Recipe for Small Mountain Tops

First, we will make the meringues as they need to bake for 2 hours, so we will prepare the other components during this time. Weigh your ingredients. Whip the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding the granulated sugar to stabilize them. Once your egg whites are ready, sift the powdered sugar and fold it into the egg whites. Essentially, this process can be referred to as "macaronage." Now, place your meringue in a piping bag fitted with a 12mm nozzle and form small dollops (which should fit in your chocolate cups, so they need to be the size of your silicone molds) on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 90 °C for 2 hours... This is an amazing recipe and the meringues made this way are absolutely crunchy. They can be stored in an airtight container for up to 15 days without any problem.

Using your mixer with the blade attachment, beat the chestnut puree, chestnut paste, chestnut cream, and butter at high speed, and add the drops of rum. Transfer to your piping bag fitted with a noodle tip and set aside at room temperature.

Then, still using your mixer but this time with the whisk, gently mix your mascarpone, your cream with the vanilla pod from which you have previously scraped the seeds, and the sugar. Once the mascarpone and the cream are combined, whisk vigorously for a few minutes to make your cream nice and firm. Transfer to your piping bag with a size 8 tip and chill.

Now we are going to make our little chocolate cups. If you have a marble countertop (which I do), prepare a bain-marie in which you place your chocolate chips. Let your chocolate melt to a temperature of 40°C and incorporate your cocoa butter. Then pour 2/3 of your melted chocolate onto your marble and temper your chocolate to bring it down to a temperature of 24-25°C. Next, return it to the bain-marie and raise the temperature to 31-32°C, and maintain this temperature to make your cups. I have a very small, thick brush; I dip it in the tempered chocolate and then brush my silicone molds. It's clean, I don't make a mess, and it goes quite quickly. Let the cups cool and check if you have used enough chocolate, as they should not be brittle but should hold their shape. A certain thickness is necessary. Place your filled molds in the refrigerator if your kitchen is at room temperature.

To finish, the 2 hours are up, so take out your meringues. Taste one first to ensure they are not sticky to the teeth, as that is not pleasant. Once all that is done, we can assemble our Mount Blanc cups. Remove all your chocolate cups from the silicone molds. Place meringues in each cup. Generously fill with light vanilla cream. Then generously cover with chestnut vermicelli. Before serving, you can dust with sifted powdered sugar (but this is not necessary).