Chocolate Pithiver?

[aussiebarracuda]

Cant seem to think of a way that it would be possible, though someone out there might have an idea as to how it could work.

Cheers,

PJ

[PoppySeedBagel]

I assume you're in Australia, so I hope this is of some help - the English chef Simon Hopkinson gives his recipe for Chocolate Pithivier in his book "Roast Chicken and other stories".

I've never made it, but my husband ate it when Simon was chef at Bibendum in London 10 or so years ago - and he said it was his best-ever pudding. RC&OS was recently voted one of the top 10 most useful cookery books by a (smallish!) panel of British cookery writers, and it is indeed a lovely book.

[HQAntithesis]

I'm not sure I understand, why couldn't it be possible? Assuming my understand of what a pithivier is is correct (a gateaux de rois minus the feve) you could incorporate some cocoa powder to replace some of the flour in the puff pastry (might want to replace the gluten though) and incorporate either ganache or cocoa powder into the frangipane mix that goes inside. Some people add creme patissiere to their frangipane mix too. What I've tried doing was adding some sour cherries into the frangipane mix and it tasted really nice, though there were a few holes where the filling didn't rise because of the cherry... I probably should have chopped them up finally instead .

[pastrymama]

here is a link to a recipe

http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=126806

[chefette]

Chocolate puff pastry is the answer

substitute about 15% of the flour in the dough package with cocoa powder and prepare puff as usual

I have an actual recipe but it is not currently accessible

[Ling]

There's a recipe for chocolate puff pastry in the PH Chocolate Desserts book, and a recipe for chocolate pastry cream too.

Chocolate puff:

Dough:

3 cups (420 grams) AP flour

3/4 cup (185 g) cold water

2 tsp salt

5 tbsp (2.5 oz, 70 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Butter packet:

3.75 sticks (15 oz., 425 g) unsalted butter at room temp

1/2 cup (50 g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona, sifted

(Beat the butter and cocoa together, chill for 2 hrs., then use in the roll and turn)

Edited March 13, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Abra]

The moment I saw the recipe linked to by pastrymama I knew I had to make it for my husband's breakfast. It's just what he loves, and I had all the stuff. So, here's what I had:

The puff ( a purchased all-butter puff) spread with the hazelnut paste and topped with pain au chocolat sticks

the patterned scoring made for a pretty treat after baking

the interior crumb was quite rich, and the filling did puff and fall so there was a gap between it and the pastry

and the leftover puff scraps made some cute little cheese sticks to go with our dinner.

All in all, I think a bit less chocolate would be better, so the hazelnut would shine more. It's a very nice recipe, though, if that's what you meant by chocolate pithiviers. I've never seen a pithiviers before, so I'm hoping that I've got it more or less right.

[Ling]

That's gorgeous, Abra! Lucky husband indeed!

(...you're not in need of an adopted daughter, btw, are you? )

[Swisskaese]

Abra, that is gorgeous! Did you make a frangipane with hazelnuts intead of almonds?

[Abra]

Yes, it is essentially a hazelnut frangipane. And yes again, an adopted daughter is always a good thing to have, especially one who loves pastry!

[aussiebarracuda]

Thanks for the input guys, yes chocolate puff was always part of the ideal, though the input and links are much appreciated. Will post the results and photos when achieved

Cheers,

PJ

[devlin]

The moment I saw the recipe linked to by pastrymama I knew I had to make it for my husband's breakfast.  It's just what he loves, and I had all the stuff.  So, here's what I had:

The puff ( a purchased all-butter puff) spread with the hazelnut paste and topped with pain au chocolat sticks

the patterned scoring made for a pretty treat after baking

the interior crumb was quite rich, and the filling did puff and fall so there was a gap between it and the pastry

and the leftover puff scraps made some cute little cheese sticks to go with our dinner.

All in all, I think a bit less chocolate would be better, so the hazelnut would shine more.  It's a very nice recipe, though, if that's what you meant by chocolate pithiviers.  I've never seen a pithiviers before, so I'm hoping that I've got it more or less right.

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Gorgeous. And simple. The problem: hazelnut paste? Where might one get it? I can't even get hazelnuts where I live.

[ruthcooks]

I'm pretty sure I've ordered hazelnuts by the pound from King Arthur Flour, and they're already skinned for you. I believe I ordered Hazelnut Praline Paste (in a can) from the same source. It never got into a recipe, I ate it all like peanut butter.

Edited March 15, 2006 by ruthcooks (log)

[boulak]

Try this for a filling; it might be nice for this application with some chunks of chocolate mixed in:

Chocolate creme d'amande:

Cream:

3# 6 oz. butter + 3#6 oz. sugar

Add gradually:

4# 2 oz. egg and scrape

Blend and add:

3# 6 oz. almond meal

9 oz. cocoa

Add gradually and blend:

1 # 5 oz. heavy cream

The preparation may be made ahead and reserved if refrigerated. Bake the same as classical creme d'amande. For home use, just reduce the amounts of the ingredients proportionally.

[Abra]

The hazelnut paste I used was made with

3 oz unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

3 oz ground hazelnuts

2 T flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

I used ground hazelnut meal from Trader Joe's and it was easy as pie. That chocolate creme d'amandes looks delicious, too. Devlin, are you sure you can't get hazelnuts? They're often called filberts in other parts of the country.