Method

Salted Caramel

1. Into a saucepan, add the whole milk, double/heavy cream and glucose.

• • 175g Double Cream
  • 45g Whole Milk
  • 45g Glucose (1)

2. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer, whisking to ensure the glucose has dissolved fully. Once it is hot, set it to one side, but ensure it stays warm while you create the caramel.

3. Into a medium saucepan, add the glucose and the caster sugar.

• • 80g Caster Sugar
  • 90g Glucose (2)

4. Place it over a medium heat and bring it to a deep caramel. Try to avoid stirring the mixture, and shake the pan to help disperse the sugar. If the sugar isn’t breaking down, very quickly stir it in with a spatula.

5. Keep a careful eye on it, it will go from a deep golden colour to burnt quickly!

6. Once you have a nice deep golden colour, immediately pour in the hot cream mixture, being very careful as it will bubble up violently.

7. Whisk the mixture and cook over a medium heat for 1 minute.

8. Remove it from the heat and pour it through a sieve into a separate bowl.

9. Let it cool for 2 minutes, then add in the salt & butter and blend (or whisk) until smooth.

• • 60g Unsalted Butter
  • 1.5g Sea Salt Flakes

10. Pour the mixture into a container and store at room temperature. It should thicken slightly overnight and become a more pipeable consistency that isn’t quite as loose.

Hazelnut Praline

1. Into a medium saucepan, add the sugar & water. Place it on a medium heat, and cook the mixture until it reaches 110C/230F on a digital thermometer.

• • 200g Caster Sugar
  • 60g Water

2. Once at 110C/230F, pour in the hazelnuts. Stir constantly with a spatula. The mixture will initially look quite clumpy, then the sugar will crystallize, but eventually as you keep stirring, the sugars will caramelise and you should have a deep golden caramel surrounding the nuts.

• • 300g Whole Roasted Hazelnuts

3. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, and tip the caramelised nuts onto a baking tray lined with a silicon mat. Sprinkle some sea salt flakes on top and let it set completely at room temperature for 30 minutes.

• • Pinch Sea Salt Flakes

4. After 30 minutes, the praline should be completely cool and solid to the touch. Break it into pieces and add it into a high powered food processor. Blend for 4 minutes, scraping it down every so often, until you have a smooth, nutty paste. Store in an airtight container.

Pailleté Feuilletine

1. Into a stand mixer, add the soft butter and sugar. Beat on a medium speed until it forms a smooth paste.

• • 50g Unsalted Butter, Soft
  • 50g Icing Sugar

2. Once smooth, pour in the egg whites and beat again. It may look slightly split and the egg whites may not incorporate fully but that’s ok!

• • 50g Egg Whites

3. Finally, tip in the flour and beat until it forms a smooth paste.

• • 50g Plain Flour

4. Take a scoop of the mixture and spread it as thin as possible on a silicon mat. It is really important to get it nice and thin as it will puff up as it bakes. It should look almost translucent once spread out.

5. Place it into a preheated oven at 175C/350F and bake until a nice golden colour. It should take around 3-5 minutes.

6. Remove the tray from the oven, and once it has cooled, break the mixture into tiny pieces.

Tempering – Milk Chocolate

1. Take a medium saucepan and place a small amount of water in the bottom. Place it over a low heat until it is a very very gentle simmer. You do not want this to be too hot otherwise the chocolate will heat up too quickly.

2. Pour your first part of chocolate into a bowl and place it on the pan.

• • 400g Milk Chocolate

3. Stir the mixture constantly with a rubber spatula until it reaches a temperature of of 45C/113F on a digital thermometer. The bowl will retain some heat so it is best to take it off the pan at about 43C/109F and then keep stirring until it reaches 45C/113F.

4. Once at temperature, with the bowl off the heat, immediately add in the remaining chocolate.

• • 60g Milk Chocolate

5. Again, stir the mixture constantly with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides as you go, until it cools down to 27C/80F.

6. Place the bowl of chocolate back on the heat, and being very careful not to overheat it here, heat it to between 28-30C (82-86F). Your chocolate is now in temper.

7. Ensure you completely dry the bottom of your bowl, before pouring the chocolate into a piping bag (if any water mixes in with the chocolate it will seize).

8. Take the chocolate bar mold and pipe the tempered chocolate into the snack bar mold, filling each cavity to the top.

9. Take a chocolate scraper and vigorously tap each side of the mold to settle the chocolate and help to release any air bubbles.

10. After 30 seconds of tapping – tip the mold upside down (it is best to place a silicon mat underneath!) and tap the mold, to get rid of the excess chocolate.

– A quick note – if it is very cold, your chocolate may set faster in the mold in which case 30s may be too long to wait before tipping it out. It is not the end of the world but you will just end up with a slightly thicker chocolate shell.

11. Keep tapping the mold until the drips have stopped.

12. Once they have stopped, use your scraper to scrape the top of the mold so that you wipe away any excess chocolate and create a nice flush top.

13. Place the mold on its side, and leave it to set at room temperature for 30 minutes – 1 hour. Again, it may depend on your room temperature, if it is very cold it will set much faster, if it is hot, it will take a little longer!

Assembly

1. To prepare your feuilletine praliné crunch, melt the chocolate (and cocoa butter if you have it) and stir this into your hazelnut praline.

• • 200g Hazelnut Praline
  • 45g Dark Chocolate
  • 18g Cocoa Butter

2. Next, add in the pailleté feuilletine and stir it all together until combined.

• • 30g Pailleté Feuilletine

3. The chocolate should’ve set in the mold now – add your salted caramel to a piping bag, and pipe a layer of this into the bottom of each cavity of the mold.

4. Take a few roasted peanuts, and press these into the salted caramel.

5. Next, add the hazelnut praline crunch to a piping bag, and pipe a layer into the mold on top of the caramel, leaving just enough room at the top so that you can cap the mold.

6. Allow this to set at room temperature (you will see it appears dull and will be not be wet to the touch).

Note – most chocolatiers would probably say you need to let the praline crunch fully crystalise for 12 hours before capping the mold but..it is up to you 🙂

7. Once set, you need to temper your second batch of milk chocolate (200g + 30g) – this is a much smaller amount of chocolate so be careful when tempering as it will heat + cool much faster.

8. Once the chocolate is in temper, add it into a piping bag.

– Note: If you have a hair dryer or a heat gun, you can very gently heat the top of your chocolate mold – this will melt the chocolate ever so slightly and make it easier for the fresh tempered chocolate to adhere.

9. Pipe the chocolate to cover each cavity of the chocolate bar.

10. Place a sheet of acetate on top (or a coloured cocoa butter transfer sheet) and then with your chocolate scraper, apply firm pressure and scrape across the top of the mold, press out any excess chocolate and air bubbles from the mold, to create a tight seal of the acetate sheet to the mold.

– If you don’t have an acetate sheet you can also scrape the mold with the exact same technique – just without the acetate sheet on there.

11. You can allow the chocolate bars to sit at room temperature for 12 hours (or an hour then pop it in the fridge for 5 minutes)

12. Once the chocolate has set, crack the mold firmly against your counter top. If the chocolate doesn’t release, try twisting the mold and then repeating the crack.