Cooking class; lesson 3 patisserie

Last night we had a lesson in patisserie from Carle Douglas from Douglas Delights. We had a patisserie lesson before from Rob in the first course,  but there is a big difference… Rob is passionate about cooking and everything else except patisserie I would say, while Carle is a master in making desserts and beautiful cakes (and YES, he makes macarons!!! Finally found them in Amsterdam!) and it is a huge difference being taught by someone who loves doing something… lol.. No offense Rob!

Making of the bottom

The weather outside was absolutely terrible and while the rain was pouring down we all set out to make a Gateau St. Honore, which – when I saw what we were gonna make – was quite a daunting prospect but with the help of Carle we all made a beautiful creation!

We started out by making dough for the bottom of the pie and I have no idea how that is called in English but in Dutch it is called “Harde Wenerdeeg” I will try and find the correct names later on. While that was being chilled we made Choux pastry for making profiteroles, then on to making Creme au beurre mousseline, creme chiboust and Italian meringue… Yes, you read that right; five recipes to make the one pie!! But how gorgeous does this look! I am not sure we would have been able to successfully complete this without the assistance of Carle, but I have learned soooo many things this time! Remember the Daring Bakers where we had to make our own marshmallows? Well, I finally know how to make them plus I also know now what ‘soft ball stage’ is when talking about cooking sugar/making caramel. It makes a huge difference when you have someone showing you how to do that as compaired to just trying it out for yourself. Caramel does not work that way!

For those that want to give this a try, here are all the recipes! The importance here is also the sequence in which you make the recipes below. I will first list all recipes and then at the end explain how you have to make them all and in which sequence…! So make sure to read it all thoroughly before proceeding!

Dough for the bottom (Harde Wenerdeeg)

100 gr. fine sugar

150 gr butter

35 gr egg

2,5 gr salt

grated lemon zest (one small tsp)

300 gr all purpose flour

Mix sugar, butter, egg, salt and lemonzest in a large bowl. Add flour and quickly mix to a dough. Make this into a ball and flatten it out so it chills faster. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Choux pastry

250 gr. water/milk (50/50)

112 gr butter

4 gr sugar

4 gr salt

150 gr flour

5 eggs

Bring water/milk mixture, butter, sugar and salt to a boil. Take of the heat and add all the flour in one go and stir, back on the heat until the dough forms a ball that doesn’t stick to the wall of the pan. Make sure you do not have the dough on to short or it will be tasting too much of flour. You can smell when it’s ready! Take of the heat and add the eggs while stirring and keep stirring until completely incorporated.Put the warm mixture into a piping bag.

Creme au beurre mousseline

250 gr milk

125 gr sugar

2 eggyolks

15 gr custardpowder

15 gr flour

75 gr butter

75 gr butter (yes, that is twice!)

Mix flour, custard and 2 tbsp of the sugar. Mix this with a little bit of the milk into a smooth fluid. Add the egg yolks to this and incorporate well.

Bring the rest of the milk to a boil together with the rest of the sugar. While stirring add the egg-mixture to the boiling milk. For about a minute keep boiling until it becomes a thick custard. Once the custard starts to make ‘plopping’ sounds you know it is done.

Add 75 gr of butter to the hot custard. Cover with a piece of clingfilm (the clingfilm should cover directly the custard, so let it touch the surface!) and leave to cool completely. Once cool add the other 75 gr of butter little by little while mixing with a handmixer or foodprocessor until you have a smooth and airy cream.

Assembling

Creme Chiboust

120 gr milk

25 gr sugar

10 gr custard

2 egg-yolks

1/2 leave of gelatine

15 gr of Grand Marnier or Rum ( we actually put Amaretto in it and that works lovely!!)

140 to 160 gr of Italian Meringue (recipe below)

Using the same procedure as for the “Creme au beurre mousseline” cook from the milk, sugar, custard and eggyolks a thick cream. Add the (soaked) gelatine and the alcohol of your choice. Incorporate completely before adding the Italian Meringue and carefully fold that into the hot cream. Use the cream while still hot in assembling the Gateau!

Italian Meringue

4 eggwhites (120 gr)

180 gr sugar

20 gr glucosesyrup (if you do not have glucosesyrup you can use ‘basterdsuiker’ which has already a coating of glucose around it so it has the same effect. I am not sure of the right translation but I am thinking caster sugar)

Bring the sugar with 60 gr of water to a boil and if you have glucose add it. Without stirring cook until it reaches 120 C or softball stage. While the sugar is boiling mix the eggwhites (preferably in a standmixer) to a foam. While continuing to whip the eggwhites add the hot sugarsyrup and keep mixing until it is completely cooled of. Make sure not to pour the sugar on the beaters but along the edge of the bowl!

And now for the fun part of assembling the Gateau St. Honore!! The qty’s we made were enough for making two small ones of 18 cm in diameter. The only thing that needs to be doubled is the qty of the Creme Chiboust of you want to make filling sufficient for two.

GATEAU ST. HONORE

250 gr of dough for the bottom

Choux pastry of 250 gr water/milk

Mousselinecream of 1/8 milk

Chiboustcreme of 120 gr milk

150 gr sugar

30 gr glucose

Roll the dough out so you can cut out a circle of about 22,5 cm. Around the edge of the circle make a ring of the choux pastry, making sure to stay inside the circle and not outside. On the same baking tray or a separate one depending on your space add about 20 small profiteroles of approx. 3 cm.

Put everything together in an oven at 180 C for about 20 minutes untill golden and done. Leave to cool.

Fill the profiteroles with the Creme au beurre de mousseline. (Filling you can do by making a small hole in the bottom of the profiteroles or by pushing the piping bag through if that works)

Make golden brown caramel with the sugar, 50 gr of water and the glucose and use that to dip the filled profiteroles into. Make sure not to touch the caramel as it is very very hot!! Leave on a baking tray to cool of a bit and then with the rest of the caramel stick the profiteroles on the ring of choux pastry you made.

Once the chiboustcream is done fill the middle of the gateau with that and leave to cool and stiffen in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

As you can probably guess by the number of recipes needed to make this, you need quite a lot of time to do it all. In total our workshop took about 4 hours but a little less will work as well if you’re an experienced baker! (which I am not…) I just had a bit of this for lunch ( ) and it was incredible! The crust was nice and crunchy while the amaretto that we added to the creme chiboust gave it a wonderful flavor. It’s not something I would make easily again as it involves a lot of work, but it’s a lovely cake!! And great practice in all sorts of techniques too!

Related Posts:

• Patisserie lesson 3
• Cooking class, lesson 5; patisserie
• Delightful patisserie lesson 1
• Cooking course lesson 2; chicken and fowl
• Cooking course is back!!

Tagged as: cake, gateau st honore, kookstudio, kookstudio amsterdam, patisserie, pie, workshop