Byzantine - Ravani Dessert
Byzantine - traditional ravani dessert flavoured with orange, and topped with a cinnamon crème pattissiere.
We had a photo disaster when taking photos of the dessert so until we make another one, photograph it (and remember to save the photos!) here’s a lovely photograph of the byzantine mosaics in the Rotonda, Thessaloniki, one of the worlds most beautiful buildings.
INGREDIENTS
These are in three parts for the three elements of the dessert
Sponge
7 medium eggs
150 gr. granulated sugar
120 gr. milk with orange zest in it, left to marinate overnight
70 gr. yoghurt
140 gr. plain flour
140 gr. fine semolina
8 gr. baking powder
½ tsp masticha (beaten with a little sugar, so that the masticha does not stick to the mortar)
Zest of one orange (add to the milk and marinade overnight)
Syrup
500 gr. water
300gr. granulated sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp lemon juice
Pastry cream with cinnamon
1 litre of milk
200 gr. sugar
3 vanillas
1/2 tsp sweet cinnamon (you can add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon if you wish, but too much will mask the taste of the orange in the ravani)
4 egg yolks
60 gr. corn flour
3 tablespoons sweet gelatin powder or 2.5 leaves.
METHOD
1. First we start our dessert by making the syrup. We want the syrup cold and the ravani hot. So we can make the syrup from the previous day and leave it out of the fridge overnight.
2. Put the water, the sugar and the 2 cinnamon sticks in a pan and bring it to a boil. Once it starts boiling, add the lemon (so that the syrup does not crystallize while it cools down) and boil it for another 5 to 6 minutes. We do not boil it more than that, because we do not want it to become too thick.
3. Then we make the ravani sponge. First we preheat our oven to 170 degrees fan. Afther that, we prepare the pan. If you want your ravani to be thin, you can use a 38x28 cm baking tray. If you want it taller, use a smaller rectangular pan. One option is to butter it well so that the mixture does not stick. When I prepare my own tray, I butter it and cover it with baking paper.
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the eggs very well with the sugar until fluffy! Then add the flavoured milk with the orange zest and yogurt and continue beating until the mixture is well mixed, but no more than half a minute as we want to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.
5. In another bowl we already have our dry ingredients well mixed and ready (flour, baking powder and mastic). In this bowl we will add the fluffy egg mixture. With gentle movements (so as not to remove the air and the volume from our mixture) and with a spatula we incorporate the egg mixture with the flours.
6. Pour our final mixture into the pan and spread it evenly so that it cooks the same. Bake for 25 minutes in a smaller pan or 15 minutes in a larger one. The reason is that in the smaller pan, the ravani will come out higher so it needs more time to cook from the inside. In the larger the pan,as the mixture will spread more and will be shallower, the 15 minutes is enough, though always remember to test with a skewer to make sure it comes out clean.
7. You then need to pour the cold syrup on to the hot sponge. If you have lined the baking tray with paper, remove that first, turn it out of the tray carefully so as not to take the air out and our cake gets dense and collapses, take the papers out and return it to the pan. Next, spear the hot sponge with a fork and pour all the syrup evenly over it, with a big soup spoon.
8. While we leave it aside to absorb all the syrup, we move on to the last part of the recipe, where is the cinnamon-flavoured patisserie cream.
9. Put the milk, the cinnamon, and the vanillas in a saucepan on the fire until the milk is well warmed.
TIP: we have used Greek vanillas in this recipe but please use whichever type of extract or vanilla pod you are familiar with, to taste.
10. At the same time, in a bowl, add the yolks and sugar, and with a whisk mix well immediately. If you leave the sugar over the eggs, the eggs will be cooked by the sugar so don’t leve them standing!! Add the gelatine and corn flour to the egg mixture and mix well. If you use gelatine sheets, 3 minutes before using them, soften them well in cold water. Not in hot, because they will dissolve completely. They may soften before 3 minutes, so keep that in mind!
11. When all the ingredients are well homogenized, and once the milk has warmed up well, add the milk mixture little by little to the egg mixture (a couple of tablespoons, maybe less) to bring the egg mixture to a higher temperature but without cooking the eggs and end up with an omelette! We put the same amount of hot milk in our yolks two or three times, , so that the egg mixture is well incorporated and there are no lumps or pieces of corn flour and finally we return the whole mixture to the pot with the milk.
12. On a low heat, start stirring constantly, until the crème pat takes on a fairly thick form and almost stands.
13. Once we have the desired result, allow the pastry cream to cool down and when it is luke warm we spread our cream over our cooled ravani sponge. Don’t spread the warm cream on the hot sponge, it will be a mess.
14. Finally we cover the cream carefully cling film, so it does not get "skin"and we put the whole dessert in the fridge until our everything sets.
15. You can enjoy it after about an hour or until the cream has set, with a cup of coffee or even a glass of dessert wine.
