Method

Chocolate Glaze

1. Into a small bowl, add the gelatin powder and cold water. Allow it to bloom for 5 minutes.

• • 11g Gelatin (200 Bloom)
  • 66g Cold Water

2. Into a small saucepan, add the double/heavy cream and glucose. Place it on a low heat and stir it together until the glucose has melted into the cream. Set it to one side and keep it warm.

• • 220g Double/Heavy Cream
  • 110g Glucose

3. Add the water and sugar into a medium saucepan and place it over a medium heat. Heat it until it reaches 120C/240F on a digital thermometer.

• • 125g Water
  • 300g Sugar

4. As soon as it reaches temperature, pour in the warm cream mixture, followed by the cocoa powder.

• • 85g Cocoa Powder

5. Whisk the mixture and cook until it reaches a rolling boil.

6. Immediately remove it from the heat and pour it into a tall jug. Use a hand blender to blend the mixture until it is smooth – avoid adding any air bubbles into the glaze.

7. When the mixture has cooled to 80C (which shouldn’t take long), scoop the bloomed gelatin out of the bowl and add this into the jug. Blend again until the mixture is smooth.

8. Pour the mixture into a container, and cover the surface directly with cling film. Refrigerate it overnight.

Strawberry Compote

1. Into a small bowl, add the pectin and sugar and stir these together. It is important to stir them together to prevent lumps from forming later.

• • 3.5g Pectin NH + 12g Sugar

2. Meanwhile, slice the strawberries into quarters, and place them into a saucepan along with sugar, a splash of water (about 2 tbsp) and lemon juice. The amount of sugar & lemon juice you need really depends on how sweet your strawberries are so you might need to adjust these levels. If they are very sweet then you may not need to add any sugar at all.

• • 200g Fresh Strawberries
  • 5g Lemon Juice
  • 10g Sugar 3.

Place the pan onto a medium heat and stir the strawberries until they have broken down, are slightly softer and the juices are bubbling up. At this point, add in the pectin mixture and stir it through.

4. Continue to cook the strawberries until they have thickened slightly and completely broken down. If the sauce is too thick and the strawberries haven’t quite broken down, just add a splash of water.

5. Take the mixture and spoon this into a small round sphere silicon mold.

6. Smooth the top so none of the compote is sticking out the top and place them in the freezer overnight.

Chocolate Creme Patissiere

1. To make the creme patissiere, place the milk into a medium saucepan, and place it over a medium heat. The vanilla is optional but does add a nice flavour.

• • 500ml Whole Milk
  • 1 Vanilla Pod or 1 Tsp Vanilla Bean Paste

2. Meanwhile, add the egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch/cornflour into a bowl. Whisk the mixture for about 30s until thickened.

• • 65g Caster Sugar
  • 6 Large Egg Yolks (120g)
  • 40g Cornstarch/Cornflour
  • Pinch Salt

3. Once the milk reaches a gentle simmer, remove it from the heat, and slowly pour it over the egg yolks, whisking constantly.

4. Once you have added all the mixture, pour it back into the pan, and keep whisking until the mixture starts to boil. Once it reaches a boil, continue to cook for about 1 minute.

5. Remove it from the heat and pass the thickened mixture through a sieve, over a bowl of chopped chocolate.

• • 100g Dark Chocolate, Chopped

6. Let the mixture sit for 2m, then whisk it together, along with the butter.

• • 45g Unsalted Butter, Cold & Cubed

7. Once it is smooth and the chocolate has completely melted, cover the surface directly with cling film and refrigerate for four 3-4 hours.

Chocolate Craquelin

1. To make the chocolate craquelin, add the soft unsalted butter, sugar and ground almonds to the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl if you are using an electric hand mixer.

• • 75g Unsalted Butter
  • 75g Light Brown Sugar
  • 30g Ground Almonds

2. Beat the mixture until it is smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed. It should take 1-2 minutes.

3. Tip in the flour and mix on low speed until it pulls together and forms a crumble.

• • 45g Plain, All-Purpose Flour
  • 15g Cocoa Powder

4. Scoop the mixture out onto a large silicon mat, and place a second silicon mat on top (if you are using a smaller silicon mat you may need to split it into two batches).

5. Use a rolling pin to roll it as thin as possible. Don’t worry about the shape, just get it nice and thin. Lift it into the freezer so it is flat and freeze for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Choux Pastry

1. Into a medium saucepan, add the milk, water, butter, salt & sugar.

• • 100g Water
  • 100g Whole Milk
  • 4g Salt
  • 8g Sugar
  • 100g Unsalted Butter

2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then take it off the heat, and sieve in the flour & cocoa powder. Always sieve the flour in to prevent any chunks of flour clumping in the pan.

