Chocolate Vanilla Tower with Orange Sauce

Ingredients

• 120 g sugar
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 1 vanilla pod (aroma)
• 4 eggs
• 50 ml milk
• 40 ml oil
• 120 g flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 0.5 l milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 5 egg yolks
• 100 g sugar
• 30 g flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 oranges
• 0.125 l white wine
• 80 g sugar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• Chocolate shavings (for decoration)
• 2 dried apricots (in strips)
• cocoa powder (for dusting)

Instructions

1. 1.

   For the orange sauce, peel the fruits and remove the segments, catching the juice. Boil the wine with sugar and poach the segments in the juice for a few minutes, then puree. Whisk cornstarch with a little water until smooth, stir into the orange sauce and bring to a boil once. Set the orange sauce aside to cool.

2. 2.

   Warm the milk and oil to 50 °C. Beat eggs with sugar, vanilla aroma and salt until creamy, then fold in flour, cocoa powder and the milk‑oil mixture. Spread the batter onto parchment paper on a baking tray. Bake at 210 °C for about 8 minutes, then transfer onto a sheet dusted with sugar, remove the parchment and cut into 12 equal rectangles.

3. 3.

   For the vanilla cream, split the vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and stir them with the pod into milk and bring to a boil.

4. 4.

   Whisk egg yolks with sugar in a bowl until creamy, gradually adding flour.

5. 5.

   Pour the boiling milk into the yolk mixture, return everything to the pot, remove the pod and simmer over low heat while constantly whisking until it thickens once.

6. 6.

   Strain the vanilla cream through a sieve, let cool, dust the surface lightly with sugar to prevent skin formation.

7. 7.

   For serving, spread vanilla cream between three dough rectangles, top with a dollop of vanilla cream, garnish with apricot strips and chocolate shavings.

8. 8.

   Spread orange sauce as a mirror on the plate, place the little cakes on it and dust with cocoa powder.