Pear, chestnut and hazelnut log

Pear insert
✔350g pears (3 or 4 pears)
✔30g caster sugar
✔3 x 2g gelatine leaves

Peel and slice the pears then cook them in a pan with sugar and liquid vanilla. When the pears are cooked, blend them with the 30g of sugar then put back on the heat a little before adding the softened and wrung out gelatine. Pour this preparation into the insert, leaving room for the biscuit.

Chocolate biscuit
✔55 g hazelnut paste
✔22 g sugar
✔1 egg
✔10 g flour
✔5 g cocoa powder
✔1 teaspoon baking powder
✔15 g butter
✔2 g milk
✔Glazed chestnut paste

To make the hazelnut paste, mix 25g hazelnut powder, 25g icing sugar and 5g egg whites. Melt the butter with the milk. Mix the hazelnut paste and the egg with a blender. Add the sugar and then the milk/butter while continuing to mix with a mixer. Stir in the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Pour the dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper in a rectangle of about 30cm by 6cm. Scatter the chestnut pieces over the top. Bake at 170°C for 10 to 12 minutes.

Once the biscuit has cooled, cut a rectangle and place it on the pear insert and put it back in the freezer overnight.

Chestnut cream
✔200g chestnuts
✔25cl water
✔80g caster sugar
✔Liquid vanilla
✔A little rum (optional)

Cook chestnuts ( I used a 200g jar of cooked chestnuts), in a pan with 25cl water, vanilla and 80g sugar. Blend, add a little vanilla and rum and set aside.

Chestnut mousse
✔300g chestnut cream
✔350g liquid cream
✔4 x 2g gelatine leaves

Heat half the cream. Remove from the heat and add the softened and wrung out gelatine. Pour over the chestnut cream. Whip the other half of the cream with an electric mixer. Gently fold it into the previous mixture.

Praline crisp
✔45 g milk chocolate
✔45 g crêpes dentelles
✔50 g hazelnut praline

Melt the milk chocolate. Add the praline and then the crumbled crêpes dentelles. Pour onto a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and pass well while shaping it into a rectangle to the dimensions of your log mould. Place in the freezer for a few minutes.

To assemble

Fill the mould halfway with chestnut mousse. Add the pear insert with the biscuit side up. Pour in the remaining mousse and then place the Croustillant praliné. Place in the freezer overnight.

For the icing
✔70 g water
✔110 g sugar
✔20 g glucose syrup
✔70 g unsweetened condensed milk
✔50 g milk chocolate
✔50 g white chocolate
✔4 x 2g gelatine leaves
✔30g hazelnut praline

Heat the water, sugar and glucose in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the wrung out and softened gelatine. Pour over the melted chocolates. Add the unsweetened condensed milk and the praline. Mix, strain and chill.

The next day, use the icing at around 35°C. I decorated with two milk chocolate log ends, halved hazelnuts and marrons glacés.

This recipe is inspired by the Dodofairy chestnut, chocolate pear and hazelnut log.