The Orange Chocolate Praline Twist is a variation of my Chocolatine Classique, but out of respect to the original, all of the elements of making this classic are retained, while other features are added.

I wanted to create a new chocolatine which keeps all the aspects of the chocolatine we all know and love, but set this one apart, as being an innovative luxury version of the original classic, with a homemade crunchy praline orange bar. Colour, aspect, appearance and texture were given a lot of thought to reflect the flavours of orange, chocolate and hazelnut in this innovative chocolatine creation. While innovative by nature, the shape and textures of this chocolatine are true to the original creation. The orange bubble sugar reflects the flavours of the honeycomb internal structure.

A thin sheet of chocolate dough is placed on the laminated dough just before sheeting, and when cut into rectangles, the dough then is cut into five even pieces. The middle three are twisted twice, giving this innovative chocolatine a special twist. Extra crispiness and texture are added from the light dusting of cocoa, icing sugar and orange bubble sugar after baking. My recipe makes 2 dough heads at 700g (adding 200 g butter for lamination of each dough head.) This recipe gives 2 x 12 pieces. I use the same base recipe for both doughs. Special instructions for the chocolate dough are included with the recipe in my book.

Moulds were specially created to enable this chocolatine to keep its shape. External aspects include the three twists of this bicolour dough in the centre and the careful dusting, after baking, of dark Dutch cocoa, icing sugar, homemade candied orange and bubble sugar, mirroring the light internal texture. Finally, a layer of chocolate croissant dough highlights the flavour, colour and lamination aspect of the internal texture.

The innovative chocolatine can cool and is then carefully stencilled, with icing sugar on one side and cocoa on the other. Candied peel is added to the centre along with a touch of orange bubble sugar to give this chocolatine a unique finish and beautiful textures on the palate.

Recipes and more tips are available in my book, The Art of Lamination: Advanced Technical Laminated Pastry Production.