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puff pastry

Maids of Honour

March 13, 2020 by sblades Leave a Comment

Maids of Honor

This is the second Avid Baker’s Challenge of 2020 and I really learned a lot from making these little pastry cups of goodness. Notice the English spelling of ‘honour’ on these Maids of Honour pastries. That’s because it’s a hoity-toity recipe by Prue Leith from the Great British Bake Off website.

The first thing to learn is making your own curd cheese. Wait – you don’t want to make your own curd cheese? The instructions are quite good and basically you get whole milk and boil it lightly. Then you take it off the stove, add vinegar and salt, and let it sit until it ‘curds up’. Strain it and there you go – curd cheese.

Easy and interesting, but you can also use small curd cottage cheese or cream cheese to save washing pots, strainers, and bowls.

Maids of Honor

The rough puff (made by grating the butter instead of using a slab of butter as in regular puff pastry) is time consuming because of the 3 different roll out, fold, and refrigerate sessions (60 minutes total).

OK, here’s an easy one – the lemon curd. It takes very few ingredients and just a little muscle to whisk it in a pan over boiling water. The end result is an outstanding lemon curd that I could drink with a straw. All of it. I really like the lemon curd.

Besides the lemon curd, there’s a filling made with the homemade curd cheese. The pastry is pre-baked and cooled. Then you put a dollop of lemon curd, pour a little filling in, and bake until set. Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar and you’ve got a special treat.

Maids of Honor

I tried to use a pretty little design stencil for the powdered sugar, but it came out ugh-ugly, so I just sprinkled powdered sugar over them. I think they look quite pretty.

I’m adapting the recipe for these Maids of Honour a little. They need more of that wonderful curd, so the recipe below reflects double what they call for in the original. Trust me – you’ll want to do that.

Don’t let the European weights and measures throw you off – just get out that handy-dandy kitchen scale we’ve been talking about for the last several months.

These Maids of Honour will be great for a fancy little dessert after that special dinner. Crispy layered puff crust, lemon curd and a cheese-cakey (but not as sweet) filling. These are quite the treat and interesting to make!

Maids of Honor

Maids Of Honour

Yield: 12
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 32 minutes
Dough Resting: 1 hour
Total Time: 2 hours 17 minutes

Wonderful little puffy pastry cups filled with lemon curd and homemade cheese curd.

Ingredients

  • Homemade Curd Cheese:
  • 900 ml (30.4 oz) whole milk
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 45 ml (1.5 oz) white wine vinegar
  • Rough Puff Pastry
  • 200 g (7 oz.) flour, plus extra for dusting
  • pinch of salt
  • 35 g (1.23 oz) cold butter, diced
  • 80 g (2.8 oz) butter, frozen
  • Homemade Lemon Curd
  • finely grated zest and juice of 2 medium lemons
  • 100 g (3.5 oz) sugar
  • 50 g (1.7 oz) butter, diced
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • Filling (using the curd cheese from above)
  • 200 g (7 oz) curd cheese
  • finely grated zest of 2 medium lemons
  • 100 g (3.5 oz) sugar
  • 10 g (.35 oz) flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

