Gateau St. Honore: A Dessert All of Its Own

I had often heard about the classic Gateau St. Honore dessert, and finally got the chance to make this complex cake on the last day of my Pastry Techniques class. To give a little history on the French cake, it is named after Saint Honore, who is the patron saint for all bakers and pastry chefs (who ever knew there was a saint just for these special people?).

It is made up of many different components, and can become quite a construction to build. To start, the base is simply a circle of puff pastry dough. The one I made is 8 inches in diameter. Puff pastry is very flaky, and made by a series of folds, layering dough with layers of butter. I then made pate a choux and piped about 20 profiteroles, which are basically like cream puffs. I also piped two rings of pate a choux on my 8 inch puff pastry: one ring near the edge, and a second further in. This gives the pastry more structure. It is then baked, along with the profiteroles.

The next step was to make our caramelized sugar for our profiteroles. Once the profiteroles were cooled after baking, I punched out a hole in the bottom of each one. They were then each dipped upside-down in the caramel and placed on a flat surface to dry, giving a smooth, flat top to each one.

Next, we made the chiboust cream meant to go inside the profiteroles and on the base. Chiboust is made up of three components: pastry cream, Itallian meringue, and gelatin. Once it was made, I filled all the profiteroles. I then took the rest of the chiboust and piped a braided design across the base of the dessert. I also dusted the top with powdered sugar and torched it. Lastly, I took some of the left over caramelized sugar, dipped the bottom of my profiteroles, and attached them around the outside ring of the dessert.

Whew! And that is a classic Gateau St. Honore!
I think I shall go eat a piece of mine right now.....