Chocolate glazed éclair with apple compote and cream on roasted white chocolate, hazelnuts and apple ice cream

Here’s a French dessert with a Swedish twist, a lovely combination even if we say so ourselves! Here you get the chance to make a real éclair, and the dough you make for it is really useful (it can be used for both sweet and savory dishes). In this dish, we fill our éclair with a fresh apple compote and top it all with a chocolate and hazelnut coating. As usual, you can make the ice cream the day before to save some time. Serves 10.

Pâte à choux pastry (éclair)

• 125 g Water
• 125 g Milk
• 125 g Butter
• 7,5 g Salt
• 15 g Sugar
• 140 g Plain flour
• 200 g Eggs

Bring the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the wheat flour and mix with a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes over medium heat until the dough becomes glossy. Transfer the dough to a dough mixer and mix with a paddle. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into a piping bag and pipe the batter into 6 cm batons on a silpat-lined baking sheet. Let the tray rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes so the batter can set a little before you do the next step.

Shortcrust pastry

• 100 g Plain flour
• 100 g Sugar
• 120 g Butter

Mix all the ingredients in a dough mixer with a paddle attachment until the dough is well mixed and homogeneous. Roll out between two silpat mats and freeze. Punch/cut out batons of the shortbread dough and place a slice on each pâte à choux baton. This will form a crispy coating on top of your éclair. Bake the éclairs in the oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes. NOTE! Do NOT open the oven door before 25 minutes have passed – as you will run a high risk of the pastries collapsing. Let the éclairs cool down properly before you do the next step!

Chocolate glaze (éclair top)

• 100 g Light cooking chocolate
• 10 g Rapeseed oil
• 0.5 g Salt
• 45 g Hazelnuts

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a water bath. Add the rapeseed oil and salt and stir. Finely chop the hazelnuts into a sprinkle. Keep the chocolate warm on a low heat until it’s time to ripple over the éclair bars. Once this is done – sprinkle the hazelnuts over the chocolate.

Baked apple ice cream

• 55 g Almond paste
• 6 g of Rum
• 15 g White wine
• 15 g Lemon juice
• 2 g Cinnamon
• 5 Apples
• 50 g Almond paste
• 470 g Milk (full fat)
• 20 g of Glucose syrup
• 4,4 g Agar agar
• 60 g Egg yolk
• 50 g Sugar
• 30 g Browned butter

Mix the almond paste, rum, white wine, lemon juice and cinnamon in a bowl until you get a smooth filling.

Core the apples but leave the peel on. Fill the bottom of the apples with a little almond paste and then the rest of the filling. Place the apples on a silicone mat and bake in the oven at 170°C for 40 minutes.

While the apples are baking, bring the milk, glucose and agar to the boil in a saucepan. Once boiled, remove from the heat and let the mixture cool for a few minutes. Mix the sugar and egg yolk and add about 30% of the liquid. Combine everything in the saucepan and heat to 83°C. Place the apples and ice cream liquid in a Thermomixer and blend with the browned butter until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and pour into an ice cream container. Freeze the container immediately. Run the ice cream machine when the mixture is cold.

Vanilla cream

• 250 g Milk
• 25 g Sugar
• 1/2 Vanilla pod
• 35 g Egg yolk
• 35 g Caster sugar
• 20 g Cornflour
• 40 g White chocolate
• 100 g Double Cream

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Place the white chocolate on a silicone mat and bake in the oven for about 13 minutes.

Split the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Bring the milk, sugar and vanilla pod to the boil, stirring. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl until the mixture is smooth and light in color. Lift out the vanilla pod. Whisk the liquid into the egg mixture and pour it back into the saucepan. Cook, whisking constantly, until the cream thickens and becomes smooth. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the roasted white chocolate until completely melted. Pour the cream into a bowl, cover with cling film directly on the surface of the cream and leave to cool in the refrigerator until completely cold. Whip the cream until light and fluffy and gently fold it into the cold custard.

Apple compote

• 700 g Discovery apple (or other firm Swedish apple)
• 80 g Caster sugar
• 6 g Pectin
• 5 g Cinnamon
• 40 g Water
• 60 g Lemon juice
• The leftovers from the Granny Smith apples

Peel the apples, cut into smaller pieces and discard the cores. Caramelize the sugar and add the apple pieces. Add the pectin and cinnamon and cook thoroughly. Pour in the water and lemon juice and cook until it becomes a thick paste. Blend to a smooth apple purée and leave to cool with plastic film directly against the surface to avoid skin forming.

Cut the leftover Granny Smith apples from the tart apple hat (*below) into small, fine cubes.

Tart apple hat

• 3 Granny Smith apples
• 50 g Lemon syrup

Slice the Granny Smith apples on a mandolin into 0.5 cm thick slices (keep the rest for the compote). Punch out rounds with a punch ring and make an incision from the edge to the center of each slice. Place the slices in a vacuum bag with the lemon-sugar mixture and vacuum pack. Leave the apple slices to marinate in the bag so that they absorb the flavor properly. Then fold the slices like a small garland.

Garnish

• 1 box of Atsina cress (can be omitted if you cook this at home)!