Gateau St. Honore and Gougeres

Hi my little cheese puffs~ I'm glad to see the blog is picking up traction! Thank you to all who have been following so far, the more the merrier, so do spread the word and have people visit the ol' blog :)

For today we made a very yummy Gateau St. Honore (patron saint of baking and pastry chefs) and then made a savoury cheese puff called a Gougere which we made with Gruyere cheese, a little paprika and a dash of cayenne pepper. Can't. Stop. Eating. Them.

 So yummy. The Gateau St. Honore

 

 First, we piped 2 rings and a puff on top of a brisee pastry base which was docked for even baking

 I scored the rings with a fork after brushing them with egg wash to promote an even rise and prevent cracking of the choux ;)

 

 Next step, pipe and bake little choux :) You will need roughly about 15 profiteroles for this...

Tip: Make a little extra. These are sooo yummy to eat once filled and dipped in caramel.

 

 To fill them, once out of the oven, use a fine piping tip to poke holes in the base of the choux

 and pipe in cream of choice. Either Creme Chantilly (sweetened whipped cream) or Creme Patissiere (pastry cream). Today, we used a Creme Patisserie that has the addition of gelatin to help it set up nicely, and lightened with an Italian meringue.

 

 We dip the choux very carefully in caramel, just enough to coat the tops, too much will break your teeth when you bite into them!

 Voila! Puff with a crunchy hat :) Soooo yummy. Texturally its a wonderful playhouse of all things fun and delicious when popped whole and enjoyed.

 Final step, glue the choux onto the outer ring of the gateau with caramel and pipe the same cream used for the filling of the choux within the centre of the gateau. Traditionally, the cream is piped with a V tip to resemble a shell. I didn't have access to such a tip, so I improvised. Pretty no? Have I mentioned that it was delicious yet?

When you cut into the Gateau, you will find the most interesting design from the rings of choux that are hollow within, contrasted by the extremely light yet silky pastry cream. Lastly, you get to enjoy that little choux with the crunch of caramel. Fun to look at, even more fun to eat. Don't get me wrong, its a pain in the ass to make, but if you have lots of time on your hands, totally go for it.

 With the remaining pate a choux, we then proceeded to make the Gougeres. The dough was mixed with grated Gruyere cheese tossed with some Cayenne and Paprika. More of the cheese mix along with some sea salt was then sprinkled on top once the choux was piped and egg washed.

 Holy cheese balls these were good.

 So addictive.

Crunchy on the outside, once bitten into, the puff collapses and turns into cheesy chewy goodness. Oh my. *fans self*

Speaking about fans, we had a power outage in school yesterday which carried on to today. So we made all these in a very warm kitchen... very warm indeed... esp with all the hot caramel, vigorous whisking of pastry cream over hot stoves plus the stirring of the choux over a hot stove too. Oh yes there are also the 4 very hot ovens preheated to 500 degrees. Man. We needed plenty of hydration to keep going today, but I'm choosing to think of it as a sauna of sorts to burn off the calories from eating the choux so its all good~~~

Tip of the Day!

When working with caramel, wear gloves! The best way to prevent yourself from getting a nasty blister or burn from the caramel is to remove the sugar. Therefore,  gloves will make it easier to remove if you happen to get in contact with the molten sugar.