Bergamot Tea-Chocolate and Gianduja Fantastik

Soak the gelatine leaf in cold water until soft.

Chop the gianduja into small pieces and place in a bowl.

Heat the 50 g (1.8 oz) cream with the glucose in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the squeezed gelatine.

As soon as the cream begins to simmer, pour one third over the gianduja and stir to form an emulsion. Add a second third, then the final third, until the mixture is perfectly smooth and homogeneous.

Add the remaining very cold cream and stir gently to combine.

Cover with cling film pressed directly onto the surface and refrigerate for several hours (ideally overnight).

Place the cream, milk and tea in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Leave to infuse, uncovered, for 5–10 minutes (depending on the intensity you prefer).

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until the mixture turns pale.

When the cream-milk-tea mixture is hot, strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into the bowl, pressing on the tea leaves. Mix well and pour everything back into the saucepan.

Cook gently, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon — do not allow it to boil and do not exceed 85°C / 185°F.

Break the dark chocolate into pieces and place in a tall jug or container.

Pour the custard through a fine-mesh sieve over the chopped chocolate. Blend with a hand blender until smooth and homogeneous.

Transfer to a wide, shallow dish to help it cool down quickly. Cover with cling film pressed directly onto the surface and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 10 mm nozzle and refrigerate again until ready to assemble.

Preheat the oven to 240°C / 465°F.

Toast the hazelnut powder for 10 minutes.

Sift the icing sugar and mix in the toasted hazelnut powder.

Whisk the egg whites with the caster sugar to stiff, glossy meringue peaks.

Fold in the sifted dry ingredients gently until just combined.

Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 15 mm nozzle. Pipe a round disc (working from the centre outwards) onto a baking-paper-lined tray and bake for approximately 7 minutes — the dacquoise should be dry to the touch and lightly golden.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Melt the pralinoise chocolate in the microwave or over a bain-marie.

Crumble the crêpes dentelles and mix in the pralin.

Stir in the melted chocolate and mix well.

Spread a thin, even layer of praline crisp over the dacquoise and refrigerate the whole assembly.

Tip: I didn’t do this here but I usually like to trim the disc to a slightly smaller diameter than the tart — this removes the uneven crispy edges of the dacquoise and gives a neater circle.

Remove the gianduja ganache from the fridge and whip it like a Chantilly cream. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.

Take the dacquoise/praline crisp from the fridge and start piping the gianduja Chantilly around the outside of the tart, alternating with the chocolate cremeux as you work inwards.

Scatter with caramelised hazelnuts and gianduja gnocchi dusted with icing sugar.

Note: during plating, I found the cremeux was not quite set enough and lacked structure. If you let it chill thoroughly beforehand, you will be able to pipe it more cleanly onto the tart.