Autumn Choux au Craquelin with Marinated Pear

Crumble butter, flour, and sugar into a uniform mixture. Chill it for 30 minutes. Roll out the dough to 3 mm and cut out 10 small biscuits with a diameter of 50 mm. Place the cut-out craquelin biscuits in the fridge before use.

Melt water and butter in a saucepan. When it boils, add flour and salt. Cook the mixture thoroughly while stirring for about 40 seconds. Let the mixture cool down to 65 degrees Celsius. Gradually add beaten egg while stirring. Whisk the mixture until smooth before adding more egg.
Pipe the dough onto an Air Mat baking mat in small mounds of 17 g and approximately 40 mm apart. Place the cut-out craquelin biscuits on top of each choux. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 18 minutes. It’s important not to open the oven during baking.

Heat the milk in a saucepan. Whisk cornflour, sugar, vanilla sugar, and egg yolks in a bowl. Pour the warm milk over the egg mixture while stirring. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook the custard thoroughly.
Let the custard cool for a few minutes in a clean bowl, then add the browned butter. Blend the entire mixture with a hand blender and chill it until completely cold.

Cut pears into small cubes and place them in a bowl. Use a mandolin slicer to make a few thin slices of pear and cut out some small circles. In a saucepan, heat lemon juice, sugar, vanilla sugar, star anise, and freshly grated ginger. Pour the mixture over the pears and chill them.

Soak gelatine in cold water. In a saucepan, melt brown sugar with 75 g of cream. Cook it until it thickens. In another saucepan, warm the remaining cream with vanilla sugar. Once the sugar mixture reaches the desired thickness, slowly pour in the warm cream. This may bubble up, so use a large saucepan. Warm the caramel thoroughly and pour it into a clean container. Add gelatine and flaky salt, and chill the mixture.

Temper the white chocolate and spread it thinly on a piece of cling film or plastic. Just before it sets, cut out 10 discs with a diameter of 50 mm. Allow the chocolate to harden completely before removing the discs from the plastic.

Lightly whip the cream with the browned butter. Then whip the remaining 150 g of cream and gently fold it together with the browned butter cream. Transfer the cream to a piping bag. Cut the tops off the choux pastry and fill them with the cream. Strain the syrup from the pears and distribute the diced pears into the choux. Reserve the round slices of pears for garnish.
Lightly whip the brown sugar caramel, transfer the cream to a piping bag fitted with a nozzle, and pipe it onto the white chocolate discs. Sprinkle a generous amount of grated fudge over the caramel – and place the discs on top of the choux.
Garnish with slices of pears and edible flowers as desired.