The team at The Connaught Patisserie by The Connaught hotel in London create pastries to enjoy at all hours of the day. Its Executive Pastry Chef Nicolas Rouzaud, who was born in France and grew up in Toulouse, spent hours as a child in the kitchen coming up with the perfect recipe for chocolate mousse.
This passion and commitment is reflected in the star dessert of the pastry shop and is Rouzaud’s favorite, the Connaught hound, representative of the hotel’s logo, reinvented as a hazelnut chocolate cake. A miniature work of art made with milk chocolate mousse, soft hazelnut praline insert, and a chocolate sponge glaze with hazelnut and milk chocolate. “We worked on a special custom mold which took the image of the hound found on The Connaught’s crest. The chocolate hound also has its own wardrobe and will be sprayed white topped with a red scarf over the festive period. During the summer, the hound turns yellow with black sunglasses,” he explains.
The Connaught Hound
Hukambi 53% mousse
for 10 dogs
- 160 g whole milk
- 100 g UHT cream
- 100 g egg yolk
- 210 g Jivara chocolate
- 7 g gelatines powder
- 230 g whipped cream
Soak gelatin in 35 gr of water for 10 min. Whip the cream to soft peak and keep it in the fridge. Make the anglaise: bring cream and milk to a boil, pour on the egg yolk. Heat to 83ºC. Pour on milk chocolate and add the melted gelatin, mix well. Fold in the whipped cream.
Praline insert
for 10 insert
- 100 g hazelnut praline smooth 65%
- 100 g hazelnut praline crunchy 65%
- 200 g cream
- 2 g gelatin powder
- 4 Whole roasted hazelnut in the middle
Soak gelatin in 10 gr of water for 10 min. Warm up half of the cream and add the melted gelatin. Poor on the praline and add the rest of the cream, mix it. After piping in the mould, add 4 whole roasted hazelnut in the middle.
Chocolate Pain de Gene
make 1 tray 40×60
- 290 g marzipan 70%
- 30 g sugar
- 320 g whole eggs
- 60 g Gluten Free flour
- 5 g baking powder
- 90 g melted butter
- 15 g cocoa Powder
Whip Marzipan, sugar and whole eggs with the whisk for 20 min make sure you don’t have pieces of marzipan. Add flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Finish with the melted butter. Spread 1 kg mix on each tray with a frame. Cook at 160ºC in the rotating oven 12-14 min.
Hazelnut Glaze
to glaze 20
- 300 g Hukambi 53% chocolate
- 50 g grapeseed oil
- 100 g chopped roasted hazelnut
Roast the hazelnut at 150ºC until well roasted, then chop to the right size. Add it to the melted chocolate and oil.
Hukambi 53% Spray
- 300 g Hukambi 53% Chocolate
- 200 g cocoa butter
Melt the chocolate and cocoa butter, blitz them until combined.
Montage
Make the praline insert and pipe it once it is set in 2/3 of the mould. Then add some roasted hazelnut in the middle (about 3 half hazelnut). Make the pain de gene sponge, cut it 16×4 cm and keep it on the side. Make the Hukambi mousse, pipe it in the mould, then fill up the mould leaving 3 cm from the top, put the insert into it, top it up with mousse and smooth it with a spatula. Freeze it overnight. Demold the dog, smooth it. Organize them on tray and spray them with the Hukambi Spray. Glaze the chocolate pain de gene on a rack with the Hazelnut Glaze, once the glaze on the base is set, place the dog sprayed on top of it.
