts of Japanese culture and cuisine is their affinity for outside influences, and how they're informed by their openmindedness.
The Mont Blanc (I still love repeating "Monburan" in my head) - utsukushi desu.
chef E says
Wow, what an intricate recipe...I would like to try that one day...
Thanks for visiting my site...I signed up to keep up, and I like your blogs, thanks!
Brooke says
This looks insanely good! I'm definitely trying this as my next dessert.
Peter G says
A very interesting post regarding "the journey of food" Marc. All very informative. I love this version of mont blanc...beautifully done!
Daily Spud says
That certainly looks like it was worth all of the effort! It's fascinating, too, how food from different countries gets adopted, adapted and assimilated - of course it's not unique to Japan (though by the sounds of it, they take it to quite a high level :).
Aran says
turned out excellent and you did a great job with the piping bag!
Colloquial Cook says
This is spooky! We share the same favourite dessert! Have you been to Paris's Angelina on the Rue de Rivoli? They make a serious Mont Blanc there 🙂 also Lady M's version is not bad at all, closer to home too 🙂
chef E says
Wow, what an intricate recipe...I would like to try that one day...
Thanks for visiting my site...I signed up to keep up, and I like your blogs, thanks!
The Duo Dishes says
*tear* Just had this for the first time in Paris at Cafe Angelina based on a friend's adamant suggestion. It was SO amazing! How wonderful that we stumbled upon yours! They look sooooooooooo good.
Brooke says
This looks insanely good! I'm definitely trying this as my next dessert.
Tartlette says
I just happen to have leftover chestnut puree...can't wait to give it a try!
Peter G says
A very interesting post regarding "the journey of food" Marc. All very informative. I love this version of mont blanc...beautifully done!
Daily Spud says
That certainly looks like it was worth all of the effort! It's fascinating, too, how food from different countries gets adopted, adapted and assimilated - of course it's not unique to Japan (though by the sounds of it, they take it to quite a high level :).
Aran says
turned out excellent and you did a great job with the piping bag!
Colloquial Cook says
This is spooky! We share the same favourite dessert! Have you been to Paris's Angelina on the Rue de Rivoli? They make a serious Mont Blanc there 🙂 also Lady M's version is not bad at all, closer to home too 🙂
Hayley says
For someone who doesn't do a lot of baking, these look absolutely gorgeous. I wish I had read this before I made a cheesecake for my friends birthday, looks like a need another excuse to make this.
ila says
yaaaaah! i was waiting for this!!!
can't wait to try out this recipe this weekend :
The Duo Dishes says
*tear* Just had this for the first time in Paris at Cafe Angelina based on a friend's adamant suggestion. It was SO amazing! How wonderful that we stumbled upon yours! They look sooooooooooo good.
Tartlette says
I just happen to have leftover chestnut puree...can't wait to give it a try!
Hayley says
For someone who doesn't do a lot of baking, these look absolutely gorgeous. I wish I had read this before I made a cheesecake for my friends birthday, looks like a need another excuse to make this.
ila says
yaaaaah! i was waiting for this!!!
can't wait to try out this recipe this weekend :