French cake “Freisier” (fraisier), whose culinary recipes have now undergone a variety of modifications, first appeared during the time of King Louis XIV. The monarch prone to excesses already earned serious stomach problems by the fiftieth year of his life. Therefore, his personal consultant-nutritionist (and at the same time a spy) advised him as a dessert a miracle berry - strawberries. The name of this doctor was Antoine de Frezier. In 1714, the first strawberry crop was harvested in the Versailles garden, which the local “Michurins” grew from wild strawberries. And they named this berry in honor of a nutritionist - fraise. Naturally, the chef did not dare to serve the "gourmet" strawberry king. But he used it as the main component of the cake. And so was born another masterpiece of French cuisine - "Frezier". And the recipe for its preparation, we will tell the hostesses in this article.
Bake a biscuit
In three chicken eggs, we separate the proteins from the yolks. Then we proceed as if kneading a biscuit dough. Beat the whites with a pinch of salt. Gradually add a hundred grams of sugar. We set the mixer to the maximum rotation speed of the corollas and beat the proteins until brilliant and stable peaks are formed. Mix the yolks with flour (50 g), starch (twenty-five grams) and a teaspoon of baking powder. Allow to add a bag of vanilla sugar. Carefully combine the protein and yolk masses. Knead with a spoon in a circle always in one direction and from top to bottom. We cover two baking sheets with baking paper. We evenly distribute the biscuit dough in them . The Frezier cake, the recipe of which we present, involves the use of square cakes. They need to be baked from seven to ten minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees. Cool the cakes completely. In principle, you can also use a round split mold for cakes. In this case, cover the bottom with paper, and grease the edges with oil and sprinkle with flour. When baking a biscuit dough, you cannot open the oven door, otherwise the cakes will fall off. But when they are ready, open the stove a bit. Let the billets stand there from ten minutes.
Making cream "Muslin"
The “Frezier” cake prescription prescribes to smear with a special cream called “Muslin”. It looks like a custard.
We boil two hundred milliliters of milk. Cool it to room temperature. Beat three chicken eggs with a glass of granulated sugar. Carefully dissolve in this mass sixty grams of starch and cooled milk. We bring another two hundred milliliters of milk to a boil. Pour hot into the mass. Then put the saucepan on a slow fire and hold it, stirring with a spoon all the time, until the liquid thickens. Remove from the stove and let cool a little. After that, add half a pack (one hundred grams) of butter and beat. Wait until the cream has completely cooled. Add the remaining half pack of butter. Beat one more time.
Cooking syrup
So that the biscuits are not dry, we will saturate the cakes. We put a saucepan with one hundred grams of water on the fire. As we heat, we will add sugar. In general, we must dissolve seventy-five grams of sweet sand. Well boil the water - a total of about five minutes. Cool the syrup completely. Add a glass of strawberry liquor to it. To fold the Frezier cake, the recipe recommends using a round shape of 20-25 centimeters in diameter. Cut the cakes so that they fit in this connector. Soak them in syrup. Seven hundred grams of my strawberries, remove the stalks. Part of the berries is cut in half and laid out tightly on the sides of the form. Put the rest of the strawberries on the bottom cake. Spread the cream thoroughly (a large half or even two-thirds). Cover with a second cake. Lubricate it with the remaining cream. And we remove our masterpiece in the refrigerator for three hours.
Cake decoration
In this regard, the opinions of culinary experts differ. What was the first Frezier cake decorated with? The recipe is silent about this. But many gourmets do not advise overloading the delicate taste of the cake with sugar mastic. They say that the taste of strawberries is in good harmony with grated chocolate. In many French pastry shops "Frezier" is prepared with yogurt glaze. Its very simple to do. Let's leave some syrup and a few strawberries in the process of cake assembly. Puree the berries, add the syrup and a few drops of lemon juice. All this is mixed with two tablespoons of thick and fat natural yogurt without filler. Soluble five grams of edible gelatin in a small amount of water. Add to the mixture and let “grab”. We pour the gelatinous mass on top of the cake.
Modifications: sponge cake
Many confectioners wondered how to make French Frezier cake more refined. Therefore, along with the classic recipe, there are modifications. One of them is the bisque biscuit dough. Its recipe was developed in Genoa, which is why this name comes from. Break three eggs into a bowl, add two more yolks. The remaining squirrels need to be hidden in the refrigerator - from them you can bake the most delicate meringues to decorate the cake. Beat the eggs and place them in a water bath. Pour 120 grams of sugar. Beat with a whisk for five minutes. The mass should lighten. Remove from heat, replace the whisk with a mixer and whisk for another five minutes at high speed. When the mass increases three times, pour a spoonful of melted butter and sift 120 grams of flour. Mix the dough. The bisquit biscuit is baked in a preheated oven at 170 ° C for about twenty minutes.
Italian meringue
Freesie recipes abound with various creams that can decorate the cake. But under the biscuit cakes, a genuise is best suited for meringue. It is also sometimes called a protein cream. To cook it, you need to pour one hundred and twenty grams of sugar into forty milliliters of water and put the saucepan on medium heat. Next, prepare the meringues in four hands. One person stirs the syrup so that the sugar does not settle and caramelize, and the other whips two egg whites to shiny and stable peaks. A syrup is ready when its drop in a glass of cold water does not dissolve, but turns into a plastic soft ball that can be rolled up with your fingers. We continue to whisk the whites with a mixer. Gradually pour the boiling syrup. Beat another two minutes. Such meringues with a dense, smooth consistency hold their shape well and do not exfoliate.
Modification: Almond Biscuit
A delicious French cake with strawberries “Frezier” will come out if we bake cakes a little differently. Beat three proteins with 30 grams of sugar until solid peaks, put in the refrigerator. Rub one egg and two yolks with 65 g of powdered sugar. Add 65 g of almond and 25 grams of ordinary flour. Beat for about ten minutes. The mass from dark and thick should turn into liquid, airy and light. Gently, with a spatula, working from the bottom up and from the walls to the center, mix the added whipped proteins. We bake in a hot oven for about a quarter of an hour at a temperature of 180 ° C. The cakes should be significantly browned, and the middle should stop springing. Biscuits must be completely cooled.
Strawberry Cake with Pistachio Cream "Frezier"
Cooking two cakes. For them, you can knead the most delicate almond biscuit dough. If it is not possible to purchase ready-made pistachio paste, you need to buy one hundred grams of peeled unsalted nuts. Pour boiling water over them. After three minutes, the water can be drained. Pistachios are then easily peeled. Then we dry them in the oven for about ten minutes at 180 degrees. After that, grind the nuts into flour with a spoonful of icing sugar. Mix with 25 grams of almond powder. Fifty grams of sugar are dissolved in two tablespoons of boiling water. Pour this syrup into a nut mixture. Knead. For a smell, add a drop of almond essence. Whip this pistachio paste with the custard and add the butter. Next is a matter of technology. The hostess only had to collect and decorate a delicious dessert. Enjoy your meal!