Bake Off Bake Along: Week 8 - Chokatines

Despite having a good few days off work to relax (and eat), I still didn't feel ready for this challenge of the Bake Off Along. I feel like I've said this every week, but this week was even harder than the last!

With a choice between cream horns, mokatines and something I can't even remember the name of. I went for the one that didn't involve pastry. Mokatines. I'd like to start by asking, has anyone ever seen or heard of these before? Mary and Paul have been really sneaky this year in finding recipes that no one's ever seen before. Little secret squirrels.

I turned these mokatines into chokatines, using Mary's recipe here for the genoise sponge and making a regular chocolate frosting to finish. I brushed the sponges with apricot jam like in Mary's recipe and tried to coat with chopped hazelnuts but they didn't really stick. So I figured you can't have too much chocolate frosting, right?

I've never made genoise sponge before, its a little different to a regular mix. Here's some tips to avoid Paul's flat sponge disaster:

• genoise sponge is naturally airy and doesn't use any raising agent. At first, it looks like the quantities of ingredients are very small, but by whisking up the eggs and sugar you'll create the volume needed for a good rise.
• by whisking eggs and sugar together the egg proteins are broken down to allow the egg to whip up larger and quicker.
• the mix should double in size and hold a thick ribbon (the point at which point a trail of batter from the whisk will sit on top of the mix for 3 seconds).
• there are a few methods to whisk up the mix. Either cold, over a bain marie or half and half. Applying a little heat will help the mix to whip up quicker, but working cold works just as well, just takes a little longer.
• use superfine sugar like caster sugar to ensure a really light, super fine crumb in your bake as it will dissolve evenly.
• when folding in the flour, do not over mix as this will only knock out any of the air you've worked so hard to get. 
• when folding in the melted butter, ensure its almost fully cooled. Pour around the side of the bowl also otherwise any of the remaining heat will cause the mix to collapse.

I would have included a photo of the inside to show even layers, but they collapsed. Still tasted great, my frosting just wasn't stiff enough to hold it all together.

And, here's how I've been getting on with the rest of the challenges:

   

   

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