Shopping list:
48 oz pitted sour cherries*
24 oz chestnuts (shiny, firm, heavy)*
2 packets gelatin
pint half and half* (crème pât)
pint cream
1 C whole milk
1 C butter
1 C dark rum
6 eggs
cake flour
AP flour
sugar
powdered sugar
non-instant clearjel
salt
vanilla
*original recipe uses 8 oz cherries and 4 oz chestnuts.
*original recipe uses 3 C half & half, which makes a crème anglaise.
chiboust is traditionally made with crème pâtissière.
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Schedule:
Everything done on day 4 must be done on one day; the rest is flexible.
Day 1: gather ingredients, soak chestnuts
Day 2: make pie crust dough, make chestnut purée
Day 3: roll and freeze crust, candy cherries
No need to hurry here; everything keeps for weeks.
Can measure out plenty of things for chiboust day!
Day 4: bake crust, line with chocolate, fill with chiboust
Day 5: decorate with ganache & whipped cream, serve
If attempting to do this in one day in a fit of insanity,
By 8:00,
ingredients gathered
By 09:00,
chestnuts scored and soaking
cherries candying in oven
By 09:30,
pie crust doughs resting in fridge
By 11:30,
candied cherries finished in fridge
By 12:30,
chestnut purée finished in blender
pie crusts shaped in freezer
By 15:00,
pie crusts blind baked together
pie crusts lined with chocolate
pie crusts cooled in a clean dishes
By 17:00,
crème anglaise/pât finished
meringue finished
chiboust finished
pies filled and cooling
By 19:00
pies set & decorated
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113 g cake flour113 g AP flour
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 C cold butter
4 oz or 115 g ice cold water
6 oz dark chocolate
48 oz pitted sour cherries
400 g sugar
1/4 C dark rum
400 g sugar
1/4 C dark rum
1/4 C powdered sugar
3 T clearjel
24 oz chestnuts
100 g sugar
1/4 C dark rum
2 C half & half
1 C whole milk
6 egg yolks (whites used below)
100 g sugar
2 envelopes knox gelatin
1/2 t salt
1/4 C dark rum
135 g sugar
6 egg whites
1 t vanilla
3 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/4 C cream
1 3/4 C cream
1/2 t vanilla or almond extract
42 g powdered sugar
Prepare 2 pie crusts: (4 hours)
Combine flours, sugar, and salt.
Cut in cold butter.
Knead in ice water just until crumbs are no longer dry.
While still cool and crumbly, book fold dough.
Cut in two, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Shape dough in pie pans and freeze at least 30 mins.
Fill with foil and baking beans.
Blind bake on lowest oven rack at 375° for about 50 mins.
Let cool a few mins and transfer to a clean pie dish.
(Discarding excess butter for cold pies gives a cleaner cut).
Microwave 6 pound plus pieces per crust, microwaved 3 mins at 40%.
Coat interior with melted chocolate.
Prepare the macerated cherries: (3 hours)
In a large saucepan, combine cherries, sugar, and rum.
Cook over med-low heat, stirring every 5 mins.
If the mixture starts to boil, turn down the heat.
Cherries are ready when dark red syrup is clear; about 15 mins.
Strain cherries and save syrup (about 4 C) for cocktails.
If you don't have 4 C, continue straining, pressing lightly.
In a mixing bowl, coat cherries with powdered sugar and clearjel.
Spread cherries on food dehydrator racks.
Dehydrate for 3 hours at 160°, or until slightly darkened and sticky.
Alternatively, bake on draining racks for 2 hours at 200°.
If too starchy, add a little extra syrup and remove starchy exterior.
Finished cherries should neither be too dry nor too gloopy.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Syrup will keep in the fridge for up to one month.
Prepare chestnut purée: (3 hours)
Chestnuts are dry/difficult to peel when over or undercooked.
24 oz chestnuts are about 30 medium/large chestnuts.
They should yield about 20 oz cooked, peeled chestnuts.
With 2 oz rum and 3.5 oz sugar, that's about 25 oz purée.
Phara says:
"Crack them like they're your enemy,
peel them like you're a brain surgeon."
Wash chestnuts; discard moldy or dried out chestnuts.
Cut an "x" in each chestnut deeply enough to cut membrane.
(I do have a gadget for this and recommend it!)
Soak in water 2-24 hours; 2 works just as well as more.
Preheat air fryer to 400.
Roast 12 mins.
Remove burst chestnuts.
If any chestnuts have not burst, let them roast for up to 5 more mins.
Place roasted chestnuts in a bowl lined and topped with a clean towel.
Keep all chestnuts warm in towel when not being peeled.
One at a time, peel away shells and membranes.
Perfectly cooked chestnuts have a yellow, waxy exterior.
If not using purée soon, food process with sugar and rum and freeze.
If using soon, blend with rum, sugar, milk, half & half, & yolks.
Store covered in the fridge until ready to make crème pât.
Prepare stabilized chestnut crème pât: (1 hour)
Place a medium mixing bowl in an ice bath.
In a large saucepan, combine sugar, gelatin, and salt.
If not already blended, blend chestnut purée, milk, half & half, & yolks.
Off heat, whisk custard base into sugar, gelatin, and salt.
Cook over medium heat, whisking and scraping constantly.
Cook until crème pât reaches 180°; mixture will have thickened.
Pour into cold bowl in ice bath, add rum, and immersion blend.
Begin making Italian meringue.
Continue immersion blending every 5 mins or so.
Crème pât is ready once chilled and thickened, about 25 mins.
This cannot be made in advance, because if it gets too cold, it will set.
Prepare Italian meringue: (half hour)
In a small pot, drizzle about 3 T water over outer edges of sugar.
Heat over very low heat to get a clear glossy syrup.
Use a lid on the pot so that the condensation washes down the edges.
Stir on occasion carefully, wetting edges with water on a pastry brush.
Meanwhile, place egg whites into a clean stand mixer bowl.
Once syrup is at 230, beat whites on medium.
When syrup reaches 240, increase to high.
Pour hot syrup into beating whites and beat in vanilla.
Beat until meringue is white and glossy with stiff peaks.
Prepare stabilized chestnut chiboust: (half hour)
Once crème pât is cold enough, fold together with 1/3 meringue.
Once loosened, fold in remaining meringue.
Assemble pies: (3 hours)
Set aside decorating macerated cherries (13 per pie).
Layer a little plain chiboust into each of two pie crusts.
Arrange a layer of macerated cherries over top.
Continue layering chiboust and cherries.
(If wanting a smooth top, cherry generously early.)
Refrigerate 1-3 hours or until set.
Cold chiboust sets very quickly!
Prepare chocolate ganache and whipped cream: (1 hour)
Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in small bowl.
Heat cream until edges bubble.
Pour cream over chocolate, cover for 5 mins, and whisk well.
Let cool to thicken before piping (this can take a while).
Fit in a piping bag with tip 4.
In a cold stand mixer bowl, combine cream and extracts.
Whip, incorporating sifted powdered sugar.
Beat until voluminous but still very smooth.
Fit in a piping bag with a medium sized star tip.
Decorate pies: (half hour)
Decorate pies with a crisscross pattern.
Pipe decorative whipped cream mounds along outer edges.
Can pipe 12 of these and 1 in the middle.
Top mounds with decorating cherries.
Best if eaten within two days.
Heavily adapted from
"Pie for Everyone" by Petra Paredez
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