French · Desserts

Fraisier

Strawberries stood upright around the edge of a génoise, packed in mousseline cream. Summer, and the strawberries must be cut flat so the sides look right.

1 hr 30 min prep and cooking plus 4 hr chilling to set 5 hr 30 min start to finish Serves 10 servings Hard
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Fraisier

Photograph credit: Fraisier-Strawberry 3 by reed_dafas · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence

Fraisier: Step by Step

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  1. Whisk the eggs and sugar over simmering water until warm, then off the heat for 8 minutes until tripled and holding a ribbon. Fold in the flour and melted butter.

  2. Bake in a lined 22 cm tin at 180°C / 355°F for 25 minutes. Cool and split into two discs.

  3. Boil the syrup water and sugar, cool, add the kirsch.

  4. Make a pastry cream with the milk, yolks, sugar, cornflour and vanilla and cool it to room temperature. Beat the room-temperature butter until pale, then beat the cream into it a spoonful at a time.

  5. Set a 22 cm ring on a plate, lay in one sponge disc and brush generously with syrup.

  6. Halve the largest strawberries and stand them cut-side against the ring all the way round. Pipe mousseline between and behind them, then fill the centre with the remaining fruit and more cream.

  7. Top with the second sponge, brush with syrup, and chill 240 minutes. Roll the marzipan thin, lay it over the top, and remove the ring.

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What Can Go Wrong

  1. Sort the strawberries by size before you start.
  2. Cut faces against the ring, or the sides look wrong.
  3. Both mousseline components at room temperature.

The Short Version

The strawberries around the edge are halved and pressed cut-side against the ring so the cross-section shows, and they need to be roughly the same height or the top layer sits crooked. Sort them by size before you start. The mousseline must be stiff enough to hold them in place, which means properly cooled pastry cream and butter beaten until it is genuinely aerated — a slack cream lets the fruit slide as it chills.

To Go With It

Champagne · Coffee · More strawberries

Storing Leftovers

Refrigerated for 2 days. It does not freeze — the strawberries collapse.

Quick Answers

How long does Fraisier take to make?

1 hour 5 minutes of preparation and 25 minutes of cooking, plus 4 hours of chilling to set, so allow 5 hours 30 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 10.

Fraisier Nutrition Facts

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. The calories include 1 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.

617Calories
9gProtein
67gCarbs
34gFat
3gFibre
51gSugar
60mgSodium

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.

First published ; last changed .