The French TV show “Qui sera le prochain grand pâtissier” is a competition for the best professional pastry chef in France. It exists for years by now and when I started watching it in 2014 one episode on a Tuesday at prime time lasted full 4 hours.
The challenges the contestants were faced varied from developing pastries according to a defined theme or assisting some of the best pastry chefs of France during service for example.
In one of the challenges they were asked to develop a new version of the very Traditional chocolate entremet “Velours d´automne” from Lenôtre. Grégory Quéré, one of the contestants who turned out to also be the winner of that season, made a chocolate mousse that made a big impression on the jury.
Curious about the result, I prepared his chocolate mousse and I still remember it 4 years later. The best chocolate mousse I ever had.
The only thing I changed about the original recipe of Grégory Quéré was to reduce the sweetness a bit by using less sugar and adding a touch of vanilla.
The Chocolate Crunch is my variation of my mother´s christmas cookies that are always the first ones to be eaten before any of the others get touched.
The Tuile I originally prepared to break into the Crunch, but the sheets looked so beautiful, golden brown and at the same time transparent when they came out of the oven sizzling that I decided to also use them for decoration.
Let´s start…
Chocolate Mousse with Chocolate Crunch, Vanilla Whipped Cream & Tuile
Equipment
- Palette Knife
- Whisk
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Mousse
- 280 g Manjari Chocolate from Valrhona, 64% Cocoa
- 390 g Whipping Cream
- 75 g eggs 1.5 medium sized eggs
- 85 g Egg Yolks of 5 medium sized eggs
- 35 g water
- 5 g Vanilla Sugar
- 55 g sugar
Tuile
- 30 g butter at room temperature
- 30 g sugar
- 30 g flour
- 10 g Egg White
Milk Chocolate Crunch
- 30 g Almonds raw, unsalted
- 100 g Milk Couverture
- 5 g butter
- 15 g Tuile
- 2 pinches salt
Vanilla Whipped Cream
- 100 g Whipping Cream
- 5 g Vanilla Sugar
Other
- 10 Raspberries for decoration
Instructions
Dark Chocolate Mousse
- Preparation
- Melt the dark chocolate couverture on a water bath. Keep at 50°C (122°F).
- Whip the whipping cream with the vanilla sugar to soft peaks and reserve in the fridge.If you overwhip the cream the mousse will not turn out smooth. - Make the Pâte à bombe- Prepare a bowl of a stand mixer with a strainer.- In a second bowl whisk together eggs, egg yolks, water, sugar and vanilla sugar and heat to 80°C (176°F) over a water bath stirring constantly.- Sieve the preparation through the strainer into the bowl of the stand mixer, whisk to soft peaks.- Let set in the fridge.
It is important to gently heat up the egg mixture on medium heat on a water bath stirring constantly. If it is heated to over 80°C (176°F) the egg mixture will turn solid (coagulate). - Combine
- Transfer the chocolate to another bowl at 50°C (122°F).- Fold a third of the whipped cream into the melted chocolate.- Fold in the pâte à bombe in 3 parts.- Fold in the rest of the whipped cream in two parts.- Fill the chocolate mousse into a piping bag and pipe into 8 glasses.It is important to transfer the chocolate to a different bowl so that the heated bowl does not keep on warming the chocolate while the other preparations are folded in.
Tuile
- Preparation- Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F) (convection).
Make the Pâte à Tuiles
- Mix butter and sugar by hand with a whisk.- Add flour and egg whites until homogenous.
- Spread half of the preparation between 2 baking sheets with a rolling pin.
- Unfold the baking sheets to get 4 individual sheets.
Bake- Bake two sheets at a time for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Rotate after 5 minutes.- - Transfer to a cooling rack.
Taken out of the oven the tuile will still be elastic. Once cooled down a bit within seconds, it hardens quickly and becomes very fragile.
Milk Chocolate Crunch
Roast almonds- Bake the almonds at the same temperature as the tuiles for approx. 9 min.Almonds are well roasted when not only the exterior in browned, but also the inside. Remove one almond from the oven, cut into two pieces and check. If not browed bake a couple of more minutes. 
Preparation
- Melt the milk chocolate. Put aside.
- Fill cornflakes into a piping bag or plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin.
- Chop the cooled almonds into small pieces.Distribute the cornflakes in one layer within the plastic bag for a more even result. 
Combine
- Add the cornflakes, chopped almonds, vanilla sugar and salt to the melted milk chocolate.- Crush one sheet of tuiles in your hands and add to the mixture.
- Reserve the baking sheets.- Stir until all dry ingredients are well coated.
Make the Crunch- Let the preparation drip onto the reserved baking sheets with your hands.- Stack the baking sheets onto a cool baking sheet and freeze.
Vanilla Whipped Cream
- Preparation- Whip up the whipping cream with the vanilla sugar to soft peaks.- Transfer into a piping bag with a 10mm tip.
Assembly
- - Pipe balls of Vanilla Whipped Cream onto the Dark Chocolate Mousse.- Decorate with a raspberry and some Dark chocolate crunch.
- Release the remaining Tuile with a palette knive carefully from the baking sheet. Break them into bigger pieces and add them.
- Decorate with the raspberries.- Voilà!Did you like this recipe? Please let us know in the comment section below if you have any suggestions!