A Saint-Honoré is a classic of the French Patisserie. It consists of:
A "Pâte Sablée", a crispy golden pastry
Filled choux with praline crème chibouste stuck to the outside of the sablé biscuit with caramel
The centre of the biscuit spread with praliné
A layer of praline crème chibouste over the layer of praliné
A piping of chantilly with the iconic Saint Honoré nozzle
This technical and super delicious dessert is traditionally vanilla-flavoured, so no praline, but as you may know already, I love praline and think it adds so much to a dessert, elevates it. So I had to do a praline Saint-Honoré.
Now, you find Saint-Honoré with a base of not "Pâte Sablée" but puff pastry. Traditionally, it was a "Pâte Sablée" so I went with that, not to mention it's less time consuming to make!
It was Chef Chibouste who invented this iconic dessert in his bakery on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris. That is where the name comes from. Also in the Saint-Honoré, there is traditionally a Chibouste cream, invented by Chef Chibouste, which is where the name comes from.
A Chibouste cream or "crème chibouste" is a crème patissière into which an Italian meringue is folded into. This makes for a very airy and a little mousse-y cream. And of course, the addition of the praliné makes the flavour more intense and delicious.
I made this dessert in a heart shape because it was a dessert I made for the wedding anniversary of my parents, but I also think this makes this dessert a little more original than the traditional basic circle.
Of course, you can make your Saint-Honoré in shape that you like, all you need to do is take a different stencil or if you are very sure of yourself, draw free-hand the shape of your choice.
A few tips that are good to know before starting:
On the photo, my cream is a little grainy because of the heat that day (31°!) so you can learn from my mistake, try to make this dessert on a not too hot day because the chantilly will become grainy.
Leave the caramel on the top of the choux to set in a small semi-sphere silicone mould to get that perfect smooth round caramel dome on your choux. I don't have that mould, so I layed them on parchment paper but to not get that crumpled effect, a Silpat or silicone mat will help you get a smooth top.
Fill the choux with the crème chibouste before you start doing your caramel.
Ingredients
For the pâte sablée:
150 grams plain flour
120 grams butter
salt
70 ml water
For the pâte à choux:
90 g milk
90 g water
80 g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
112 g plain flour
3 eggs
For the praliné:
120 g hazelnuts
100 g almonds
145 g caster sugar
33 ml water
fleur de sel
For the crème chibouste :
2 egg yolks
250 ml milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
20 grams sugar
10 g cornstarch
10 g plain flour
1 sheet of gelatin
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
75 g granulated sugar
25 g water
For the chantilly:
200 ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
For the caramel:
125 g x 2 granulated sugar
50 ml x 2 water
Recipe
For the pâte sablée:
Mix together the butter + flour + salt in a stand-mixer or rub the ingredients together in a bowl with your fingers until the mixture looks like sand but still leaves little blobs of butter.
Then add in the water and mix only until combined and then store in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Roll the pastry out into a small and thick rectangle and fold the pastry in 3 and then turn the pastry 90 degrees (the same process as you would do for a pâte feuilletée) and repeat the process about 5 times, until you have a smooth pastry. Leave in the fridge for at least another 30 minutes.
Roll the pastry out thinly and lay on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Cut out a heart and remove the pastry around to have only the heart left on the baking tray. (You could print out a heart and use it as a )With the remaining pastry, cut out circles to make individual saint-honorés.
Prick with a fork and bake in the oven at 170°C for 15 minutes or until golden on the top. Leave to cool on a baking rack.
For the pâte à choux: Recipe here.
For the praliné: Recipe here.
For the crème chibouste:
First, start off with a crème pâtissière, whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar until light in colour, then sift in the cornstarch + the flour and mix until well combined. Also, place the leaf of gelatin into water to soften it.
Then heat the milk with the vanilla until simmering, then pour half into the egg yolk mixture until combined and then pour the mixture into the saucepan with the remaining half of the milk and whisk continuously over a low heat until you obtain a thick mixture. Add in the softened gelatin, making sure you squeeze all the water out of it.
Place the mixture onto a baking tray lined with cling-film to make sure a skin doesn't form. Leave in the fridge while you make the Italian meringue.
To make the Italian meringue, place the sugar + water in a saucepan over a low heat. Meanwhile, start whisking the egg whites with the cream of tartar.
Once all of the sugar is melted and the egg whites are stiff, pour the sugar syrup in a slow and steady stream over the egg whites and whisk until the mixture cools completely and becomes white and gloss and stiff.
Take back your crème pâtissière and place it in a bowl, whisk it a little to loosen it and then fold in the Italian meringue + half of the praline until combined. Leave your crème chibouste in the fridge until needed.
For the chantilly:
Whisk the cream with the vanilla bean until soft peaks and place in a piping bag fitted with a Saint-Honoré nozzle and place in the fridge until needed.
For the caramel:
Melt the sugar with the water in a saucepan until it goes brown, make sure to not burn it, and to not mix it or touch it, only if needed, taking a wet pastry brush and running it along the sides of the saucepan. Make sure the saucepan is on a low heat and if you have a food thermometer, the temperature should be around 170 degrees.
After you use this batch of caramel for the first batch of choux, repeat the recipe to make a second batch. You do this to not be forced to remelt the caramel because it will harden and be impossible to dip the choux into it. If you were to re-melt the caramel, you would risk burning it at the same time, so to be safe, do 2 batches of caramel.
For the assemble:
Take your choux and make a small cross on their bottom with a knife to help the piping nozzle letting itself inside the choux when it fills them.
Speaking of which, place the crème chibouste into a piping bag and fill the choux.
Next, dip the top of your choux into the caramel and then place face-down onto a silicone sheet, or even better, to get a smooth round dome of caramel on your choux, into a silicone small circle mould. If you have neither, on a piece of parchment paper like I did. By doing this you will get a crumpled effect on the caramel-like shown on the top image. You choose.
Once the caramel on the top is completely hard, make your second caramel and dip the bottom of the choux into the caramel and then stick them onto the sides of the pâte sablée heart.
On the inside of the heart, spread a little praline, no need to use all of it, it freezes perfectly and can be then defrosted and used for tons of things (read the blog post to know more).
Then spread a layer of crème chibouste followed by a piping of chantilly with of course the Saint-Honoré nozzle!
Finish off with a little drizzle of praline and the dessert is finished!
And enjoy this beautiful & delicious dessert, all the different textures and classic flavors!
I really hope you try this recipe or at least try a Saint-Honoré, it really is a dessert to try at least once in your life.
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