gâteau st. honoré, or the dessert that almost defeated me

sometimes, desserts are both impressive and laughably easy to make. think tiramisu, crème brûlée, or baked alaska: guests are sure to ooh and ah over your creation as you conveniently forget to mention that it was so absurdly simple to throw together that even your pet rock could do it.

this dessert, however, isn't like that.

meet the gâteau st. honoré. it's named after the french patron saint of baking and pastry chefs (i am once again reminded of why i love that country), and an exhausting ordeal to make. one reviewer called it "an extremely complicated dessert not to be attempted by the faint-hearted."

this dessert is commonly used as a graduation test (!) for pastry chef students, since it contains basically every component that you can possibly put into a pastry: pâte feuilletée, pâte à choux, chantilly cream, pastry cream, caramel, and chiboust. if you'd like to show off, you can get even fancier and top it with spun sugar, caramel lace, meringue, chocolate tuiles, poached pears, candied rose petals, orangettes... or you could flavour the chantilly cream with matcha or strawberries, or pipe salted caramel into the cream puffs, or dip them into milk chocolate pastry cream. there really are no limits to the complexity.

the recipe reads like a novel. a russian novel. undaunted, naive little baking dilettante moi got it into my head that it would be fun to attempt this for a dinner party on christmas day. (not unlike how i thought it would be fun to take a class on tolstoy my freshman year)

oooh boy, this was a humbling experience. i've always considered myself decently competent in the kitchen, but this dessert spurred a mini-crisis -- ohmygod i can't actually cook i'm just a poser my camera has butter all over it i hope it still works i'm not qualified to be blogging!!

i was sooo close to giving up halfway through, especially after my second batch of pâte à choux once again turned into liquidy soup, the butter supply was running low, and i had been standing in the kitchen for 1 1/2 hours with little to show. i bow to you, saint honoré, i remember conceding my defeat, pouring a batch of failed batter down the garbage disposal. i, and everything else in the kitchen, was coated in flour and flecks of butter, and i felt like such a foodie failure.

not supposed to look like this. 

but miraculously... it came together. with a lot of improvisation and disregard creative adaptation of the recipe, two sinkfuls of dishes, and 3 hours of my afternoon, the gateau ended up looking pretty decent and tasting pretty phenomenal.

i christmas-ified it with raspberries and pistachios and took it to the party, where everyone was so awed that no one dared to cut into it. only after i butchered it with a steak knife did people dig in :)

recipe & more photos after the jump!

using a rice cooker as a mixing bowl. asian-french fusion?

my profiteroles look like biscuits LOL

but it's okay -- even biscuit-shaped profiteroles taste good after being filled with pastry cream 

Gâteau St. Honoré
Adapted from Food Network

Pastry Base:

12 ounces flour (1 1/2 cups)
6 ounces cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup cold water

Choux Pastry (note: choux = profiteroles = cream puffs):

1 cup water

2 ounces butter (I used Earth Balance)
4 ounces flour, sifted
3 eggs
Pinch of salt

Pastry Cream (for filling profiteroles):

1 pint milk
4 ounces sugar
3 egg yolks
2 ounces sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chantilly cream (for topping the pastry base):

1 1/2 pints heavy whipping cream
5 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Caramel (which I failed at making...added too much water, but you can give it a try):

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

Garnish:

1/2 pint raspberries
1/8 cup crushed pistachios

Pastry Base: Sift flour into a medium bowl. Add butter, sugar, and egg and mix. Add water gradually as needed, until dough comes together. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. (You could also skip this step and use store bought puff pastry... I won't tell anyone :P)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Roll the refrigerated dough into a 10-inch round. Trim the edges with a knife in order to make a clean circle. Place on greased baking sheet. 

Choux Pastry: Bring water and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Add sifted flour to pan, all at once, and beat hard until mixture is smooth and comes away from the sides of the pan. Turn out onto a plate to cool, so the eggs don't cook once added. Once cool, transfer the dough to a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Turn the mixer to medium speed, add eggs, one at a time. Add the salt. (This order is very important!) The dough should have the consistency of thick mayonnaise.

Load the dough into a piping bag without a tip and pipe 4 concentric circles, evenly spaced, on top of the baked puff pastry base. The largest circle should be around the edge of the puff pastry. 

Place a small tip onto the pastry bag. On another greased, floured baking sheet, pipe the remaining dough into small profiteroles. Dampen fingers and press down any pointy tops of the dough. Cover the puff pastry with a sheet of greased parchment paper. Wedge the handle of a wooden spoon into the door of the oven (leaving about a 1/4" gap) to let the steam escape, and bake these cream puffs and the puff pastry with choux circles for 12 minutes on the top rack of the oven until golden brown. Turn off the heat and keep pastry in oven for 10-20 more minutes to dry out the centers.

Pastry Cream: In medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, slowly bring milk and vanilla bean to a boil. Discard the bean. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and egg yolk. Beat in flour until well-combined. Add a little of the boiling milk to the egg mixture and whisk to incorporate. Add this egg mixture into the pot of milk. Bring back to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Flavor with vanilla extract and refrigerate until cool.

Chantilly cream: Whip cream, vanilla, and sugar until stiff peaks form. Place bowl in freezer for at least 20 minutes, until ready to assemble.

Caramel: Heat sugar and water on moderately high heat in a saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. When the caramel has reached a deep amber colour, remove saucepan from the heat and immediately place the bottom of the pan in the bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Use within 5 minutes.

Once the profiteroles are finished baking, dip the bottoms into the caramel (do not get this on yourself, please), then place them on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Once caramel has hardened, place pastry cream into a piping bag with a thin, pointed nozzle. Fill each choux with pastry cream, being careful not to overfill.

To assemble: Start arranging the filled choux in a circle around the edge of the pastry base. Continue in this fashion until all the choux are used. Spoon the chilled chantilly cream over the top of the pastry, spreading it out to the edge.

Garnish with raspberries and pistachios, or whatever else you'd like. Sliced strawberries, spun sugar, caramel deco, powdered sugar, or chocolate shavings would all look nice. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve. Final assembly should be done 3-4 hours at most before serving or the pastry will become soggy.

whew.. done. eat. :)