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m sponge
this is yet another idea that has been fermenting in the back of the brain for some time now. when i was in the uk i had started playing with the idea of using a puree and egg white powder instead of egg whites to make macaroons (click here). this got me thinking about recipe components as opposed to ingredients. use the water in the puree to make egg whites rather than adding egg whites. this concept led into the idea of fruit based cakes. not just cake mixes with fruit/puree mixed in but rather sponge cakes whipped up from puree and egg white powder. the end goal was to achieve a strong fruit flavor that was from fresh fruit and not extracts or other flavor “enhancers.” for various reasons i was not able to pursue this idea and it has since sat dormant in a random brain cubby.
….until now. the only question was where to begin and what type of cake to base it on. intuition tells me that a steamed sponge would be a good place to start as steaming can be a little more gentile on the flavor of fruit. why i am forgoing intuition is beyond me. i guess that approach will have to wait for another day.
i have always been fascinated with albert adria’s microwaved cake and a better understanding of how this formula works has been something i wanted to look at. this cake has been a bit of an oddity to me. i have seen/tasted other chefs using it, i have tasted it at el bulli and i have used it in applications of my own from time to time. in the majority of experiences it has been very disappointing. nine times out of ten it has been more impressive in my eyes and mind than in my mouth. it is a great innovation but when not done well it is …. is just lacking. kinda chewy, sometime dry and generally not impressive. maybe this technique will work well with the puree and egg white powder. now i just need to adapt the formula to make it work… how?? time for one of my typical overly complicated and dorky math projects…
i started with comparing all of the m sponge recipes in natura and the el bulli books. this showed a basic ratio of eggs 55%, flour 5%, solids 20%, sugar 20%. there were some variations but this formula was consistent throughout. now just need to substitute the same amount of eggs for water in the puree. found out how much water was in the puree (i was using blueberry) and add enough e.w.p to turn the water into eggs. the leftover fruit counted as solids. many of adria’s recipes called for almond powder, this is the ingredient i considered solids. here are my calculations. you will need to take a good look to figure out the math. this spreadsheet is not pretty but it worked and it is loosely based on an ice cream calculator i was working on.
the final recipe:
ewp 66g
blueberry puree 654g
flour 50g
sugar 128g
solid 102g
i used almond flour for the solids. thought about using freeze dried blueberries but that would soak up water and would throw everything off. to make the mix throw everything in a vitaprep and blend until smooth. put in a siphon and charge. i used two charges on a .5L gun.
the first few attempts were a little tight. i let the mix sit overnight and tried again the next day. it was much more aerated and fluffy. the blueberry flavor was there and i had some positive feedback but it still needs some work. the cake is a little chalky and i would like to get a little more blueberry flavor. in the next batch i want to have more water so i will leave out the almond flour and go from there.
Tags: blueberry, egg white powder, micro sponge, microwave, recipe