Chocolate Crème chiboust
One of the things I love about a well made Crème Chiboust is that it allows the flavor it contains to really shine through. The primary reason why a crème chiboust has a well pronounced flavor is that it is much lower in fat compared to many other mousses. Fat tends to coat our taste buds making it harder to fully taste the flavor nuances.
Essentially, a crème chiboust is nothing more than a just prepared (and still hot) pastry cream lightened with a (still warm) Italian style meringue. Using an Italian Meringue over a regular cold made meringue is my preferred method since it provides better stability of the cream.
For this particular dessert I used star anise, a much underused spice witch pairs excellently with oranges or kumquats. The combination of the fruit and star anise is not only refined but also works gloriously with the chocolate crème chiboust.
Getting it all together!
If serving the dessert as shown in the picture make the chocolate crème chiboust and the star anise panna cotta a day ahead and freeze overnight. Cut it into desired shapes. If serving the dessert in a verrine you can make the chiboust the day of serving just allow a few hours for chilling.
The recipe For the chocolate caramel decor can be found on my site as well by clicking the link.
Chocolate Crème Chiboust
Yield: about 12- 15 servings
| 2 Tbsp | (1 oz) | Extra fine granulated sugar (a) | 30 g |
| 5 | (5) | Large Egg yolks | 5 |
| 1 Cup + 2 Tbsp | (10 oz) | Milk | 300 g |
| 3 Tbsp | ( ¾ oz) | Cornstarch | 22 g |
| 9 oz | (9 oz) | Bittersweet chocolate, chopped | 270 g |
| 3 | (3) | Gelatin leaves , bloomed | 3 |
| 1 Cup | (8 oz) | Extra fine granulated sugar (b) | 240 g |
| 2 Tbsp | (1 oz) | Invert sugar | 30 g |
| 6 Tbsp | (3 oz) | Water | 90 g |
| 8 | (8 oz) | Egg whites | 240 g |
- In a saucepan bring the milk to a boil.
- In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Add sugar (a) and whisk rapidly until smooth, add cornstarch and whisk smooth. Whisk in half of the boiling milk.
- Pour the egg yolk mixture into the remaining boiling milk and whisk rapidly to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. Stir in the chocolate and bloomed gelatin. (Blooming gelatin is achieved by placing gelatin sheets in ice cold water for 5-10 minutes to soften, and then squeeze out excess water.)
- Cover the crème with plastic food film and do not place in an ice bath. Simply keep at room temperature.
- Immediately prepare the Italian Meringue: In a saucepan bring the sugar (b), invert sugar and water to a boil, wash away any sugar crystals.
- Place the egg whites in a machine bowl fitted with a whip attachment and whip on low speed.
- When the sugar syrup has reached 250°F (121°C) remove from heat and whip the egg whites in high speed. Pour the syrup along the inner edge of the bowl in a steady stream.
- Whip until lukewarm and remove from machine.
- Quickly whisk the chocolate cream to make perfectly smooth and in increments fold in the Italian meringue.
- Mold as desired. (Here the crème Chiboust was spread on a silicone lined sheet ½ Inch (1.2 cm) thick)
- Freeze and cut into desired shapes. Spray with chocolate spray.
Panna Cotta with Star Anise
3-4 servings for full servings or the right proportion to be used with the Crème Chiboust above.
| 1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp | (5 oz) | Milk | 150 g |
| 1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp | (5 oz) | Heavy cream | 150 g |
| ¼ Cup | (2 oz) | Extra fine granulated sugar | 60 g |
| 2 Tbsp | ( ½ oz) | Star Anise seeds | 15 g |
| 2.5 | (2.5) | Gelatin leaves | 2.5 |
- Stir to a boil the milk, heavy cream and sugar. Remove from heat and add the star anise, cover with plastic food wrap. Let cool until lukewarm.
- Place the gelatin leaves in ice cold water for 3-5 minutes. Press out excess water and add to lukewarm mixture. Stir until dissolved. Heat gently until barely lukewarm if the gelatin does not dissolve.
- Let the panna cotta ever so slightly thicken and then pour on a pattered sheet.
- Freeze hard and cut into desired shapes.
Thanks for visiting My pastry Blog!
This is beautiful.
Lovely!
Hi Chef! You said star anise pairs excellent with orange. I wonder if i can use some orange essence in creme chiboust so that i have orange-chocolate creme with star anise-pana cotta. Would the result be fine? Thanks!
Gorgeous-you are such an inspiration . Thank you so much for sharing, I wished I lived in Houston so that I could watch your program !
Tasos,
That sounds like a great idea. One of my favorite chocolate mousses is indeed an orange Milk Chocolate mousse.
All the best, Eddy.
I love the idea of freezing on a structure sheet! I had never thought of that before and am now kicking myself wondering why I hadn’t 🙂
Gareth,
The other day I tried using a structure sheet using gelato and it did not work perfectly…..
Nice use of the raised design sheet
Creme Chiboust with the caramel tuile, very nice…
Beautiful!!
Is there any place where I could check the schedule of your classes at the HCC?
thanks
Hi Chef Eddy!!
Love the site it is one of very few sights that offers true inspiration. Just wondering what sugar a is meant for as you have used sugar b twice. trying to nail this recipe and was wondering if this was the reason.
Cheers
Fellow Pastry Chef
Ed,
Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention and thank you for the compliment as well. The issue is fixed. Hope you will enjoy the chocolate creme chiboust.
Eddy.
great post, thanks for sharing
Chef,
Tried the chiboust recipe out of the on baking book…. I had a funny feeling I was measuring up a bit too much sugar – this recipe you’ve done here just proved my assumption.
it asked for 225g sugar….. What Should I reduce the sugar to??
I love this recipe! When you freeze the chocolate chiboustchiboust and cut it do you keep it frozen until serving? I’m doing a large party but do not have the opportunity to plate ahead really. Will it be ok served slightly frozen?
Hi Chef Eddy,
What is the orange garnish/syrup?