I couldn't wait to try the choux again in "cuisson guidée". I tried this for the first time a few months ago for our famous challenge on Instagram, the “cookandshootchallenge”. I then made citrus choux (the recipe here). Today I offer you a very delicious pistachio and chocolate version.
My choux is made up of a Caribbean dark chocolate namelaka cream from Valrhona and a pistachio whipped ganache, pistachio puree and whole pistachios. For cooking, I refer you to my last post on citrus choux. I changed the heat of my oven a little and the cooking time too. But this must be adapted according to the size of your circles, the quantity of choux pastry and your oven as well.
The recipe is for 4 choux, 7 cm in diameter and 3.5 cm high. With these quantities, you will have enough to make around 6-7 choux (quantity of choux pastry) so do not hesitate to freeze them after cooking to use them later. I strongly invite you to make them the day before or even several days in advance, freeze them and take them out for 20 minutes at room temperature before poaching them. They will stand perfectly like this.
For the namelaka cream, no big difficulty except that you will have to choose a quality chocolate. I refer you to the Valrhona website if you wish to use another chocolate with a different cocoa percentage. For the pistachio ganache, you can obviously replace the pistachio puree with pistachio praline. Make sure the bowl is very cold as well as your whisks before assembling it.
Ingredients for 4 chocolate pistachio choux:
The choux pastry (to make the day before or even 2 days in advance): La pâte de Dom's recipe
67g of water
67g of milk (+8g if necessary)
57g butter
67g of T55 flour
105g eggs (between 2 and 3 eggs)
2g powdered sugar
1g of fine salt
1- Cut your cold butter into small cubes. Reserve.
2- Break your eggs into a bowl and whisk them. Pass them through a sieve. You should get 105g of eggs. Reserve.
3- Sift the flour into another bowl.
4- In a saucepan, pour the water and milk. Add the salt and sugar as well as the butter cut into pieces.
5- On very low heat (power 3 for me), melt the butter without boiling the milk and while mixing with a wooden spatula. Once the butter has melted, increase the power of your heat (up to 9).
6- When the milk boils, remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir vigorously until the panade separates from the pan.
7- Return to medium heat and mix vigorously for 2-3 minutes to dry it out. A thin film should form at the bottom of your pan.
8- Pour the panade into the bowl of your food processor fitted with the sheet. Whisk at medium speed until the temperature reaches 45-50°C.
9- Once the temperature is reached, pour in the eggs little by little while continuing to whisk well. The eggs should be well integrated between each addition.
10- Your choux pastry is ready when it is smooth, shiny and forms a ribbon. You don't need to incorporate all the eggs if the texture looks good to you. Otherwise, you can add the additional 8g of milk.
11- Pour the choux pastry into a piping bag.
12- Pipe 49g of choux pastry into each circle (7 cm in diameter by 3.5 cm in height) previously lined with silpain mat and themselves resting on a perforated plate covered with another silpain mat.
13- Place a second silpain mat on your circles, then another perforated plate and finally place weights (I used 2 fairly heavy dishes) to allow the choux pastry to develop without overflowing. Store the rest of the dough in the refrigerator.
14- Then bake for 1 hour 10 minutes at 190°C.
15- Once cooked, do not wait before unhooking and removing the mat from the edges. Reserve at room temperature on a rack (you can also freeze your choux once cooled). You can lightly file the choux if some of the dough has overflowed slightly so that they are perfectly smooth.
Pistachio wipped ganache (to make the day before) :
175g of whole liquid cream
1g powdered gelatin
6g of water
40g pistachio puree
40g white chocolate
1- Swell the gelatin in 6g of water.
2- Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie. Add the pistachio puree and mix.
3- Heat 75g of liquid cream in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, add the gelatin mass. Mix.
4- Pour the hot cream in three batches over the chocolate until you obtain a smooth and shiny ganache.
5- Finally, add the 100g of cold cream, mix, blend using a hand blender, cover with film and set aside overnight in the refrigerator.
Dark chocolate namelaka cream (to make the day before):
Source: https://essentiels.valrhona.com/essentiels/NAMELAKA/59
122g of Valrhona Caribbean 66% dark chocolate
2.5g gelatin
92g whole milk
184g of 30% liquid cream
1- Rehydrate the gelatin.
2- Melt the dark chocolate in a bain-marie.
3- Bring the milk to the boil and add the gelatin. Mix.
4- Pour the milk over the melted chocolate while mixing and creating an emulsion. Mix.
5- Add the cold liquid cream, mix again.
6- Film on contact and leave to crystallize overnight in the refrigerator.
Assembly and finishes:
QS of pistachio puree
QS of whole pistachios
1- Whip the pistachio ganache very cold. Transfer it into a bag fitted with a smooth 16mm diameter nozzle. Reserve.
2- Make a hole on the top of your choux and pipe with namelaka cream until it comes out slightly (this will tell you if you have filled your choux enough).
3- Pipe the top of the pistachio whipped ganache and make a hole in it using a pre-heated Parisian spoon.
4- Pipe a little pistachio puree inside (I made 3 holes out of 6).
5- Decorate with a few whole pistachios.