  1. For the Curd Cheese: Pour the milk into a large pan and add the salt. Stir and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vinegar. Leave pan for 7 minutes without stirring. Put a sieve lined with a damp muslin cloth or cheesecloth (I used a damp paper towel) over a large bowl and pour in the milk/curd mixture. Let it drain for at least 30 minutes, until cool. Pour the remaining curd cheese into a bowl, scraping down the cloth to get all of it. It will be just at 200 gm of cheese.
  2. For the Rough Puff Pastry: mix the flour and salt together in a medium bowl. Rub in the chilled butter (not the frozen butter) until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (ish). Gradually add 6 to 8 tablespoons of water - just enough to form a kneadable dough.
  3. Lightly flour your counter or marble and roll out the dough to a rectangle measure 30x12cm (about 12x4.75") with one of the long sides facing you. Grate half of the frozen butter over two thirds of the dough, starting from the right to left. Fold over the right edge of dough two thirds to the left, then fold the left side up over the first fold, as if you were folding a letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll it again into a similarly-sized rectangle.
  4. Grate the remaining frozen butter over the right two thirds of the dough as in the first instruction, and fold again (two thirds from right to left; one third from left to right, like a letter). Wrap in cling wrap and leave it to rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
  5. Repeat the rolling and folding of the pastry twice more (without any more butter), each time wrapping in the cling wrap and leaving to rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
  6. While the dough is on it's last rest, make the Lemon Curd: Put the zest and juice from one lemon, the sugar, and butter in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water (or a double boiler). Stir constantly, until the butter has melted, then slowly drizzle in the eggs while whisking vigorously. There may be a few white pieces from the egg, but they'll get sieved out. Whisk the mixture constantly for 7-8 minutes, until thickened like custard. Pour the cooked curd through a sieve into a small clean bowl (to remove the zest and bits), then set aside to cool.
  7. Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Lightly flour your surface again and roll out the chilled pastry to about 3 mm. (.12") thick. Make sure you can get 12, 4" circles out of the rolled out dough - if not, it's not thin enough - keep rolling (you'll have scraps after 8 or 9 of the circles are cut - just gently reroll out and finish cutting the circles).
  8. Put the circles into the 12 muffin tin holes, pressing lightly up to the top of the cup. Cover each with a 3" square of parchment paper and put beans in each hole to weight them (so the pastry doesn't puff up too much). Bake for 18-20 minutes, then remove the pan to a rack. Carefully (it's hot) remove the paper and beans and set the muffin tin aside. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F).
  9. For the filling: While the pastry is baking, place the curd cheese, lemon zest, sugar, flour, and eggs into a medium bowl and whisk together (or better yet, use a hand mixer) until smooth.
  10. Place 1 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon curd into the base of each pastry case, then carefully pour the filling into the cases until they are fairly full, but not overflowing the top of the pastry. Bake for 10-13 minutes, until almost set (barely wiggly). Transfer the muffin tin to a wire rack and allow the tarts to cool.
  11. Sift powdered sugar over the top of the completely cooled tarts.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Read the recipe thoroughly, then get all your equipment out and ready to use.

I used apple cider vinegar instead of white wine vinegar and it worked great.

If you don't want to  make cheese curd, you can substitute mashed small curd cottage cheese or softened cream cheese.  I urge you to make the lemon curd from scratch, though.

Be careful when grating the frozen butter - it gets slippery and you don't want to scrape your little fingers.  Chop off a slightly bigger slab than you need so you'll have a little left after grating, and you don't have to grate to the nub.

Do not skip the four rolling and three resting periods.  This is going to laminate your dough like puff pastry should be.  Be gentle with the dough as to not mush the lamination together (or it might be tough after baked).

You'll have a little leftover lemon curd.  You're welcome.

Make sure the cheese curd filling is very smooth before pouring into the muffin cups. It will be fairly thin.

DON'T forget to lower the oven temperature immediately after you finish baking the pastry.  Give it 10 minutes to get back down to 350°.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g
© Prue Leith - Great British Bake Off
Category: Pies/Pastry/Puddings

Filed Under: All Recipes, Pies/Pastry/Puddings Tagged With: Avid Baker's Challenge, cheese curds, fancy dessert, homemade cheese curds, lemon curd, Maids of Honour, puff pastry, rough puff pastry

Chocolate St. Honoré Cake

January 20, 2019 by sblades 15 Comments

Chocoate St Honore Cake

It’s January and The Cake Slice Bakers group is starting a new cake cookbook – “The European Cake Cookbook” by Tatyana Nesteruk. This isn’t a run-of-the-mill everyday cake cookbook. It’s a trip around the world, beginning with Chocolate St. Honoré Cake.

I have to admit that when I think European cakes, I think of dryer cakes with no frosting – maybe with a layer of raspberry jam somewhere on them. That’s certainly not the case with this cake!

Chocoate St Honore Cake

I can see already that the cakes from this book are going to present more of a challenge for my lowly cake baking skills. I chose this Chocolate St. Honoré Cake because it uses puff pastry, which I’ve never used in anything before. Of course, it’s store-bought puff pastry, but still.

Then, on top of the puff pastry, you add a layer of pate a choux. Pate a choux (pateh ah shoe) is easier to make than you would think, so don’t let it scare you away.

After the pastry is baked, it’s layered with luscious whipped cream and from-scratch chocolate custard. Oh wait, let’s make a few profiteroles (mini round eclairs) also filled with chocolate custard and mound them on top the cake.

Chocoate St Honore Cake

What you end up with is a big ole’ French pastry that makes you feel like you’re sitting in an outside cafe eating a little slice of heaven.

Grab a cappuccino, sit back and enjoy. This is an incredible cake.

Chocoate St Honore Cake

Stretch your baking wings and try this fantastic, impressive Chocolate St. Honoré Cake.  Give yourself plenty of time to make this.

Make sure and take note of the ingredient changes I made in the Tips and Stuff section of the recipe below.

Chocoate St Honore Cake

Chocolate St. Honoré Cake

Yield: 8 - 10
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 1 hour
Inactive Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Awesome French pastry "cake" loaded with whipped cream, dreamy chocolate custard, and profiteroles.

