Choux with Chantilly and Pear

Make the streusel.

Mix with your fingers the cold butter, flour, brown sugar and crushed nuts. Set aside once the streusel is homogeneous.

Make the choux.

Melt the butter into a sauce pan with the milk and water then boil.

Lower the temperature (I put at 4 on a scale from 1 to 10) and add the flour and salt. Mix vigorously with a spatula until you get a homogeneous mixture.

Keep on mixing while your sauce pan is still heating slowly (we say that we dry the pastry) for 2 minutes and make sure that the pastry won't stick to the bottom of your pan.

Take the pan away from the heat and add one egg and whisk until you get an homogeneous mixture.

Add the second egg and whisk. Your mixture must be smooth and homogeneous.

Then put the pastry into your pastry bag and pipe 12 choux on a silicon baking mat or a baking paper.

Spread streusel.

Place in the oven already heated at 160 degrees and cook for 45 minutes. Do not open the oven door during that time !

After 45 minutes, make sure that your choux have a nice golden colour (if not, leave them for a few more minutes while still watching).

When you take them out of the oven, wait 2-3 minutes and place them on a grid until they cool down completely.

Make the concentrate.

During the choux cooking, place the pear peeled and cut in pieces in a small pan with the water, the lemon zest, the vanilla and sugar.

Heat until boiling then cook at low heat.

After 30 minutes, mix with your hand mixer.

Add your gelatine sheet soaked into cold water and drained. Mix well and set aside.

Finally, make a firm chantilly with the cream. When the cream starts thickening, add the icing sugar and mascarpone. Whisk some more.

Proceed with the choux mounting.

Cut the top of the chou, pipe a bit of chantilly. Add a teaspoon of pear confit.

Pipe a generous amount of chantilly and place the top back on the chou.

Set aside in your fridge until eating.