Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (191 page)

4)
Serving

A chilled serving dish

3 cups
apricot sauce

Optional: 3 cups
crème Chantilly
(lightly whipped cream), sweetened, and flavored with kirsch

Carefully run a thin knife around edge of mold several times to detach sides of dessert. Then turn dish upside down over mold, reverse the two and give a sharp downward jerk to unmold dessert onto dish. Spoon a little of the apricot sauce over top of dessert, and the rest around it on the dish. Refrigerate if not to be served immediately. Pass optional
crème Chantilly
separately.

LE MARLY—LA RIPOSTE

[French Strawberry Shortcake Made with Rum-soaked Brioche]

Le Marly
is the French retort—
la riposte
—to the American shortcake. Rather than being biscuit dough, or a
savarin
—which it closely resembles except in shape—the cake is
brioche
dough baked in a cake pan, then split in two, hollowed out, and steeped in rum- or kirsch-flavored syrup. The strawberry and whipped cream filling is topped with pie-shaped wedges of
brioche
that rise to a peak in the center, giving the impression of a Chinese coolie
hat. Glazed with apricot and decorated with strawberries, it is a pretty dessert, and so easy to assemble that you might well make the whole dough recipe rather than the half portion needed. You will thereby have two
brioche
cakes; freeze the second one to have on hand for those times when you need something special in a hurry. Other fruits besides strawberries are delicious too, and are suggested at the end of the recipe.

For a round brioche 8 by 2½ inches, serving 6 to 8

1)
Making and baking the brioche—about 5 hours (may be baked in advance and frozen)

NOTE
: Because it will be soaked in rum or kirsch, the flavor of the
brioche
itself is not of great importance, and there is no need to make the buttery
brioche fine; brioche commune,
the
pain brioché
recipe, is the dough to use here and it needs only the first rise—or 2 rises to double if you are working in a hot kitchen.

½ the
pain brioché
dough

A round cake pan 8 by 1½ inches, smeared with 1 tsp soft butter

A cake rack

Follow the
pain brioché
recipe, but you may make the dough in an electric mixer as
described
.

As soon as the first rise is complete, deflate the dough, form into a ball (see directions for
forming a round shape
), and place seam-side down in pan; pat dough out to edges all around. Pan will be filled by about two thirds. Set uncovered at 75 to 80 degrees until dough has risen to fill the pan—about 1 hour. (Preheat oven to 400 degrees before dough has completed its rise.)

Bake in middle level of preheated 400-degree oven for 20 minutes, or until dough has risen about an inch above rim of pan and has begun to brown nicely, then turn thermostat down to 350 degrees and bake another 10 to 15 minutes.
Brioche
is done when it comes easily out of the pan, is nicely browned, and makes a hollow sound when thumped. Cool on a rack.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: If you want to keep the
brioche
for several days or several weeks before using, wrap airtight when cool, and refrigerate or freeze it. To defrost frozen
brioche,
let sit several hours at room temperature, or place on a lightly buttered baking sheet for about 45 minutes in a 300-degree oven.

2)
Preliminaries to assembling the dessert

the fruit filling:

1 quart fresh strawberries

A bowl

Sugar if needed

Wash the strawberries if necessary; hull them. Reserve 4 to 6 of the finest to decorate top of dessert; halve or quarter the rest, depending on size. Place in bowl, and toss lightly with sugar to taste.

the sugar syrup:

1 cup water in a small saucepan

¾ cup sugar

½ cup kirsch or dark rum

Stir the water and sugar over heat until sugar is completely dissolved; remove from heat. When syrup has cooled to lukewarm, stir in the kirsch or rum. (Syrup should be tepid when it goes over the
brioche;
reheat if necessary.)

apricot to glaze the brioche:

About ⅔ cup apricot jam (preserves) forced through a sieve into a small saucepan

2 Tb sugar

A wooden spoon

Bring the strained apricot jam and sugar to the boil, stirring, for several minutes until last drops to fall from spoon are sticky. Set aside; reheat before using.

for 2 cups crème Chantilly:

1 cup heavy cream in a mixing bowl

A large bowl with a tray of ice cubes and water to cover them

A large wire whip or hand-held electric mixer

A rubber spatula

1 tsp vanilla extract

⅓ to ½ cup confectioner’s sugar in a sieve

Set bowl with cream over the ice cubes and water. Circulating whip or beater about bowl to incorporate as much air as possible, beat cream until doubled in volume. Beater should leave light traces on surface of cream. (If you wish to squeeze out whipped cream decorations later, reserve ½ cup in a bowl, and refrigerate.) Fold in the vanilla, and sugar to taste. Keep over ice until needed.