Tour de France '20 - Stage 17: Grenoble to Méribel.
That morning, the riders were trudging up and screaming down mountain switchbacks in the Savoy region of the Rhône-Alpes. Stateside, I woke up early and decided to surprise everyone in the house. They sleepily stumbled down the stairs, carried by the aroma of French-pressed coffee and awakening to the perfume of sweet cake in the air: tartlet-sized Biscuit de Savoie. The original, larger cake-sized variety was first made back in 1358 at the behest of Count Amadeus VI. This was a nice pre-work/school treat for everyone.
Biscuit de Savoie
Adapted from French Regional Food, Joël Robuchon & Loïc Bienassis
These are tasty little finger cakes that you’ll find yourself snacking on all day long. You may not be able to find actual savoy molds, smaller tart molds are fine too. The measurements below are by weight.
4 eggs separated
4 oz superfine sugar
1 packet of vanilla sugar
2 oz all purpose flour
2 oz cornstarch
Butter, at room temperature
Sugar for dusting molds
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting cakes
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the egg yolks, superfine, and vanilla sugars until pale and thickened. Whisk in the flour and cornstarch until no more dry ingredients are visible. In another bowl, using a hand mixer, whip the whites until firm peaks hold. Whisk in ⅓ of the whites to the cake mixture. Add remaining whites to the cake mixture, gently folding them into the mixture, pulling in from the middle and giving the bowl a quarter turn….keep repeating this technique until there are no remaining streaks of egg whites.
Set aside and prepare savoy molds by rubbing butter in each and then rolling small amounts of sugar, transferring any excess sugar to the next mold. Place all of the molds (makes enough for 18-20 tart-sized molds) on a baking sheet and pour the cake mixture into each mold about ⅔-¾ full. Bake for about 40 minutes, but start checking with a toothpick around 30 minutes.
When done baking, move the molds to a wire rack to cool for about 5-10 minutes. Using a toothpick along the edge, start coaxing the cakes out of their mold. Dust with confectioner’s sugar.
Copyright 2020, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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