What is an Entremet?

Saturday’s Pastry Class was an exercise in the “real world” of Pastry (well, as real world as you can get in a classroom setting...). We were divided into groups of three people, with one person being assigned as the “Pastry Chef” and the other two as “Helpers”. I was assigned into the latter of the two categories, which was not the place I wanted to be.

I tend to be food bossy by nature. Good thing it was still early, I was tired, and was doing a good job of staring off into space (which would make it less challenging to hold back my ever-opinionated self).

The dessert of the day was an Entremet which up until this point, had been a foreign concept to me. Entremet translates literally to "between servings", and in the Pastry world is an exquisite layered dessert. Entremets are often cylindrical in shape and comprised of multiple cake and mousse layers. They do a good job of seducing people to “ooohs” and “aaaaahs”.

During our Entremet flavor huddle, I only had to bite my tongue a few times to avoid being too...ahem…authoritative. I was happy that our group’s Pasty Chef du Jour was up for compromise. Together, we decided to create an Entremet with the following layers: Lemon Genoise Cake, Raspberry Mousse, Chopped Pistachios, a second layer of Lemon Genoise Cake, White Chocolate Mousse and Raspberry Gelee. The toppers we decided on were Pistachio Brittle and Candied Lemon Peel.

It was miraculous to me how quickly the Entremet came together. After completing all the components, we layered them, refrigerating between layers to create visually distinctive lines.

We used acetate to create a mold for the finished product. We cut small circles of cake (smaller than the size of the mold, so that the cake would be covered by the mousse entirely). The finished Entremet was *almost* too pretty to eat. Almost.