Hazelnut, vanilla, and caramel fingers

• Hazelnut praliné:
• Toast the hazelnuts for 15 minutes in an oven preheated to 160°C.
• In a hot pan, add the sugar and the water. When the sugar/water mixture reaches 121°C, add the toasted hazelnuts. Mix until the hazelnuts are well coated in syrup. Cook until the syrup caramelises. Pour the mixture onto a sheet of baking paper and leave to cool.
• Once the mixture has cooled, pour into a blender and blend until you get a semi-liquid texture. Set aside.
• Salted butter caramel:
• Make a caramel with the sugar.
• Heat the liquid cream.
• When the sugar is well melted, off the heat add the cream little by little while continuing to whisk.
• Add the butter in small pieces and the fleur de sel then leave to cool.
• Once the mixture has cooled, pipe into a piping bag fitted with an 11 plain nozzle. Push halved hazelnuts into it and freeze the caramel.
• Hazelnut dacquoise:
• Preheat your oven to 170°C.
• Sift the icing sugar, then mix it with the ground hazelnuts and the flour.
• Whip the egg whites with the caster sugar. The whites must keep a certain softness so as not to break them when mixing with the powders. Add the powders, sprinkling over the whipped egg whites, then gently mix with a spatula. Pour the resulting batter into a 16 cm diameter ring. Bake for 15 minutes at 170°C. Leave to cool then remove the baking paper. Cut fingers using the supplied cutter.
• Hazelnut praliné crunch:
• Melt the milk chocolate. Add the hazelnut praliné and the lace crêpes. Mix and pour over the hazelnut dacquoise fingers. Freeze.
• Vanilla mousse:
• Whip the single cream then keep in the fridge.
• Hydrate the gelatine in cold water.
• Melt the white chocolate.
• In a saucepan heat the milk. Off the heat, add the gelatine and mix well.
• Pour the milk/gelatine mixture over the white chocolate and mix well. Add the vanilla pod and leave the mixture to cool a little. Add the whipped single cream.
• Pour the vanilla mousse into the 8 cavities of the finger kit halfway up, the silicone mould placed on a baking tray. Place the hazelnut caramel bands, cover with a little vanilla mousse then place the dacquoise/crunch bands, press lightly to bring up the vanilla mousse. Smooth.
• Keep the fingers in the freezer for at least one night.
• Whipped hazelnut praliné ganache:
• Hydrate the gelatine in cold water.
• In a saucepan heat 52g of single cream with the honey. Off the heat add the previously wrung-out gelatine.
• Melt the white chocolate. Pour the single cream/gelatine mixture over the melted chocolate in 3 batches. Add the hazelnut praliné. Add the rest of the cold single cream. Cover with film touching the surface and chill overnight.
• Hazelnut shortbread pastry:
• In the stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle, mix the butter cut into small pieces, the flour, the icing sugar, the ground hazelnuts and the salt until the mixture is well sandy.
• Add the egg and mix until the dough starts to form a ball.
• Roll the dough out to 2mm between 2 sheets of baking paper then put it in the fridge overnight.
• Form your shortbreads using the cutter supplied in the finger kit.
• Leave to rest for 45 minutes in the fridge.
• Blind-bake them for 15 minutes at 160°C and leave them to cool a little.
• Make the egg wash: mix the egg yolk and the liquid cream and brush the shortbreads with egg wash. Put them back to bake for 10/15 minutes until they are well golden. Set aside.
• Hazelnut rocher glaze:
• Melt the milk chocolate then add the oil then the chopped hazelnuts.
• When the glaze reaches 35°C, unmould the fingers, and dip them in the glaze using two cocktail sticks.
• Place the fingers on the shortbreads.
• You can also put some on top with a smaller shape.
• Assembly:
• Whip the ganache, put it in a piping bag fitted with a PF14 nozzle and fill the fingers. Decorate with whole or crushed hazelnuts. Move them carefully and leave to defrost.
• Enjoy