GATEAU ST HONOREE- the best dessert ever!

 

When I saw this picture first time by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken from: “City restaurant", Los Angeles, CA, I thought this is the most delicious cake and I have to make it!

St. Honoré Cake is a cake named for the French patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, Saint Honoré or Honoratus (d. 600 AD), bishop of Amiens.

This cake is built upon the following pastry items:

Puff pastry,

Pate a Choux (Cream Puffs),

Saint Honore Cream,

Caramel and whipped cream.

In this picture, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken replaced the traditional "Saint Honore Cream" (crème pâtissière with stiffly beaten egg whites folded into it) with a wonderful dark Chocolate Cream.

They finished this cake with whipped cream (two colors).

 

1. You should buy 30 cream puffs;  there are ready-made from Bruxelle, very good cream puffs.

2.  PUFF PASTRY SHEETS This is a dough for experts and it is very good to buy 
           a box from the grocery store: you need one sheet only, for the base.

 Roll the puff pastry out to 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick, 12-inch square (30 cm). Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate covered for at least 20 minutes.

Bake the puff pastry at 400F (205C) until the sheet has puffed, about 30 minutes.

3. Caramel sauce: 

          8 oz sugar (240 gr):

1 cup sugar, 3 tbs water, few drops of lemon juice.

Cook until golden brown. Immediately remove from heat.

Using a fork, half dip each cream puff  TWICE  and arrange them along the edge of cooled puff pastry to form a wall.

4. CITY CHOCOLATE CREAM  (City restaurant, Los Angeles, CA; Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken)

Use the CITY CHOCOLATE CREAM to fill up the space in-between the cream puffs and  puff pastry base (recipe follows)
     

INGREDIENTS:

brandy 1 ½ tbs

golden raisin 1 ½ oz

semisweet chocolate 9oz

unsalted ROOM TEMP butter 7 oz (14 tablespoons)

eggs (separated) :5

 ATTENTION!! Use butter at room temp, not cold, the cream will separate into butter and water!                          

a.      Combine the brandy and the raisin in a small dish and microwave for one minute. Reserve aside.

 b. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt with butter over Bain Marie. Remove from heat and mix with raisin and brandy.

c. Whisk in the yolks, until combine.

d. Whisk the egg white until soft peak forms. Gently fold the whites into the chocolate mixer in two stages.

                Pour over the cake, as liquid as it is, will be hard consistency, later.            

5. WHIPPED CREAM 

Whip one cup of heavy cream and teaspoon of sugar to stiff peaks. 

    Place the whipped cream in a pastry bag fitted with a #5 (10mm) star tip.
    Pipe a border of whipped cream around and all over  the top of the cake.    


 

To arrange the cake:

1. Bake the puff pastry sheet, at 400F, for about 20-25 minutes, until is puffed and brown.

2. Make sugar caramel (see above, recipe) and dip the puff pastry in, and arrange nicely around, to make as a  wall.

. 

3. Make the Chocolate Cream (as above) and pour: it is liquid when it's warm, will be solid when cool down. 

4. Poor the cream on top of puff pastry using cream puffs as a wall, not to pour out.

Leave it to cool down for 5-10 minutes.

.

 5. Add wiped cream, any shape you like, using only white or half mixed with a little chocolate powder to make 2 colors, to decorate this great cake.

Bone appetite! 

PROFESSIONAL GATEAUX ST. HONOREE CAKE:

 

Traditional made "Gateau St Honore", by "Konditor Meister " pastry in  Braintree, Massachusetts.

Chocolate cake "Gateau St Honore " by “City restaurant", Los Angeles, CA.