Recipe of the month

Revisited Opera

For 6 portions.

Joconde sponge

  • Icing sugar 200 g
  • Almond powder 200 g
  • Eggs 260 g
  • Flour 50 g
  • Butter 40 g
  • Egg whites 180 g
  • Caster sugar 50 g

Whip icing sugar, almond powder, egg, flour and melted butter. Whip egg whites and gradually add sugar. Fold two mixtures together.


Coffee syrup

  • Water 75 g
  • Caster sugar 75 g
  • Water 75 g
  • Instant coffee 40 g
  • Trablit coffee extract 5 g

Boil sugar, water, water and coffee liquor.


Chocolate cream

  • Cream 35% fat 90 g
  • Milk 90 g
  • Egg yolks 27 g
  • Caster sugar 15 g
  • Gelatine 3 g
  • Couverture Nyangbo 68% (Valrhona) 70 g

Boil milk with cream, pour onto egg yolks and sugar and cook to 82°C (creme anglaise). Add gelatin and pour onto chocolate, emulsify.


Coffee jelly

  • Water 150 g
  • Caster sugar 50 g
  • Coffee liquor 75 g
  • Coffee beans 10 g
  • Kappa 1.75 g
  • Cognac 0.75 g

Boil ingredients together and pour quickly as mixture sets quickly.


Coffee chantilly

  • Cream 35% fat 150 g
  • Caster sugar 15 g
  • Trablit, coffee extract 10 g

Whip cream with sugar and add trablit at the end.


Pear brunoise

  • Pears 2 pieces
  • Perennial basil as needed

Cut pears into a brunoise, mix with chopped basil.


Tempered chocolate

Respecting tempering temperatures, cut a disc of chocolate the same size as the final assembly, cutting smaller discs out of centres.

Recipe given by

Benjamin Bourgeais
Lauréat Trophée de la Pâtisserie française, catégorie Professionnels.

The idea?

I wanted to keep the main elements of a classical opera to stay true to the original. I changed the shape, finishing and the flavours, replacing coffee butter cream with a chocolate cream, a pear brunoise with basil for the freshness. The idea was to retain the original assembly of an opera changing the textures and flavours to modernise it.


The flavours?

Joconde sponge, dark chocolate cream, diced pear with perennial basil, a coffee liquor syrup, a coffee jelly and a coffee chantilly, perennial basil leaves and flowers.


The technical step?

Boil the coffee jelly well otherwise when cutting the jelly will not hold up properly. Respect the temperatures when tempering chocolate in order to obtain shiny and crunchy chocolate.

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