Ingredients

  • 2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
  • 1 C water
  • 1/2 C (113 g) unsalted butter
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 C (125 g) all-purpose flour
  • 4 large eggs
  • Chocolate Custard:
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/2 C (67 g) sugar
  • 2 tbsp (18 g) cornstarch
  • 2 tbsp (30 ml) water
  • 1 1/2 C (355 ml) milk
  • 1 tbsp (8 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 C (90 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/4 C (57 g) unsalted butter
  • Chocolate Dip:
  • 1 C (175 g) chocolate melts, melted
  • Cream:
  • 8 oz (227 g) mascarpone cheese, softened
  • 2 tbsp (30 ml) cognac
  • 2 C (473 ml) heavy cream, chilled
  • 1/2 C (100 g) sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Transfer the thawed pastry sheets onto the baking sheets and cut out two 9" circles with a knife.  Refreeze the scraps for future use.  Pierce the puff pastry circles all over with a fork to prevent air pockets and set aside.
  3. To make the pate a choux:  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the water, butter and salt, and stir until the butter is melted and the mixture comes to a simmer.  Add the flour all at once and continue cooking and stirring until a dough ball forms (30 seconds to 1 minute). 
  4. Transfer the dough into a mixing bowl and let cool for about 10-15 minutes until just warm to the touch.  After cooled, add the eggs, one at a time and mix well between additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed.  Transfer the sticky dough into a pastry bag tipped with a large, round tip.
  5. Pipe the dough over the unbaked puff pastry, creating three concentric rings.  With the remaining dough, pipe out 1 to 1 1/2" dollops for the profiteroles.  Wet the tips of your fingers and smooth down the top of the dollops slightly.
  6. Move your oven racks to middle and mid-upper levels if needed.  Bake the layers at 425° for 10 minutes.  Switch the pans to the opposite level, turning the pan front to back as you do. 
  7. Reduce heat to 350° and bake for an additional 35 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.  Remove from oven and use a small filling tip (or chop stick) to punch a little hole in the bottom of each profiterole. Cool completely, approximately 30 minutes. 
  8. For the custard:  In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale.  In a small cup, combine the cornstarch and water to create a smooth slurry and add it to the egg yolk mixture and set aside.  In a medium saucepan, whisk together the milk and flour.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until steaming hot.
  9. Temper the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture by drizzling the milk in very slowly while constantly briskly whisking.  Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens into a custard, 4-6 minutes. 
  10. Remove the custard from the heat, and whisk in the chocolate and butter until smooth.  Pour into a medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap, then cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Once the custard has cooled, transfer it into a pastry bag and fill each profiterole.  Melt the chocolate melts and dip the tops of each profiterole in the chocolate, then place on a rack to set.
  11. In a small bowl, whisk together the softened cheese* and cognac for 1 minute until creamy.  In a mixing bowl, combine the chilled heavy cream and sugar.  Using the whisk attachment, whisk the cream on high speed for 2-3 minutes, until soft peaks form.  Add the cheese and whisk again until creamy and stiff peaks form (45 seconds to 1 minute).  Transfer the whipped cream into a pastry bag tipped with a star tip.
  12. Generously pipe dollops of cream on the outer rim and between the outer and 2nd ring of the layer you'll use as the bottom layer.  Then, fill the center with a generous amount of chocolate custard.  Place the top layer on top of the other and finish off with rings and dollops of whipped cream and the chocolate custard.   Top with profiteroles if desired and drizzle with any leftover melted chocolate.
  13. Store in the refrigerator if you have any leftover.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Changes I made to the ingredients:

I used salted butter.

For the chocolate dip, I used chocolate chips.  After I melted them, I stirred in a couple of tablespoons of the whipped cream to make it a creamy lighter profiterole chocolate dip.

*Instead of mascarpone cheese, I used softened cream cheese.  In place of the cognac, I used 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

If you don't have pastry bags and/or tips, use a zip lock back with the corner snipped.  (Filling the profiteroles, though, works better with a long thin tip.)

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 298Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 143mgSodium: 260mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 12g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© The European Cake Cookbook
Category: Cakes

Filed Under: All Recipes, Cakes Tagged With: cake, chocolate, fancy cakes, pate a choux, puff pastry, St. Honore Cake, The Cake Slice Bakers, The European Cake Cookbook, whipped cream

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Welcome!  I’m Susan and I love finding wonderful new recipes.  I hope you’ll find a few new ones here that you and your family will love. Browse around and stay a while!Save

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