Russian & Ukrainian · Dessert
Ptichye Moloko
- Advanced
- 70 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a floral thread lifting the aroma, on a slow, honest burn.
Ingredients
- 100 g unsalted butter, softened, for the sponge
- 100 g caster sugar, for the sponge
- 2 eggs
- 140 g plain flour
- 4 g agar agar powder
- 140 ml water
- 460 g caster sugar, for the syrup
- 60 g egg white (about 2), at room temperature
- 1.5 g citric acid, dissolved in 5 ml water
- 200 g unsalted butter, softened to 20C (68F)
- 100 g sweetened condensed milk
- 5 ml vanilla extract (1 tsp)
- 100 g dark chocolate, 60 percent
- 50 g unsalted butter, for the glaze
Equipment
Sheet pan
The skills inside
Whipping a meringueFolding: keeping the air inThe wobble & the skewer: testing a bake
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Beat the 100 g butter with the 100 g sugar, beat in the eggs one at a time and fold in the flour, then spread the batter into two 20 cm circles marked on lined trays and bake at 200C (400F) for 8 minutes to 10 minutes until springy. Cool and trim them to sit inside a 20 cm ring at least 8 cm deep, lined with a collar of baking paper or acetate. 8 min
- Beat the 200 g butter with the condensed milk and vanilla until pale and fluffy and leave it at room temperature; it must not be fridge cold when the meringue arrives.
- Soak the agar in the 140 ml water for 30 minutes, bring it to a boil and boil 1 minute, then add the 460 g sugar and cook to 110C (230F), when the syrup falls from a spoon in a thin thread. 30 min
- Whip the whites with the citric acid to firm peaks, pour the hot syrup down the inside of the bowl in a thin steady stream, and keep whipping until the meringue is thick, glossy and down to about 55C (131F). Beat in the butter cream in three additions, working fast.
- Pour half the mixture over the first sponge in the lined ring, lay the second sponge on, pour the rest, chill 3 hours until firm, then lift off the ring and collar and coat with the chocolate and 50 g butter melted together. 180 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Folding: keeping the air in 34 recipes
- The air was actually built first and it shows: whatever was creamed or whipped has changed colour and grown in volume, pale and light rather than dense.
- The two mixtures were brought closer before being combined: a little of the light one worked into the heavy one first, so the rest is not beaten flat trying to move it.
- Folded and not stirred: a broad implement down through the middle, across the base, up and over, with the bowl turned between strokes.
- Stopped the moment the streaks disappear. It is still visibly aerated and holds its shape briefly when the spoon lifts away.
- Into the tin and into the oven straight away: a batter left standing on the bench gives back the air it was built for.
Where it goes wrong It was stirred until it looked perfectly smooth. Every stroke past the point where the streaks vanish knocks out air that cannot be put back, so the bake comes out dense and short of the tin, and often wet through the middle where there was no structure to hold it.
Whipping a meringue 40 recipes
- Bowl and whisk are clean and dry with no trace of fat or yolk. Grease prevents the foam outright, and there is no recovering a bowl that had it partway through.
- The sugar went in gradually once the whites were already foaming, rather than all at once at the start.
- No grit: a little rubbed between finger and thumb feels smooth, so the sugar has dissolved into the foam rather than sitting in it.
- Stiff peaks means the tip stands with a slight bow when the whisk lifts, and the bowl can be tipped without the mass moving in it.
- Glossy and smooth rather than chalky or dull, with no liquid gathering underneath it in the bowl.
Where it goes wrong It was whipped past stiff peaks. A minute beyond glory the protein network tightens and tears, the foam turns grainy and matte, water weeps out beneath it, and folding that into anything gives a mixture that collapses on the way to the oven.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Banyuls or Ruby Port
- Also Right
- PX Sherry
- From the Taps
- Imperial stout
- Zero-Proof
- Espresso
Chocolate wants fortified sweetness or roast-bitter contrast: the wine must out-sweet the plate, or oppose it entirely.
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