St Honours Tart

Updated at: Sat, 05 Oct 2024 07:21:33 GMT

Step 1

Prepare craquelin. Combine butter and sugar and mix well until well combined. Pour in all the flour and mix till it all becomes crumbly and clumps up to form a dough

Step 2

Roll the dough out between two pieces of baking paper till it is very thin, then place in the freezer to harden (15 – 30 min)

Step 3

Remove from the freezer and cut out circles of the dough that are just smaller than the size of the choux pastry (or cut out lines if making eclairs). Place back in the freezer to harden. Use just before placing the choux pastry in the oven by placing on top of the pastry.

Step 4

Prepare choux buns. Preheat oven to 200 °C, sieve flour into bowl or baking paper and leave to the side. Put the water, sugar, butter and salt into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter is melted, then turn up the heat and bring to a boil before removing immediately.

Step 5

Then add flour in one go and beat the mixture with a wooden spoon vigorously until a smooth paste forms, keep beating until it forms a ball and cleanly comes away from the sides of the pan. Put back on heat and beat for another minute before transferring to another bowl/plate and leave to cool for 3-5 minutes.

Step 6

Slowly add in the beaten eggs and beat the mixture until it is smooth and glossy and has a soft dropping consistency (should take around 3 – 4 seconds to drop off the spoon when lifted up) (beat last egg and slowly add it, may not need all of it)

Step 7

Grease and line a baking tray or use silicon mat. Then pipe pastry in small blobs, covering with craquelin

Step 8

Throw 3-4 tablespoons (or 1-2 ice cubes) of water into the oven (on the same level of the pastry) before placing in choux pastry

Step 9

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200 °C, then reduce oven temperature to 175 °C and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown (should be firm to touch and crispy, push the bake, don’t underbake) and then remove from the oven. Leave to cool before filling with vanilla diplomat cream

Step 10

Prepare caramel coating. Heat 200 g of white sugar to a medium dark amber colour is reached. Coat the top of the cooled choux buns in the caramel and leave to harden.

Step 11

Prepare pastry cream/diplomat cream. In a large bowl whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until light, pale and fluffy

Step 12

In a saucepan combine the whole milk and vanilla extract and heat on a low-medium heat until hot and barely simmering

Step 13

Once milk is hot, add it to the egg yolk mixture a ¼ at a time and whisk vigorously to combine

Step 14

Once all the milk is combined with the egg yolk mixture pour it back into the saucepan and place on the heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens and reaches a boil. Once the mixture reaches a boil and becomes really thick, cook for another 15-30 seconds and then take off the heat and pour mixture through a sieve to remove any lumps.

Step 15

Finally add the butter to the mixture and whisk together until combined. Cover the bowl with Clingfilm, making sure it touches the pastry cream to avoid forming a skin and allow it to slowly cool to room temp. Lightly whisk the pastry cream to loosen it, then reserve 80 g for the choux bun diplomat cream filling.

Step 16

Make the diplomat cream by whisking up double cream till thick and formed soft/firm peaks and then folding it into the 80 g of pastry cream in thirds

Step 17

For the salted caramel. Combine glucose and sugar together in a pan and heat until the sugar reaches a boil and becomes yellow in colour. Stir gently and allow to boil till get a medium to dark amber colour and no lumps remain, stir occasionally.

Step 18

Once it hits the desired colour, remove from heat and whisk in the cream. Followed by mixing in the butter and salt using an immersion blender.

Step 19

For the mascarpone chantilly whip. In a bowl, combine the mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla extract.

Step 20

Add bloomed gelatine powder to double cream and gently warm and stir till homogenous. Pour over the other ingredients and immersion blend till smooth.

Step 21

Cover with clingfilm and leave to chill for 6 hours, before whisking to soft peaks formed and using.

Step 22

For the Puff pastry. Roll it/unroll it and cut into the tart tins. Line with pie beads and bake for 20-30 minutes at 200°C till a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool to room temperature. (Can also dust with icing sugar afterwards and bake for a further 2-3 minutes for a deeper colour)

Step 23

To Assemble: Fill the choux buns with the diplomat cream. Add a layer of caramel to the puff pastry tarts and then a layer of pastry cream and level off. Pipe strips of the whipped mascarpone on top of the tart, adding a few of the choux buns on top of the tart aswell. Enjoy!

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