Hazelnut Orange Rochers Recipes

Steps:

• Pulse toasted hazelnuts, confectioners' sugar, and salt in a food processor until finely ground (mixture should be powdery). Add egg whites and orange zest and juice, and pulse until combined. Transfer batter to an airtight container, and refrigerate overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Nest 2 baking sheets (to prevent bottoms of cookies from browning too quickly), and line top sheet with parchment. Drop tablespoons of batter onto lined sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart. Shape each into a mound, top with 2 hazelnut halves, and sprinkle generously with sanding sugar. Refrigerate remaining batter.
• Bake cookies, rotating sheets from front to back halfway through, until golden brown, 20 to 23 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter.

Steps:

• To make the ganache, pour the cream into a saucepan and scrape in the seeds from the vanilla pod, along with the pod. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 30 mins. Strain the infused cream into a clean saucepan, add the sugar and bring to the boil.
• Put the Gianduja and dark chocolate in a mixing bowl. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, and mix until everything forms a thick melted chocolate mixture.
• Add the butter and mix well until fully incorporated. Leave the ganache to set at room temperatire for 1-2 hrs.
• To assemble, put the ganache in a piping bag fitted with a 12mm nozzle. Pipe small 'bulbs' of the ganache onto a lined tray. Put a whole rosted hazelnut into each bulb of ganache.
• Pipe a larger bulb of ganache on top of each hazelnut and leave to set for 1 hr in the fridge.
• Roll each bulb into a sphere and coat in feuillantine, then chill while you prepare the nutty chocolate.
• Temper the milk chocolate by melting 2/3 of it in a bowl to 45C-50C set over a pan of simmering water. Add the remaining chocolate to allow it to cool to 26C-27C, then melt back to 29C-30C.
• Add the almonds to the tempered chocolate. Remove the ganache from the fridge and use a fork to dip each into the nutty chocolate. If the chocolate thickens too much, warm it slightly.
• Place each rocher on a lined tray to set for 1-2 hrs in a cool, dry area before decorating with gold leaf to finish, if you like. Will keep for one week stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.