Recipe for Sweet Surprise ~ Raspberry Cream Puff

(Two days in advance) The raspberry ginger cream: Heat the puree and lemon juice to 30°C. Add the sugar mixed with pectin and cornstarch. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously, then let cool. At 50°C, add the butter and ginger, and blend using an immersion blender. Transfer to a closed piping bag and place in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

(Prepare 2 days in advance) Raspberry jam (personal addition to the chef's recipe): In a saucepan, pour in the strawberry pulp and sugar (1), bring to a boil, then let it infuse for 10 minutes. Mix sugar (2) and pectin together. Remove the vanilla pod, bring to a boil again, add the sugar-pectin mixture and lemon juice, mix well, and keep boiling for 30 seconds. Add the honey, mixing until fully dissolved. Once the jam is ready, fill small half-sphere molds and place them in the freezer for at least 1 hour.

(Prepare 1 day in advance) White chocolate rose whipped cream: Bring the cream (1) to a boil (in the base recipe, then infuse 43g of rose buds for 7 minutes before straining), add the rose water. Pour over the white chocolate in three additions, mixing to melt the chocolate. Add the cold cream (2) while blending with an immersion blender. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

The craquelin: Mix all the ingredients together using a mixer with the paddle attachment. When the mixture is well crumbly, turn it out onto the countertop and knead to achieve a smooth texture. Place this dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out very thinly with a rolling pin. Place in the freezer.

(A day before) The almond crunch: Melt the butter with the chocolate at 35°C. Mix with all the ingredients, then spread thinly between two sheets of parchment paper to a thickness of 5 mm. Place in the refrigerator.

Choux pastry: In a saucepan, pour in the milk, salt, sugar, water, and butter in small pieces, and bring to a boil. In a mixing bowl, prepare the flour. As soon as it boils and the butter is completely melted, remove from heat and add the flour all at once. Without waiting, mix vigorously using a sturdy spatula. Return to the heat and dry out the mixture for a few minutes without stopping to stir. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl with a flat beater, start at medium speed, and add the eggs one by one. Stop mixing as soon as the dough is smooth. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a medium plain nozzle. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Pipe rounds of dough about 3.5 cm in diameter, placing a disk of topping 4 cm in diameter on each round. Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Assembly: I opted for a preparation using previously frozen pastries to avoid losing them in the rose cream during the second to last phase; the basic recipe does not recommend freezing them before decorating. It's up to you to decide which option works best for you. I was concerned that it might affect the texture of the pastries, but it did not at all; it remained excellent. Cut the top off three-quarters of the height of the pastries. Insert a disk of almond crunch measuring 4 cm in diameter at the bottom.

Garnish with the raspberry cream and a half sphere of frozen raspberry confit. Fill the puff pastries well; they should be nicely rounded. The basic recipe suggests using fresh raspberries, but since I didn't have any, I preferred to add raspberry confit to avoid using frozen raspberries that might release water. Close the puff pastries and place them in the freezer for a few hours (mine stayed for several days in the freezer) until they are well frozen.

Pour the very cold rose cream into the bowl of the mixer. I couldn't find any rose velvet spray for decoration, so I wanted to color the cream pink to achieve some dimension. I tried using raspberry puree, but it wasn't enough, so I added a touch of red powder food coloring before whipping it. Whip the cream until it’s still a bit soft. Remove the whisk and soften the cream using a spatula. It should be soft enough that all you have to do is dip your pastry puffs, make sure to coat the bottom well, and pull them out in one go to form a nice peak on the pastries. Place them gently, spaced apart, on a baking sheet and put in the freezer for 30 minutes.