Easter canelé: dark chocolate mousse with caramel and peanuts

The name of this recipe is most revealing, it does not hide any secret apart from its delicious flavor and its soft and sweet interior. But although it seems that the Easter canelé with chocolate, caramel and peanuts has already said it all in its statement, nothing is further from the truth. Keep reading and you will know what I mean.

In the shape of one of the most iconic sweets in French pastry, the Easter canelé hides a smooth dark chocolate mousse with a touch of caramel, under a thin and crunchy layer of intense chocolate . We are going to accompany this little pleasure with a little more caramel, which with the toasted peanuts will make your vision blur as soon as you try it. Did you not expect it?

As you can see, this delight has everything to be the star dessert for Easter . But it will also give you many joys at any other time of the year. And if you don't believe me, you just have to prepare it. The recipe is very easy and the result is extraordinary. Ideal for the most chocolatiers at home!

Let's go with the recipe, Easter is coming!

Ingredients

• 200 g of 70% dark chocolate
• 4 egg whites
• 2 egg yolks
• 20g of sugar
• 120 ml of whole milk

For the chocolate coating

• 200 g of 70% coverage dark chocolate

for the caramel

• 100g of sugar
• 80 ml of liquid cream (35% mg)
• 1 pinch of fleur de sel

To decorate

• Roasted and finely chopped peanuts (or the nut of your choice)
• Caramel (the one made in the recipe)

Preparation

1. Lightly grease the non-stick Le Creuset canelé mold with a little butter or brush with light oil and set aside.

Preparation of the chocolate mousse

1. The first thing is to prepare the mousse. To do this, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie.
2. While the chocolate is melting, beat the whites and when they start to foam, add the sugar in the form of rain and without stopping beating, until you see them firm and shiny.
3. When the chocolate has melted, add the egg yolks and stir until combined. Do the same with the milk, which should be warm (do not add it cold). Stir until integrated and obtain a smooth cream.
4. The next step is to mix the egg whites with the melted chocolate cream. To do this, add 1/3 of the whipped egg whites to the chocolate cream and stir vigorously with the help of a wire whisk, until it looks homogeneous.
5. Incorporate the remaining 2/3 of the whites into the chocolate cream several times, little by little and with soft and enveloping movements, helping you with a pastry tongue, until the mixture looks homogeneous. Reserve the mousse in the fridge inside a pastry bag .

Preparation of the caramel

1. To prepare the caramel, heat a part of the sugar in a frying pan or a saucepan over medium heat. When it starts to melt, add the rest of the sugar and stir the pan or saucepan with gentle circular movements, so that the sugar is distributed well.
2. While the sugar is caramelizing, heat the cream in another saucepan over medium-low heat.
3. When the sugar is golden brown, carefully pour in the cream all at once and stir vigorously to blend with the sugar.
4. Remove from the heat, add a pinch of fleur de sel and let the caramel cool.
5. When it has cooled, put it in a pastry bag and reserve.

Preparation of the canelés

1. Take the mousse out of the fridge, cut off the end of the bag and fill it up to about two-thirds of each cavity in the mold.
2. Cut the tip of the bag in which you have the caramel a little (it should be a finer point than the one of the mousse bag) and fill the center of the mousse with a little bit of caramel.
3. Arrange half a teaspoon of chopped peanuts over the mousse.
4. Just fill the cavities with a layer of mousse, place a toothpick or cake pop stick in the center and place the mold in the freezer overnight.
5. Melt the chocolate for the coverage in a bain-marie while you unmold the canelés.
6. Bathe the canelés in the chocolate, using the stick and remove the stick as you bathe them.
7. Arrange them on a tray and reserve them in the fridge before serving them.
8. Present them with a little caramel on top and, if you like, sprinkle some of the chopped roasted peanuts.

GRADES

• You can omit the step of putting the stick, but it is very practical to remove the mousse from the cavities of the canelés mold. If you see that they resist, do not pull to prevent the stick from coming out without the mousse. To help you, you can give a little heat to the outside of the mold (with a hair dryer or with a cloth dampened in hot water).
• If you see that when melting the chocolate to coat the canelés it is very thick, you can add a little sunflower oil, cocoa butter or coconut oil to lighten it and give it fluidity. If there is more fluid left, you will be able to bathe them better and there will be a thin and crunchy layer.
• When bathing the canelés, the covering chocolate immediately solidifies due to the contrast in temperatures (the canelé is frozen).
• You can also unmold all the canelés, place them on a rack and pour the coverage over all of them at once. To prevent them from sticking to the rack, before the chocolate crystallizes, slide a spatula along the base of the canelé to separate it.
• You can fill the mousse canelés with caramel or not, as you like!
• And you can decorate them or serve them accompanied by whatever you prefer.