Saint-Honore

Ingredients

• 320 g all-butter puff pastry
• 80 ml water
• 80 ml whole milk
• 70 g unsalted butter, diced
• 3 g fine salt
• 3 g caster sugar
• 90 g plain flour
• 3 medium eggs, beaten
• 400 ml whole milk, for the cream
• 1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
• 4 egg yolks
• 80 g caster sugar, for the cream
• 35 g cornflour
• 4 sheets gelatine (8 g), softened in cold water
• 3 egg whites
• 90 g caster sugar, for the meringue
• 40 ml water, for the meringue
• 250 g caster sugar, for the caramel
• 60 ml water, for the caramel
• 200 ml double cream, cold

Before you cook

• Roll the puff pastry to 3 mm and cut out a 22 cm disc, then prick it all over with a fork and chill it on a lined tray.
• Soften the gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water.
• Beat the 3 eggs for the choux together in a jug.
• Fit one piping bag with a 10 mm plain nozzle and a second with a Saint-Honore or large star nozzle.

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 180C fan.
2. Put the 80 ml water, 80 ml milk, 70 g butter, salt and 3 g sugar in a pan and bring to a rolling boil.
3. Add the 90 g flour in one go and beat until the paste forms a single ball that leaves the pan sides.
4. Dry the paste over low heat for two minutes, then transfer it to a bowl and let it cool for five minutes.
5. Beat in the egg a little at a time until the paste falls from the spoon in a thick slow ribbon.
6. Fill the plain nozzle bag and pipe a ring of choux around the edge of the chilled pastry disc, 1 cm in from the rim.
7. Pipe a spiral of choux across the centre of the disc.
8. Pipe about 16 walnut-sized choux buns onto a second lined tray.
9. Bake the base for 35 minutes and the buns for 25 minutes, until both are deep golden and dry.
10. Cool everything completely on a wire rack.
11. Bring the 400 ml milk to a simmer with the split vanilla pod and its seeds.
12. Whisk the 4 yolks with the 80 g sugar and the cornflour until pale.
13. Pour half the hot milk over the yolks while whisking, then return it all to the pan and cook to a thick boil, whisking hard.
14. Squeeze the gelatine dry and whisk it into the hot cream until dissolved, then scrape the cream into a wide bowl.
15. Boil the 90 g sugar with the 40 ml water to 118C.
16. Whisk the 3 egg whites to soft peaks, then pour in the hot syrup in a thin stream and whisk until the meringue is thick, glossy and cool.
17. Fold the meringue into the warm pastry cream in three additions to make the chiboust, then chill for 40 minutes.
18. Put the 250 g caster sugar and 60 ml water in a clean pan and cook, without stirring, to a pale amber caramel.
19. Dip the top of each choux bun into the caramel and set it upside down on baking paper to set into a glassy cap.
20. Dip the base of each bun in caramel and glue it to the choux ring on the pastry disc, spacing them evenly.
21. Whip the 200 ml cold double cream to firm peaks.
22. Fill the caramel-topped buns with chiboust cream through the base using the plain nozzle.
23. Spoon the remaining chiboust into the star nozzle bag and pipe overlapping waves across the centre of the tart.
24. Pipe the whipped cream into the gaps between the buns.
25. Chill for one hour and serve the same day, while the caramel is still crisp.