Joconde Cakelets

[Wendy DeBord]

Refering to placing an order from PCB Company, France. Find them at their web page.:

I placed an order with them today so I'll let you all know how well it goes and how long it takes.

Also, I want to bring this neat (and yet so obvious and simple) invention to everyones attention. If you go to their accessories page and scroll downward you'll see what appears to be a clear plastic tube, with a sheet of joconde in it. Look closely at it. This is an answer to a problem that's long bothered me..........how to make joconde wrapped mini pastries in production with-out using the individual molds (that take so long to line and fill). I think it's a brilliantly simple solution and I can't wait until they also design this in other shapes. I bought one and can't wait to use it.

[aidensnd2]

Also, I want to bring this neat (and yet so obvious and simple) invention to everyones attention. If you go to their accessories page and scroll downward you'll see what appears to be a clear plastic tube, with a sheet of joconde in it. Look closely at it. This is an answer to a problem that's long bothered me..........how to make joconde wrapped mini pastries in production with-out using the individual molds (that take so long to line and fill). I think it's a brilliantly simple solution and I can't wait until they also design this in other shapes. I bought one and can't wait to use it.

←

I'm not sure how much they are charging for it but in the past I've just used pvc pipe or those plastic flourescent tube light bulb holders. Not sure what they are really used for, I saw them in a hardware store next to the long flourescent bulbs and I'm guessing they are used to store the bulbs in. They are made out of clear plastic with black plastic end caps. They had them in various lengths and sizes to match the different bulbs. I like these better than the pvc because if you are piping in a filling without a 'wrapper', like the joconde, you can see if you have any air bubbles.

I like these for making things like mousses that are going to be plated to order because you can just slide out and cut as much as you need each time, the rest stays wrapped up and protected in the tube.

Shapes other than round would be cool though.

[nightscotsman]

I placed an order with them today so I'll let you all know how well it goes and how long it takes.

Also, I want to bring this neat (and yet so obvious and simple) invention to everyones attention. If you go to their accessories page and scroll downward you'll see what appears to be a clear plastic tube, with a sheet of joconde in it. Look closely at it. This is an answer to a problem that's long bothered me..........how to make joconde wrapped mini pastries in production with-out using the individual molds (that take so long to line and fill). I think it's a brilliantly simple solution and I can't wait until they also design this in other shapes. I bought one and can't wait to use it.

←

Would that be this thing here? Looks interesting. Please let us know what kind of instructions they provide how it works for you.

[Wendy DeBord]

I tried, they don't let you link to a specific product Neil. I will report back, I'm very excited to try this.

[bripastryguy]

Wendy,

I also saw it on the site, had to print it out. Im going to try it this week, I have a few of the light bulb tubes at my shop. Would you wrap the hole sheet in acetate then slide it in the tube?

[kthull]

If that's the case (and I was guessing the same thing), couldn't you just use acetate? I saw Jacques Torres do a Vegas centerpiece on Food Network the other day and to mold giant tubes of chocolate, he just coated the acetate sheet halfway, then rolled it onto itself so the chocolate is on the inside, then taped it. Could that be sturdy enough for this application? And if so, less expensive? Or are you looking for the solidity of the plastic tubes to also act as temporary storage for the tube/cake? Very cool tool, by the way.

[Wendy DeBord]

I was thinking I'd wrap them in acetate or maybe just parchement first, like a cake roll. That also makes clean up simplier.... and what if your cake stuck to the tube. I'd insert it into the tube with the end cap on, put in my mousse, top with other end cap and freeze. I will probably spread the inside of my joconde with a contrasting color and flavor. Like you could coat it with ganche or a flavored buttercream and then roll it.

My experince with doing something like this with-out the tube is the cake flattens out Kevin so you never get that perfect shape. Last Mothers Day I made triangular forms out of bent metal, but sealing off the ends was a huge pain and when I lifted them into the freezer they flexed alot.

Also, at one time we talked about something to set our cones in to keep them up right or to even use as a serving utensil for cone shaped desserts. We even talked about how we could cut a piece of plastic with circles cut out of it to set the cone into. Well they have that at PCB too. I think there were a couple options on that.

Bri, PLEASE tell us how your experiment goes??????? I bet it works great and I just blew money on something I could have got at the hardware store.

Oh, more thoughts...........did you see the patterns they have for joconde sheets? Once upon a time I bought some (I think from Uster) when they first came out and never did figure out how to use them. So if anyone gets those would you please share instructions on their use? I just need to know what I was doing wrong.

[bripastryguy]

Well.......... It's not as easy as it looks!

I used Bau's madeleine sponge that had decor paste on the outside, I couldnt get it that tight without it breaking (may have to do with the decor paste being stiff)

Cut the tube in half, you can get 2 molds out of 1 tube, 1 sheet pan of cake will make 3 logs (about 5 1/2") . I need alittle more flexiblility to make the cake fit....anyone have a recipe for 1? And the cake sheet needs to be paper thin or you will not have enough room for frilling. That's why I have never used bisquit or decorated sponge in the rapid molds (petit four size) it doesnt leave enough room for filling.

