Café Gramercy · Annette’s Recipe Box

Annette's Saint-Honoré

Make the parts separately, then bring them together at the end. Puff pastry, choux, caramel, and cream, each given its own moment.

Makes one · Active 1½ hours

Ingredients: 1 round of puff pastry · choux (see the cream puffs) · pastry cream and softly whipped cream, or crème chantilly · sugar for the caramel

Method

Bake a round of puff pastry, pricked and light, until crisp and golden. This is the base.
Pipe and bake small choux puffs and cool them. Fill them with pastry cream.
Cook sugar to a golden caramel. Dip the top of each puff for a glassy cap, and use a touch of caramel to fix the puffs in a ring around the edge of the pastry base. Work calmly; caramel is hot.
Fill the center with billows of whipped cream, piped high. Each part was simple on its own; together they are a celebration. This is not a one-bowl cake, and that is the pleasure of it.