Chocolate and snow balls pie

l Switch language for recipe in French l

How about baking a pie for Christmas? A chocolate pie with snow balls on the top !!! In this recipe you will find the roundness of the banana, the sweetness of whipped cream and the bitterness of dark chocolate with a crunchy chocolate pastry.

The preparation is a bit long because of resting time but not very difficult to do when you love patisserie !

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a great New Year celebration.

Chocolate and snow balls pie

For 8 serving

Preparation time: 1h30, Cooking time: 40min, Time to rest: 3h

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• Chocolate pastry
• Chocolate ganache
• Vanilla mascarpone whipped cream
• 2 bananas cut in slices

[/ingredients]

Chocolate pastry

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• 225g flour
• 30g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 110g granulated sugar
• 150g diced butter at room temperature for 10 minutes
• 3 beaten egg yolks

[/ingredients]

PREPARATION

• Sieve the flour, salt and cocoa in a bowl.
• Add the sugar and mix.
• Add butter and mix with fingertips until it looks like coarse crumbs.

• Add beaten egg yolks.

• Mix with your fingertips and form a ball.

• Crush the dough several times on a floured surface with the palm of the hand, by reforming every time a ball, until the dough is smooth and homogeneous.
• Form a disk and wrap the dough with a plastic wrap.

• Let the dough rest for 30 to 45 minutes in the refrigerator.
• Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle of 22x45cm and 3 mm thick.

• Prepare a pan with removable bottom tart 12x34cm .
• Wrap the dough on rolling pin and roll gently into the mould.
• Gently press with your fingers so that the dough adheres perfectly to the bottom and the walls.

I had some difficulties to place my dough in the mould without tearing it up. Don’t worry if this happens to you, the dough is very malleable and you can shape it directly into your pie dish .

• Place in the fridge 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 200°C.
• Line a parchment paper and dried beans and bake 10 minutes.
• Remove from oven and reduce the temperature to 180 ° C.
• Remove the parchment paper from the oven and bake again for 15 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let cool at room temperature.

Chocolate ganache 

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• 100g chocolate
• 100g whipping cream

[/ingredients]

PREPARATION

• Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Place the chocolate in a bowl .

• Heat the cream in a saucepan just before boiling point.
• Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate . Wait 2 minutes then stir to melt chocolate. If chocolate is not completely melted you can put together quickly in a water bath to catch the shot.

• Let cool for 30 minutes stirring regularly.

First assemblage

• Lay banana slices on the cooled pastry.

• Pour the chocolate la ganache over the bananas.

• With the back of a tablespoon spread the ganache.
• Chill for 3 hours.

Vanilla mascarpone whipped cream

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• 50g mascarpone
• 310g whipping cream
• 30g coarse sugar
• 1 vanilla bean

[/ingredients]

PREPARATION

• Cut the vanilla pod in two and remove the seeds.
• In a bowl put all the ingredients and whisk on low speed. When the cream rises then increase speed.

• When the cream is whipped, place it in a piping bag fitted with a #14 pipping nozzle .

• Chill in the fridge 30 minutes.

Second assemblage

• Remove the pastry and whipped cream from the refrigerator.
• On the ganache , place using the piping bag, clouds of whipped cream.

• Cover the whole pie.

• Sprinkle with cocoa and place some decorations : chocolate leaves and crunchy pralines.

• Chill in the fridge 2h more.

Merry Christmas !