I'm going to try again, this time without decor paste, just the madeleine sponge...I'll let you know how it goes

[Wendy DeBord]

Bummer.

I'm confused Bri, why are you using a madeleine sponge? The madeliene sponge I made from Bau is too fluffy to use as a liner in any application like this. I think you have to use a very thin and flexiable cake like a joconde or a petite four sponge.

I've had times where my cigerette paste wasn't flexible too. But I think it comes down to the thickness of the application.....too thick is why it cracks. Well.....actually you can have joconde that isn't greatly flexible too. I get that if I over bake it a hair. You can't even walk away from the oven for how quickly joconde bakes.

Thinking further...........if you like Bau's madeleine.........I LOVE the application of the banana puree with it he does. I bet you could do the same fruit puree in conjuction with joconde.....that would give the joconde more flavor.

[bripastryguy]

i thought the madeleine might be ok, had it around so i thought to give it a try, let me know which recipe works for you

[Wendy DeBord]

My favorite joconde recipe (to date) comes from Dorie Greenspans book, Paris Sweets, page 140 its from the Opera Cake adapted from Dalloyau.

Use a 425F oven. Spray your pan, line it, then spray your parchement paper. For 1 sheet pan.

Whip together:

6 whites

2 tbsp. sugar

Fold that into: Beaten

2 c. almond flour

2 c. xxxsugar

6 eggs

that has 1/2 c, flour folded in

then 3 tbsp. of melted butter folded in.

Bake this until it's just barely done............about 5 minutes. It should just barely begin to take on color when it's done. Flip it out of your pan to cool so it doesn't continue baking.

The cigarette Paste I use is from Micheal Roux's book, p. 28

7 tbsp. butter

1 c. xxxsugar

7 tbsp. whites

9 tbsp. flour

Using food coloring or cocoa powder to color.

Here's a thin petite four sponge that I like alot, it's very flexible: for 1 sheet pan.

14 oz. almond paste

12 yolks

7 oz. sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. salt

zest of a lemon

5 oz. cake flour

Soften paste with yolks, then add sugar don't add the rest of the ingredients unless your paste is smooth. Then continue. Bake 400f

[bripastryguy]

Wendy or anybody else try it with the plastic tubes?

[Wendy DeBord]

Not yet..........just happy to survive Easter. I should get my order sometime this week from PCB.

[Wendy DeBord]

I recieved my order from PCB yesterday. I think that's pretty good service, about 1 week. Plus they gave me a freebie, a little puzzle chocolate mold.

I began "playing" with my new toys today....so heres more details about the tubes.

They come 10 tubes for each order. Each is like 23" long so the store nicely on a 24" sheet pan. I forgot to measure the diameter of the tubes today (I'll come back and tell you tommarow), I think they are 2" at the most (10 tubes fit easily on one sheet pan with space for more). They do come with plastic sheets (aprox. 100 sheets per order) and end caps. The plastic sheets are 4.5" wide and then you cut your joconde to exactly 4". They also send a diagram written in English but it's not quite as basic as if an American wrote it. Basicly, I figured things out as I went. Also I purchased their catalog ($5.00) and again the English isn't perfect to follow, but the instructions in the back of the catalog on how to use their products pretty much equaled a photo essay on several modern pastry techniques. I found that worth the five dollars!

There were a few false starts. At one point I rolled up a piece of foil to wrap my joconde around while I placed it in the tube (scared I couldn't get the joconde into a cilander shape with-out it colapsing in. But that was a mess. The foil stuck to the inside of the joconde and I couldn't get it out.

I did have an issue when I first began with having my joconde just right moisture wise. The first sheet I worked with was too dry from baking (just came out of the oven) and I had it too thin. I did brush it with simple syrup where it was firm.........but thats when I was using foil to wrap it around, and the whole thing was a mess. From to dry to then too moist............ and cracking, yuk.

I quickly learned, it's very important that your joconde be just the right moisture/flexiblity with these small tubes. What worked for me was I had freshly baked cakes and I depanned them right away. Peeled off the silpats, inverted them right side up on parchement paper. That worked great. It kept the unpatterned side moist and the pattern side dry so I could move around my cut sheets.

I then placed the joconde to the edge of a plastic sheet leaving the 1/2" extra over hang on one side. Using the side of a sheet pan I leaned my cake up against it while I formed the first couple inches into a circle to fit into the tube. This worked!! The cake held shape fine. Inserting it into the tube was also fine once you get the first 1" in. The cake held fine once I had the first couple inches into a circular shape, no colapsing....so my first fears and wanting a foil center support was wrong. I got an amazingly tight exact fit where my seams met, that was great.

