Saint Honoré cake

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 1 Saint Honoré cake, you will need:

• 1 150 g Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)
• 2 30 g icing sugar
• 3 350 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
• 4 350 g Choux pastry (pâte à choux)
• 5 200 g caster sugar
• 6 200 g Chantilly cream
• Total weight: 1,280 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
2 hours 6 min.	45 min.	2 hours 51 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Preheat the oven to 430°F (220°C). Cut a circle of puff pastry 26 cm (10 inches) in diameter and prick all over with a fork or pique-vite (pastry pricker).
2	Cover with cooking parchment, weigh this down with a wire rack (to prevent the pastry swelling up) and bake in the oven. You can also cook it between two baking sheets.
3	Once the pastry is starting to brown and is almost cooked, take it out of the oven and remove both the wire rack and the paper. Sprinkle icing sugar over the top and put it back in the oven...
4	...for a few minutes, until the top caramelizes (if necessary, finish this under the grill). Leave to cool on a wire rack.
5	Prepare 350 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream).
6	Prepare 350 g Choux pastry (pâte à choux) and pipe in small heaps about 1.5 cm (3/4 inch) in diameter using a forcing bag .
7	Flatten the points with a tea spoon dipped in milk to make the puffs nice and round.
8	Once the puffs are cooked, leave them to cool.
9	Prepare a light caramel with 200 g caster sugar.
10	Stand the pan of caramel on a folded cloth.
11	Dip the rounded side of a choux puff into the caramel...
12	And place on a baking sheet (covered with a sheet of cooking parchment), caramel side downwards.
13	Do this with all the puffs then put the caramel to keep hot. Fill the puffs with confectioner's custard, without turning them over.
14	Turn a filled puff the other way up, hold by the top (the set caramel side) and dip the bottom into the liquid caramel...
15	Then stick this around the outside of the pastry circle and hold in place for a few seconds until the caramel sets. Do this with the other puffs until you have completed the ring around the Saint Honoré.
16	You can put a puff in the centre for added artistic effect if you wish.
17	Fill the space with rosettes of whipped cream.
18	You can pipe small rosettes of cream around the outside, between the puffs, as a finishing touch. Refrigerate before serving.

Remarks

This recipe needs a lot of work, so it is a good idea to be organised and to prepare the elements that can wait in advance, as far as possible: puff pastry circle, confectioner's custard and choux puffs (you can even fill these).
Once you keep to the basic principle (puff-pastry base, choux pastry around it and cream filling) you can vary this in many different ways: by changing the cream, for example. Give free rein to your imagination.

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