Saint-Honoré Cake

A crisp puff pastry base topped with a ring of amber caramel-glazed cream puffs. The smooth pastry cream is balanced by a firm, airy whipped cream.

• Prep time: 90 min
• Cook time: 45 min
• Difficulty: Hard
• Calories: 636
• Protein: 11 g
• Carbs: 81 g
• Fat: 29 g

Ingredients

• 166.7 g Puff pastry ( rolled out )
• 100 g Wheat flour ( sifted )
• 33.3 g Minimum butter sweet ( diced )
• 83.3 ml Mineral water
• 2.7 piece Egg ( room temperature )
• 166.7 ml Whole milk
• 153.3 g White sugar
• 16.7 g Corn starch
• 0.7 piece Vanilla bean ( split and scraped )
• 133.3 ml Cream ( very cold )
• 0.7 pinch Gray sea salt

Instructions

1. Preparing the pastry base

   Roll out the puff pastry to 3mm thickness. Cut a 22cm disc. Prick the base with a fork to prevent uneven rising. Keep chilled.

2. Choux pastry

   Heat water, butter, and salt. At boiling point, pour in the flour all at once. Dry out the dough over heat until it pulls away from the pan. Off the heat, incorporate eggs one by one. The dough should form a stiff ribbon.

3. Piping and baking

   Pipe a ring of choux pastry on the edge of the puff pastry disc. Pipe 12 small individual puffs next to it. Bake at 180°C. The puffs should be golden, dry, and sound hollow when tapped.

4. Vanilla pastry cream

   Whisk egg yolks with sugar until pale. Add starch. Pour in boiling vanilla-infused milk. Stir and cook until thickened. The cream should coat the spoon densely.

5. Caramel and assembly

   Cook sugar dry until it reaches a light amber caramel. Dip the tops of the small puffs in it. Attach the puffs to the pastry ring using a dot of caramel. Fill the center with pastry cream.

6. Chantilly finish

   Whip the very cold cream with the remaining sugar until firm peaks form. Pipe using a Saint-Honoré tip over the cold pastry cream.

Chef's tips

• Use the caramel immediately so it doesn't harden in the pan.
• Do not open the oven door while the puffs are baking, or they will collapse.
• The pastry cream must be completely cold before adding the whipped cream.

Storage

Best consumed within 4 hours to maintain the crunch of the caramel and pastry. Do not freeze.