That's all I got done today. I'll tell you about filling them if I run into any problems.

I hope that helped Brian.......and anyone else interested in this.

[sarah o]

Wendy,

Would it be possible to get some some photos of this process?

Visuals sure do help in understanding your trial and error in this.

Thanks

Sarah O

[bripastryguy]

Im gonna try your recipe, whats the yield on the recipe? 1 sheet it looks like?

I need to get this down, because i'm gonna get killed on mini pastries this season, the clubs are killing me all ready

[Wendy DeBord]

Yes, yeild is 1 sheet pan for the joconde and petite four spounge. The paste yeilds 2 trays as posted.

Yesterday when I made these I did x2 on the cigarette paste and it yeilded 5 sheet trays worth of paste to decorate with. The joconde I did x3 and I got 4 sheets out of it.......instead of the 3 that would be typical..........but I make my joconde THIN.

Filling the tubes today started off as messy! ..........until I got better/wise filling them. It would have been nice to have someones assistance, but oh well. I found using a pastry bag and tapping the tubes on the counter worked the best filling them. The pain is you get air pockets and you have to really tap them out. I also found squeezing the tubes a little sort of burbs them too.

This is something I'm sure everyone will get faster at as they become more agile and familar with the tubes. It's definately better then those individual plastic molds. Less mess and clean up too.

I did take a couple photos but I can't load any until Monday because I have a software issue.

[Wendy DeBord]

I finally got my photo editing program re-installed. Sorry it took me so long to get to it. Finally, I can share photos of what I've been trying to discribe.

This is how my order appeared as I opened the box. Notice the acetate sheets enclosed to help you insert your jonconde into the tube.

This is my first febble attempt at inserting...when I attempted to use foil in the center of my joconde.

This is what works. I'm sorry the photo isn't easier to understand (I can re-shoot some photos next time I fill these if you want?). The tube is to your right and the cake on the acetate sheet is to the left. As I insert the cake into the tube I've used the 1/2" over hang of the acetate to continue wrapping around the cake. The acetate sheets they send are 4.5" wide and when you cut your cake to exactly 4" wide the seems match up very well, tightly.

Heres some more photos:

I hope this helps. Have you had a chance to try this again Brian?

[bripastryguy]

I've been swamped and under staffed, my club accounts have just started ordering alot so hopefully I will try it soon. I think the filling that needs to be poured.

[Wendy DeBord]

I think the filling that needs to be poured.

←

I did my joconde the day before filling and so I froze them to keep overnight. With a frozen cake everything put in it wants to stick/freeze to it. Once the cakes warmed up to room temp. it was much easier to fill. I did use mousses, that were freshly made and not set at all (Herme mousses). You'd have to have something even thinner to put in your center if you wanted to pour.

Either pouring or using a pastry bag, your bound to get air pockets that will require tapping out.

[kthull]

Very cool stuff. Thanks for posting the pictures Wendy.

[Wendy DeBord]

I baked off some thin shortbread cookies today to set these on. I noticed that the cookie cutter I used was 1.5" and the petite four is just a hair smaller than that.....so, it's really a nice size.

I'm going to really like this method........everything about it is better then the individual molds. You get really clean edges, tight seams from edge to edge, it's easy to unmold and cut, they take up less space in my freezer then similar, storing them whole helps keep them fresher because I have less exposed surface, etc....

I have to admit I need to do a little research on finishing these garnish wise. My job never has small berries on hand so I'll have to cut other fruits. I piped on some whipped cream and put a chocolate cigerette on one today just to get a look at the finished product...........that just didn't do it! It's going to take some detailed garnish to pull these off well. Plus I want to introduce more then cake filled with mousse on top of a shortbread cookie...........it calls for more texture to me.

[JeanneCake]

I'm about to place an order from PCB for the tube set; I'm wavering on should I get two sets? Wendy, what's the average yield from one tube? Do you feel as if the tubes will last a long time with normal use or have any crazed or cracked since you got them?

[Wendy DeBord]

They give you 10 tubes per order. Each tube is aprox. 23 " long. So your yield depends upon how tall you cut each mini. I cut mine at about 1".....so that's roughly 23 mini's per tube. 23 X 10 tubes is 230 mini's. When you see them all cut and on full sized sheet pans it really doesn't look like alot. It's two sheet pans worth, aprox..

I keep hoping Brian will report back on how his trials are going. He's using the tubes you can buy at your local hardware store...........I'm not certain, but I'm guessing the price is cheaper then importing from PCB.

[bripastryguy]

Still havent had a chance to attempt these. But I did make your (Wendy's) Joconde. It was nice and pretty flexible, it may replace my existing recipe. When you pull the sheets from the oven, what steps do you follow as the side facing up (unprinted side) got soggy if I just flipped it out.

I keep staring at the tubes on my shelf. I may get to it this week after all my Passover production is done