Saint honoré: the recipe explained step by step with video

Ingredients

For the base:

• 1 puff pastry

For the choux pastry:

• 1 cup of water
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1+1/4 cups flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 egg (to golden)

Chiboust cream:

• 2 cups of milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of cornstarch
• 6 sheets of gelatin
• 5 egg whites
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 fl oz water

Caramel:

• 1 + 1/4 cups of sugar
• 1/4 cup of water
• 2 oz of glucose syrup

Materials

• Thermometer
• Piping bag
• Fine nozzle for filling the choux
• Saint Honoré nozzle for decoration
• Silicone mat

Preparation

• Choux pastry:
  In a saucepan, heat the water with the butter and salt.
  When the butter has melted, add the flour all at once, and mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the saucepan.
• Remove from heat, and add the eggs one by one, mixing each time. Mix vigorously, as the elasticity of the dough forms at this stage.
  
• Using a piping bag, form 18 choux on a baking tray. Glaze the choux with a beaten egg.
  Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F/180°C. Be careful, at the end of baking, do not take them out of the oven directly, they might deflate. Leave the oven door ajar for 10 minutes before removing them.
• Unroll the puff pastry, and make a circle of choux pastry all around, leaving a margin of 0.2 inch/0.5 cm to allow it to develop properly. Then, form a spiral inside with the remaining choux pastry. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F/180°C, following the same cooking instructions as for the choux (step 3).
  
• Chiboust cream:
  First, prepare the pastry cream. Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water. Bring the milk to a boil with the split vanilla pod.
• Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture whitens and becomes creamy. Then add the cornstarch and mix well. Gradually pour the boiling milk over it while mixing well.
  
• Return the cream to medium heat, and mix constantly until it thickens well.
• Pour the thickened cream into a bowl, and add the softened gelatin sheets, and mix well until they are fully incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap "touching", meaning directly against the cream. Set aside.
  
• Next, prepare the Italian meringue. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the mixture boils, insert your thermometer: this syrup should reach 240°F/115°C.
• While the syrup is heating, start beating your egg whites: they should start to foam well. Once the syrup reaches 240°F/115°C, pour it in a thin stream over the egg whites while continuing to beat.
  
• Then, continue beating at high speed. The meringue will be ready when the bowl containing it is no longer warm. This can take about ten minutes.
• In a large bowl, place the warm pastry cream. Add the Italian meringue and mix gently to achieve a homogeneous cream. It should be used quickly so that the gelatin does not set.
  
• Using the tip of a knife, make holes in the base of all the choux. Fill them with Chiboust cream. Refrigerate.
• Caramel:
  Place the sugar, water, and glucose syrup in a saucepan. Put over medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat as soon as the mixture starts to brown.
  
• Place the saucepan in a large bowl filled with hot water (be careful of splashes and burns!). Quickly dip the top of each small choux in the caramel, and place it on a silicone mat, or a baking tray greased with oil, caramelized side down.
• Then reheat the caramel to liquefy it if it has hardened. Be careful, it should just liquefy and not cook further. Gently detach the choux from the tray, and then dip their bases in the caramel.
  
• Immediately place the choux on the edge of the puff pastry/choux base. In a few seconds, the caramel will stick the choux. Continue this way to have a complete ring of choux. Be careful, you should have 1 choux left.
• Fill a piping bag fitted with a Saint Honoré nozzle with the remaining Chiboust cream. Create the well-known pattern starting from the outside towards the inside.
  
• Finally, place the remaining choux in the center of the Saint Honoré. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour for the gelatin to set.
• And there you have it, your Saint Honoré is ready!
  

Observations

Cooking: The choux puffs up thanks to the evaporation of water during cooking. Cracking the oven door at the end of cooking allows humidity to escape slowly. If you take the choux out of the oven directly, they will surely deflate!
Avoid burning your cream: use a whisk instead of a wooden spoon to avoid any accidents.
The meringue: it is better to use egg whites at room temperature which will whip better. Ideally, separate the whites from the yolks the day before and leave the whites out of the refrigerator in an airtight container until use. For a meringue, unlike whipped cream, it is better to overbeat than underbeat. Arm yourself with patience, because if you do not beat your meringue enough, it will not reach the desired consistency.
Chiboust cream: this is the name of the cream used in Saint Honoré, a mixture of pastry cream and Italian meringue. If the Italian meringue does not combine well with the pastry cream, use a whisk and mix gently.
The caramel: using glucose syrup will stabilize the caramel, allowing it to be crunchy without being hard and brittle.
Storage: maximum 48 hours. Chiboust cream is not very stable and does not hold well over time. The caramel will also melt.

Questions

Photos of members who cooked this recipe

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