Gâteau St.Honoré is a French classic. It is a combination of some fundamental basic recipes and its techniques in Pâtisserie, being buttery and flaky Sweet French Pastry Crust (Pâte Sucrée), Choux Pastry (Pâte à choux), rich Vanilla Diplomat Cream (Crème diplomate), Caramel and Whipped Cream (Chantilly).
While most of these recipes are pretty common, Diplomat Cream might need some more explanation. It is pastry cream that whipped cream is folded into and bond with some gelatin.
The modern twist in this version is that it contains less sugar than the original recipe and that the whipped cream that is piped ontop of the Diplomat Cream is sweetened with white chocolate.
Also, the cream puffs are, once dipped into the caramel, placed upside down into a sphere-shaped silicone mold to give them a shiny and rounded finish. Alternatively, you can place them on a silicone mat also upside down. They will also get nice and shiny, just not rounded.
St. Honoré Cream Puff Cakes with Diplomat Cream & Caramel
Servings 6 individual cakes
Equipment
- Digital Scale
- Cookie Cutter Round Ø8cm (or something else with that diameter to cut out the bases)
- Whisk
- Piping bag
- Round piping tip 6mm
- St. Honoré piping tip #25 (optional)
- Silikomart-Semi-sphere, mini (optional)
- Ruler
Ingredients
For the Whipped Cream with White Chocolate
- 33 g white chocolate couverture, 33% cocoa butter (chopped into small pieces)
- 167 g whipping cream
- 5 g vanilla sugar
For the Pâte Sucrée
- 108 g all-purpose flour
- 60 g butter
- 35 g sugar
- 5 g vanilla sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 20 g egg
For the Vanilla Diplomat Cream
- 150 g whipping cream
- 165 g milk, 1.5% fat
- 0.3 pcs vanilla bean
- 34 g egg yolks
- 20 g sugar
- 13 g corn starch
- 3 g gelatin
For the Choux Pastry
- 68 g water
- 1.1 g salt
- 27 g butter (cut into small cubes)
- 40 g all-purpose flour
- 77 g eggs
- additional egg for egg wash
- additional butter for greasing the baking sheet
For the Caramel
- 113 g sugar
- 30 g glucose syrup
- 40 g water
Instructions
Whipped Cream with White Chocolate
- 1. Heat the cream to a boil and add it to the white chocolate in 3 additions.2. Blend.3. Cover and store in the fridge.
Pâte Sucrée
1. Blend flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, butter and salt until it has a sandy texture with little pieces of butter.2. Add the egg and blend just until combined.3. Wrap into plastic foil and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.4. Knead the dough to a pliable consistency, roll out to 2mm of thickness and cut out 8cm circles. Place on a silicone mat and store in the freezer for 30 minutes.6. Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan ventilation).7. Poke some holes into the circles with a fork and bake for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool completely.
Vanilla Diplomat Cream
- 1. Whip up the whipping cream to soft peaks, cover, store in the fridge.2. Soak the gelatin in cold water until soft. Remove water, squeeze off access water and reserve aside.3. In a bowl whisk together egg yolks and sugar, add cornstarch and combine.4. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, remove the vanilla seeds and heat with the milk in a pot. 5. Once boiling, remove the vanilla bean and add the milk to the egg yolk mixture in three additions to slowly temper it.6. Pour the mixture back into the pot and boil it for one minute stirring vigorously.7. Add the gelatin. 8. Pour into a container, cover the surface with plastic film and store in the fridge.
Choux Pastry
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (convection). Grease a non-stick baking tray with butter and remove access of butter with a paper towel so that there is only a very thin layer of butter coating the baking sheet.2. Combine water, salt, and butter in a pot.3. Scale eggs and flour separately and leave aside.4. Gently bring the water to a boil, remove from the heat and add the flour in one addition.It is important to heat the water gently so that not too much of it evaporates before the butter is melted. 5. Stir the mixture with a heat-resistant spatula or wooden spoon until homogenous.6. Transfer the pot back onto the heat and bake until a thin layer of batter sticks to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and stir until the dough is not steaming hot anymore.7. Add the eggs in small amounts until homogenous and shiny.8. Fill the pastry bag with the round 6mm piping tip and pipe at least 48 choux with an approximate diameter of 2.5cm on to the prepared baking sheet.9. Brush a light film of egg onto the choux. Flatten the choux gently with the brush.10. Bake for approximately 25 minutes.Do not open the oven during the baking process before the choux took on some golden colour otherwise they will collapse. To verify whether the choux are baked through, verify whether they are still soft. When the choux are baked through, they are dry on the outside and firm. 
11. Remove from the oven and poke a hole into the bottom, for example with the probe of a thermometer. Let cool completely.
Assembly
1. To finish the Vanilla Diplomat Cream whip up the whipping cream to soft peaks, reserve in the fridge.2. Remove the Diplomat Cream preparation from the fridge, gently heat it a couple of seconds at a time either in the microwave or over a water bath and whisk until smooth.By heating the preparation, the added gelatin will melt and this will help to turn the preparation homogenous while whisking. It is very important not to heat the preparation too much otherwise it will split once the whipped cream is added. Gently fill the choux without forcing the Diplomat Cream too hard. The choux is well filled when it forces itself back out.
Caramel
1. Combine water, sugar and glucose syrup in a small pot. Bring the sugars to a boil on medium heat, cook a caramel.You can stir the sugars once they are melted. It is important to avoid sugar crystals on the sides of the pan from falling back into the liquid which can cause it to crystallize. To verify the color of the caramel, let it run down the spatula in front of a light surface. The caramel is ready when it is of amber color and starts to smoke. If the sugars are not cooked long enough the caramel will be too sweet. If the caramel gets cooked too long it will be bitter. Caramel is very hot. Be careful not to burn yourself! While dipping the choux the caramel will cool down and become thicker. Reheat it gently to a thinner consistency to continue with the rest of the choux. 
4. Remove the choux from the mold once set to place the rest of the choux dipped in caramel.
Finishing
1. Place 7 choux per cake around the ball of Diplomat Cream and gently press them against it to stick.
2. Whip up the Whipped Cream with White Chocolate and pipe with the St. Honoré tip from between the choux to the center.3. Place another choux into the center of the cake. Et voilà! 🙂
Under “Caramel,” Step 1: What does “cook a caramel” mean??? Should it be “cook until caramel-colored? “caramelied”?
Hi, yes, it is described in the box under the instruction how you can best verify the colour. Another indicator that it is ready is that the caramel starts to smoke.