It’s hard to believe that today marks 9 years since I first embarked on this project and posted my first Ina recipe on this account (Lentil Sausage Soup, if you’re curious).
Each year, to celebrate this Ina-versary, I challenge myself to attempt a recipe that would have seemed unfathomable when I first started. This year, Molly Wilkinson’s Saint-Honoré was the perfect challenge!
This showstopping dessert, named after the patron saint of bakers in France, is more of a marathon than a sprint. It’s definitely made easier by completing some elements in the days leading up to the final assembly.
The base is a disc of homemade puff pastry topped with a swirl of choux pastry, baked until golden brown and flaky. This is crowned with caramel-dipped, vanilla pastry cream-filled cream puffs arranged around the edges. More pastry creams spooned into the center and then finished with chantilly whipped cream.
While it took a while to pull all the elements together, we were rewarded with a creamy, flaky, perfectly sweet dessert!
I did make a classic caramel mistake: I looked away just as it was about to reach the right color. When I returned, it had darkened too much and continued to burn off the heat, so I had to start over.
I also couldn’t find a Saint-Honoré pastry tip and had to create a makeshift one using a ziplock bag so the final decorations weren’t my best work.
This dessert was the perfect way to kick off year nine of the project. I’m shocked that we’re this close to a decade since I first started!
Book: French Pastry Made Simple, page 153
Rating: 5/5
How Easy Is That: Hard
Store-Bought Is Fine: puff pastry
Pricey Ingredients: —
Hard-to-find: —
Recipe not online.
