Though my goal was to make a cake called Concorde (Chocolate Meringue Cake Filled with Chocolate Mousse), I simplified my job by making meringue kisses and filled them with chocolate mousse instead.

The real deal consists of layers of chocolate meringue and chocolate pudding with sticks of chocolate meringue to decorate the outside. It was created by the famous French pastry chef Gaston Lenôtre to celebrate the first flight of the Concorde. Or is it named after the Place de la Concorde in Paris?


The recipe for Lenôtre’s Concorde appears in Lenôtre's Desserts and Pastries. At age 14, Pierre Hermé started apprenticing with Lenôtre and a recipe for Concorde can also be found in Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé.

The Pastry Chef's Companion: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for the Baking
by Glenn Rinsky, Laura Halpin Rinsky

Someday, I’ll make this supersonic Concorde cake, but these little chocolate kisses were simple yet decadent.

Recipe

Serves 6



Chocolate Meringue:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
5 egg whites
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Mousse:
3½ ounces semi-sweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
4 egg whites

Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

[You can find the recipe for Concorde (Chocolate Meringue Cake Filled with Chocolate Mousse) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home or here.]

To make the meringue kisses, sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Then gradually add the granulated sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form again. Fold in the sifted confectioner’s sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Pipe into kisses and bake at 200°F for about 1 hour, until crisp and dry. Let cool.

To make the mousse, melt the chocolate, butter and half the sugar in a heavy saucepan (or in a double-boiler). Remove from the heat and add the yolks. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Then gradually add the remaining granulated sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form again. When the chocolate mixture is cool, fold in the egg whites.

Assemble by sandwiching a spoonful of mousse between two kisses.


Tasting Notes
“I like the chewiness.”
“This is good; this is real good.”
“Can I have another?”
These were quotes from my three young taste testers.

Next Time
Croissants in Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection page 429

Links
Video: Chocolate Concorde cake recipe
Bonbini’s Concorde
Foodbeam’s Concorde
No Special Effects’ Concorde
Carnival’s Concorde cake that serves 400

::Whisk::
I'm baking my way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, I try to find a suitable substitution.

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