Yuzu

Method

Yuzu Ganache

1. Into a tall jug, add the chopped white chocolate, and the yuzu juice.

• • 70g Yuzu Juice
  • 210g White Chocolate

2. Meanwhile, add the powdered gelatin into a small dish and pour the cold water over the top. Leave it to bloom for 5 minutes.

• • 10g Powdered Gelatin (Platinum Strength) + 60g Cold Water

3. Pour the double/heavy cream into a medium saucepan and bring it to a gentle simmer.

• • 750g Double/Heavy Cream

4. Once hot, pour the cream over the jug of chocolate and yuzu juice. Then, scoop in the bloomed gelatin and blend until smooth.

5. Pour the mixture into a container and refrigerate it overnight.

Almond Craquelin

1. To make the almond craquelin, add the soft unsalted butter, lemon zest, 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
  • Zest ½ Lemon

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.

• • 60g Plain, All-Purpose Flour

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.

Choux Pastry

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/355F.

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

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

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

• • 110g Strong White Bread Flour

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

5. 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.

6. 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.

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

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

• • 175g-200g Whole Eggs

9. 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.

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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. A great tip before you start piping is to prep your baking mat with a few lines so you have a guide to pipe your choux. Just dip a flat dough scraper or anything long and thin, in a little flour, and tap it down on the baking mat. This will leave a very light line that you can follow as a piping guide.

14. Then, pipe very small circles of choux dough along the line. You want to make sure that they just touch each other. If there are any gaps, then it can mean once they bake, they will separate quite easily. You can see the picture above which shows how close they should be together. If you want a guide, you want the circles to be roughly 0.9” wide.

15. Once they are piped, remove your craquelin from the freezer and peel off the top silicon mat. Work very very quickly here as the craquelin dough is so thin that it can melt very easily.

16. Use a cookie cutter that is just slightly bigger than the size of the choux you have just piped. Quickly place the discs of craquelin onto the top of each piped choux ball. Don’t worry if the craquelin overlap ever so slightly.

17. If at any point you find your craquelin is melting in your hand, or melting as you cut it, just pop it back into the freezer for 5-10m then carry on cutting.

18. Once you have placed the craquelin on all of the choux, splash a small amount of water into the bottom of the oven (about ¼ cup), and immediately slide the tray of choux in.

19. Bake for around 30-40 minutes or until nice and golden. Avoid opening the oven at all until around 30m, otherwise the choux will collapse.

20. The choux are done when they are a nice golden brown but also if you touch them in the oven they should feel firm on the outside and not soft as you press them.

21. Remove them from the oven and let them cool completely.

Pailleté Feuilletine

1. Into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl if you are using an electric hand mixer, add the soft butter and sift in the icing sugar.

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

2. Beat the mixture, scraping down the bowl as necessary until it forms a smooth paste. It should take about 1-2 minutes.

3. Pour in the egg whites and beat again. They will look quite curdled and not mix in particularly well but that is normal.

• • 50g Egg Whites

4. Finally, tip in the flour and beat until it is smooth.

5. Take the mixture and spread a spoonful out, as thin as possible onto a silicon baking mat. It will puff up ever so slightly in the oven so you really want to make it nice and thin. Don’t worry about the shape of the mixture, just the thickness.

6. Place it into a preheated oven at 175C/350F and bake until it is just completely golden brown.

7. Take it out and let it cool for 5 minutes, then use your hands to snap it into very very tiny little pieces. Set them to one side.

Final Assembly

1. Take the cooled choux and carefully cut them in half. Dust the top side of the choux with a little icing/powdered sugar for decoration.

2. Remove the yuzu ganache from the fridge and stir it with a spatula just to loosen it slightly as it will be relatively thick.

3. Add it into a piping bag fitted with a round tip nozzle.

4. Into each section of the choux, pipe dollops of the ganache.

5. Add the zest of some lime on top for colour.

6. Finally, place small chunks of feuilletine around the outside of the ganache and then place the lid of the choux on top.