• • 110g Strong White Bread Flour
  • 10g Cocoa Powder

3. Stir it together off the heat until all of the liquid has been absorbed.

4. Place it back onto a medium heat and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. As you are cooking it, you will notice a “film” of dough forming on the bottom of the pan. Avoid scraping this into the batter i.e don’t press hard on the bottom of the pan and try to scrape this film into the main dough.

5. Once you have cooked the dough, immediately remove it from the heat and place it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment. Or you can place it into a large bowl if you are using an electric hand mixer.

6. Beat the mixture on medium low speed for about 3 minutes to cool it down.

7. While it is mixing, whisk together your eggs so they are evenly combined.

• • 175g-200g Whole Eggs

8. With the mixer running on a medium low speed, slowly pour in the eggs. You want to add them in small additions, beating the mixture for about 45 seconds before adding the next quantity of eggs. The reason we wait in between each addition is to allow the dough to fully hydrate before adding any more liquid.

9. Add the eggs in, in about 5 additions, waiting as I said, about 45 seconds before you pour the next amount in.

10. The recipe has a slight guide on the amount of eggs you need to add. This will depend on how much moisture was cooked out of your choux dough in the pan. You are essentially looking to add enough eggs until the choux dough looks “creamy”. It is slightly hard to describe but watch the video and you will see the texture I am referring to.

11. Once it is creamy, keep mixing the dough for 3-4 minutes to allow it to cool down even further. This will make it much easier to work with. Once cooled, pour the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a ½” round tip nozzle.

12. If you have it available, take a 40mm half sphere silicon mold and pipe the mixture into each cavity. Then use an offset spatula to smooth it out slightly so they are relatively flat.

13. Place the silicon mold in the freezer for 1-2 hours or until the half spheres are solid. *

Note – if you do not have a silicon mold, you can pipe the choux pastry free hand onto a baking mat as you normally would. Once you have piped the choux dough, you can then place the craquelin discs on top.

14. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/360F non-fan assisted.

15. Once the spheres have frozen, remove them from the silicon mold and place them onto a baking mat, about 6 per tray. Let them defrost for about 15 minutes at room temperature – this will prevent the craquelin discs from slipping off the frozen spheres as they defrost.

16. Remove the craquelin from the freezer and peel off the top silicon mat. Use a 60mm cookie cutter to cut out discs and place them on the top of choux pastry.

17. Just before you place the tray in the oven, splash a small amount of water on the bottom of the oven (or preheat the oven with a tray on the bottom and splash it on that), then immediately place the tray in the oven. Bake the choux buns for around 30-35 minutes. As it is chocolate choux pastry, it is actually slightly harder to tell as you can’t see it turn a nice golden colour. After about 30 minutes, very quickly open the oven and gently press one of the chouxs, if it still feels soft, then keep baking them. The choux should feel firm to the touch when it is baked fully.

18. Once baked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool completely.

Final Assembly

1. Once the choux have cooled, you can remove your chocolate glaze from the fridge. After a night in the fridge, it will be very thick. Place the glaze in the microwave and heat it for 30 second bursts, stirring in between each time, until it is completely melted. As you are stirring it, try and avoid adding too many air bubbles (you can also blend it again once it is melted so that it is smooth)

2. Alternatively, scoop the mixture into a large bowl and place it over a pan of gently simmering water, stirring until it is melted.

3. Once it is melted, we want to leave it at room temperature, stirring it to prevent a skin from forming every few minutes, until it cools to around 32C. This is the perfect temperature of the glaze to dip our frozen strawberry compote spheres.

4. Remove the chocolate creme patissiere from the fridge and use a hand whisk to whisk it up. This will loosen the mixture slightly and make it easier to pipe.

5. Add the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round tip nozzle.

6. Flip the baked choux over and pierce a small hole in the bottom. Pipe the creme patissiere into the bottom until it feels full & heavy. Once you have filled them all, set the chouxs to one side.

7. Once the glaze is at temperature, remove your strawberry compote spheres from the freezer. Stick a toothpick into the top and dip the sphere into the chocolate glaze. Let the excess drip off the sphere and then gently drag it along a silicon baking mat or piece of parchment until it stops dripping.

8. Then very carefully, using tweezers or a small knife, carefully press the glaze sphere off of the toothpick, onto the top of your choux bun. Remove the toothpick (which will leave a small hole)

9. Cover up the hole with a small piece of edible gold leaf.

10. It is important to serve these relatively quickly, as the strawberry sphere will begin to defrost and lose its shape, so they are best eaten about 20 minutes after you have glazed the sphere. Alternatively, you can use a different cream or cremeux that we have made across Bake It Better, which will hold its shape for longer.