St. Honoré au chocolat


'St. Honoré' is a French dessert, made with profiterole, filled with pastry cream, or Diplomate cream, or whipped cream, mount on a puff pastry round and decorated with whipped cream. For the love of chocolate and for the approaching St. Valentine, I topped my ginormous individual 'St. Honoré's with chocolate discs and piped chocolate mouse. Honouring the original recipe, I filled the profiteroles with Diplomate cream.

Here is the sequence of my three day work on the desert:

Day 1:

1. Prepare the puff pastry (giving it 4 folds).
2. Make the chocolate discs and chocolate hearts (and other piped decorations).

Day 2:

1. Give the puff pastry 2 more folds.
2. Prepare the biscuits for the profiteroles tops.
3. Prepare and bake the profiteroles. 


Day 3:

1. Make the cream Diplomate.
2. Make the chocolate mouse.
3. Bake the puff pastry round bases.
4. Fill the profiteroles.
5. Assemble the dessert.


I made 30 profiteroles - each one about 5 cm piped. They expanded during baking and reached 6.5 -7 cm. For the 8 St. Honoré cakes, I used 24 profiteroles and baked 8 puff pastry rings.

for the profiteroles:

175 g all purpose flour
30 g sugar
240 g water
120 g butter
2 g salt
250 g eggs


1. Combine the water, butter and salt in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Stir, until the butter melts. Make sure the water doesn't become to a boil.
2. Have the flour sifted. Preheat the oven to 190C convection.
3. Once the butter has melted, increase the heat and bring the water to a simmer. Remove from the heat and stir in all the flour. Stir for about 2 min until the dough is formed. Returned back to the medium heat and stir for a minute or two. 
4. Transfer the dough to a mixer bowl and with a paddle attachment, stir for 30 sec. 
5. Beat the eggs with a fork. Add them to the dough in three additions, stirring well after each one. 
6. Transfer the mixture in a piping bag with a round tip and pipe 30 profiteroles on a lined with parchment paper (or silicon mat) cookie pan. Top with the biscuits.
7. Place the pan in a hot oven and reduce the temperature immediately to 175C. Bake for 25-30 min. Rotate the pan half way through the baking.
8. Reduce the temperature to 160C and bake for another 10 min.
9. Transfer the profiteroles on a wire rack to cool.
10. Refrigerate overnight in a closed container. 
11. Fill them with Diplomat creme the next day and serve the same day.



Comments

Lynn | The Road to Honey said…
What a whimsical little desert sure to impress all that lay eyes on it.
http://www.theroadtohoney.com
3 February 2015 at 20:00
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