Matcha Chocolate Religieuse

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I love a bit of dessert history when possible, moreover when it comes to religieuse and pate a choux. Religieuse (which means nun as apparently they resemble the a nun in the habit) is a French pastry made of two choux pastries, one smaller than another, stacked on each other with glaze and buttercream. That’s the most basic definition one can give to religieuse. But things are a bit more complicated than that if we follow the history down the line.

It seems that religieuse was created in the XIXth century, but the pate a choux has an interesting story on its own. It seems to have been invented in 1540 by Panterelli, a Florentine chef who worked for Catherine de Medici. The dough he made at that time was known as pate a Panterelli. Chefs who followed him took his basic recipe and refined it furthermore and it was chef Avice who named this dough pate a choux because the baked choux resembled cabbage (choux literally means cabbage). And this is how the dough reached the hands of Marie Antoine Careme, the first celebrity chef, the one who created dessert for Napoleon himself. He took the recipe and refined it to what we know today – a mix of water, milk, flour, butter or oil and eggs – very simple and basic, but impressive if we look at all the desserts that use it as a base.

The first religieuses were made with chocolate and coffee, but nothing can stop the creativity of a pastry chef, can it?! Thus variations of this dessert were born – Laduree has developed violet, strawberry, pineapple, orange or caramel variations, all incredibly beautiful and tasty and many other examples can be found out there, dessert created by creative pastry chefs who take one idea and refine it until it reaches perfection!

My religieuse recipe relies on two main flavors: chocolate and matcha powder – with a kick of jasmine which I infused into the matcha white chocolate filling. The choux pastries are made with chocolate pate a choux and topped with a crispy craquelin which I love using not only for its taste, but also because it helps the choux bake evenly. The large choux is filled with chocolate ganache flavored with plenty of vanilla while the smaller choux is filled with a jasmine infused matcha white chocolate ganache. The components sound more complicated than they really are, trust me!

The verdict from my family after tasting this dessert was mixed – those of us enjoying green tea loved it, those who rarely have tea (my brother more precisely) said the matcha tastes like a herb.. doh! The good news though is that any of the fillings used can be replaced with something else so you can customize it as much as you like – how about a chocolate mousse and a raspberry cream or vanilla pastry cream and lemon curd?! The possibilities are endless and so is the decoration – melted chocolate, sprinkles, fondant, buttercream, edible flowers and the list can go on. What should always be there though is the buttercream decoration – without it, a Religieuse can hardly wear its name!

The choux pastry recipe comes from an amazing blog written by a pastry chef like myself which you can check here: Pastry Department – wonderful blog with great recipes!

Matcha Chocolate Religieuse

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Ingredients

Craquelin:

60 g butter (softened)
70 g powdered sugar
70 g all-purpose white flour
10 g cocoa powder (Dutch processed)
1 pinch salt

Chocolate choux pastry:

15 g cocoa powder
140 g all-purpose white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
180 ml water
120 ml milk
120 g butter (cubed)
30 g sugar
4-5 eggs

Vanilla chocolate ganache:

200 g dark chocolate (62% cocoa, chopped)
200 ml heavy cream
1 vanilla bean (split lengthwise)
30 g butter

Jasmine infused matcha ganache:

200 g white chocolate (chopped)
150 g heavy cream
1 tablespoon jasmine buds
1 teaspoon matcha powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Matcha buttercream:

80 g butter (softened)
80 g powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon matcha powder
In addition to this (you will also need 100g dark chocolate to decorate)

Instructions

Craquelin:

Mix the butter with powdered sugar until creamy and fluffy.
Stir in the rest of the ingredients and transfer the dough on a baking paper.
Cover with another baking paper and roll the craquelin dough into a thin sheet – about 2-3mm thickness.
Place the dough in the freezer until the dough is ready.

Chocolate choux pastry:

Sift the cocoa powder, flour and salt in a bowl.
Combine the water, milk, butter and sugar in a heavy saucepan. Place over medium flame and bring to a boil.
When the mix is boiling and it’s foamed up, add the flour, all at once and begin mixing with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth and gathers into a ball.
Remove from heat and allow it to cool for 15 minutes.
In the meantime, turn your oven on and set it to 400F – 200C.
When the dough has cooled down slightly, begin adding the eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition. I used 4 eggs only, but they were large so you might need to use 5. The dough should be stiff, but fall off your spoon if held up – adding eggs one by one allows you to control the consistency better.
Spoon the dough into a pastry bag and pipe small dollops of dough on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
To make the religieuses you should be piping large choux pastries and smaller ones as well, but this dough is fitted for making eclairs or profiteroles as well.
Once the dough is piped in your baking tray, remove the craquelin from the freezer and cut small rounds of frozen dough. I used a piping nozzle for this task – the rounds should be large enough to cover the dollops of choux pastry dough.
Bake the choux pastries in the oven at 400F for 10 minutes then reduce the heat and bake them another 15 minutes until they are crisp and dried out.
Remove from the oven and let them cool in the pan.

Vanilla chocolate ganache:

Pour the cream in a saucepan and add the vanilla bean. Bring the cream to the boiling point then remove from heat and let it infuse for 10 minutes.
Remove the vanilla bean from the cream and bring the cream back to the boiling point.
Add the chocolate and remove from heat. Mix until the ganache is smooth and creamy then stir in the butter.
Cover the ganache with plastic wrap on its surface and let it cool in the fridge for a few hours.

Jasmine infused matcha ganache:

Bring the cream and jasmine buds to the boiling point. Remove from heat and let them infuse for 10 mintues then drain well and bring the cream back to the boiling point.
Add the matcha powder and vanilla and mix well then stir in the chocolate.
Mix until the ganache is smooth. Cover it with plastic wrap on its surface and let it set in the fridge for a few hours.

Matcha buttercream:

Mix the butter and sugar until creamy and light. Add the matcha powder and mix well.

To assemble the Religieuse:

Spoon the dark chocolate ganache and white chocolate ganache in 2 pastry bag fitted with a small nozzle. Fill the bigger choux pastries with dark chocolate ganache and the smaller ones with matcha white chocolate ganache.
Dip the top of each choux pastry into melted chocolate and stack the smaller ones on top of the bigger ones.
Spoon the buttercream into a pastry bag fitted with a small star nozzle then pipe the buttercream on the sides of the small choux pastry to give it the well-known religieuse design.

Matcha Chocolate Religieuse