We made this Chocolate Orange Santa Claus Mousse using the Pavoni Santa Claus silicone mould.  The mousse is wrapped around a delicious sphere of spiced speculoos ganache containing a ball of orange marmalade jelly for a Christmassy Chocolate Orange taste, and has a base of hazelnut crunch.  We've textured our Santa with velvet-effect cocoa butter spray and served on a bed of white chocolate powder made with Abzorbit, and it sits in the bottom half of a chocolate shell made with the Pavoni Fluent Tree mould, the top half of which is a cute Christmas Tree hat which can be lifted off to reveal the dish inside.


Marmalade jelly
  • 50g Candied Orange Zest
  • 200g Fresh Orange Juice
  • 2 Whole Oranges
  • Juice of 2 Lemons
  • 75g Sugar
  • 5 g Pectin NH

Roughly chop the oranges and cook them for about 20 minutes in boiling water.

Strain the oranges from the water and add them to the orange juice.  Blitz and strain the orange mixture.

Mix the sugar with the pectin and add to the orange juice.

Place the mixture into a pan add the lemon juice and bring to a boil.

Allow the mixture to boil for 2 minutes and pour into small dome moulds to set.

Speculoos Ganache
  • 400g Double Cream
  • 6gr Speculoos Spice
  • 4 Leaves Gelatine (soaked)
  • 80g White Chocolate (melted)

Place the cream and spice into a small pan and bring to the boil. Add gelatine mass to the cream and strain on top of chocolate.

Place the mixture over an ice bath to set and the whip to the desired consistency.

Place the ganache into a piping bag. Pipe the mixture into 30mm diameter sphere mould only half filling each cavity.

Place a set marmalade jelly into each cavity and cap off with a little more ganache if necessary.

Freeze until solid, then demould.

Chocolate mousse
  • 400g Milk
  • 8 Egg Yolks
  • 90g Sugar
  • 450g 72% Peru Dark Chocolate (melted)
  • 400g Double Cream (lightly whipped)

Place the milk into a small pan and bring to the boil.

Whisk together the yolks and sugar.

Pour the hot milk over the egg mixture and return to the pan. Cook over a low heat until the mixture reaches 85°C.

Add the mixture to the melted chocolate.

Fold in the whipped cream and place the mousse into a piping bag.

Pipe the mousse into the Santa moulds stopping when each cavity is half full. Place a frozen ganache sphere into each cavity and continue to fill the cavity with the remaining chocolate mousse.

Hazelnut crunch base
  • 185g Caribe 45% Milk Chocolate
  • 235g Paillette Feuilletine
  • 450g Hazelnut Praline Paste 70%

Melt the chocolate and stir in the praline paste and the paillette feuilletine.

Pour the mixture onto a sheet of silicone paper. Place another sheet of silicone paper on top of the mixture and using a rolling pin flatten the mixture to create a flat layer. Chill until set.

Use a 40mm round cutter to cut discs of the crunch base and place a disc on the bottom of the Santa mould, pushing it flat into the chocolate mousse.

Place the filled santa mould into the freezer for at least 12 hours before demoulding.

Demould each Santa and spray with the red velvet effect aerosol.