Croque en Bouche

Courtesy of Bea's of Bloomsbury, which just so happens to be the best teahouse in London. That isn't hyperbole.




Now that the hubbub of the Royal Wedding has died down and they are no longer Kate and Wills but the Duke and Duchess we can reflect on the best part of a wedding - the food, and more precisely, the cake. I think most of the country would agree with William's
choice of chocolate biscuit cake but it seems to me that when it comes to wedding cakes, it's the French who have the right idea. Piles of profiteroles covered in crunchy caramel - winning wedding cake if you ask me. To give it full ceremonial status they must be towered into a large conical shape and decorated with various bits of nougatine, sugared almonds and royal icing, or anything you wish really.



In my first attempt at this 'cake' I had to assemble it in between courses for lunch so didn't quite brave the full stature that would have made it a Piece Montee. Filled with the holy grail of the pastry world (creme patissiere) and decorated with pastel coloured sugared almonds, this is a wedding - and general celebration cake - cake not to be missed! Be warned, those who do not have a sweet tooth, may be better off with Catherine's choice of wedding cake.



For the Choux Pastry:


Makes about 40 profiteroles
100g plain flour
Pinch Salt
150ml water
75g butter
3 eggs, beaten


Sift together the flour and salt into a large bowl. Place the water and butter in a large saucepan with high sides set over a medium-high heat, stirring, until the butter melts. Let the butter melt completely and come to a boil then remove from the heat. Add the flour and salt all in one go and beat very well with a medium spoon.


Reduce the heat and replace the saucepan, stirring for 1 minute until the mixture becomes sticky. Remove from the heat again. Pour about 1/4 of the beaten egg into the pan and beat very well. Add a little more egg and beat well again until the mixture comes back together. Continue to add the egg, beating vigorously all the time, until the mixture has softened, is shiny and had a dropping consistency. You may not need to add all the egg so keep an eye on it as you go.


Take two spoons and with a cup of cold water as well as two lined baking sheets. Wet the spoons and spoon the dough into walnut sized balls, giving enough space for expansion. Wet the spoons every time as the cold water will help create a crunchy shell. Place in a preheated oven at 220C (425F) and cook for about 20-25 minutes until puffed up and golden.


Take the profiteroles out and pierce a hole in the bottom of each profiterole, returning them to the baking sheets and placing them hole-side up. Return to the oven for another five minutes to allow the steam to escape. Allow the profiteroles to cool on a wire rack.


For the Creme Patissiere - make this when the profiteroles go in the oven so the cream if cold when it comes to filling the profiteroles:


7 medium free-range egg yolks
75g/3oz caster sugar
25g/1oz plain flour
4 tsp corn flour
500ml/18fl oz whole milk
1 tsp vanilla paste


In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until they turn a pale blonde colour. Whisk in the flour and cornflour and set aside.


Place the milk and vanilla paste in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for about five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for 30 seconds. Pour the hot milk onto the egg mixture, whisking all the time, then return the mixture to the pan. It is important to pour the hot milk onto the cold eggs before you return the mixture to the pan to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Bring the mixture back to the boil and simmer for one minute, whisking continuously, or until smooth. To check that it is the thickness you require, make sure that it coats the back of a cold spoon evenly. Pour the cream into a clean bowl and cover with cling film but ensure that the plastic is directly touching the cream. Place in the fridge to cool.


To assemble:
When the profiteroles are cool and the pastry cream is chilled, fill a piping bag fitted with a small piping nozzle. Pipe the pastry cream into the profiterole through the hole made by the skewer to release the steam. Make sure you don't over-fill or cause it to crack.


Make the caramel - place 375g caster sugar and 150ml of water in a saucepan, stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Do not stir after this point. Allow the sugar syrup to cook until it starts to develop a caramel colour. You can swirl the pan to even out the caramel colouring. It should be no darker than the colour of whisky when you remove it. Place the pan over a bowl of boiling water. Use tongs to dip the profiteroles into the caramel and assemble. This is when you can dip some sugared almonds as well to stick onto your Croque en Bouche, whether they are individual portions or large golden towers.

Caramel Slice

If Belinda Carlisle sang a song about baked goods this would be the goods. Otherwise known as a Millionaire's Shortbread this is heaven. I'm calling it a caramel slice because this is more about the caramel than the shortbread. It features as prominently as the shortbread does and it's lightly salted flavour makes it a bit different to your usual Millionaire's Shortbread, but different is good. If I want to show someone I like them I will make this for them as it isn't the quickest to make. The components in themselves take little effort to make but having the patience to assemble everything is the real work. I actually found the recipe for the caramel and the shortbread separately in a book called Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan. Published in the US and the UK so I'm not being biased. Each part broken down here:

Shortbread

1 cup/8 ounces/225 g cold unsalted butter, dices, plus extra tsp softened for greasing

1/2 cup / 3 1/2 ounces /100 g caster sugar

2 cups / 8 1/2 ounces / 250 g flour

Pinch of fine sea salt

1/4 tsp fleur de sel (if making a sweetshortbread on its own then you can sprinkle with demerara sugar instead)

Line a 25 cm x 15 cm (ish!) tray with greaseproof paper making sure that it comes all the way to the top of the tin and use the extra teaspoon of butter to lightly butter the tin.

Combine the cold butter and sugar in a bowl and if you have a mixer, using a paddle attachment, mix on low speed for 15 seconds. If all you have is elbow grease (like me) they mix the two together until combined. Add both the flours and a pinch of salt and mic again until the dough comes together (if using the machine this will take about 3 to 5 minutes on low speed).

Form the dough into a ball and, on a floured surface, roll in out about 1 cm thick rectangle. Gently place the dough into the tin and pat it out until lit even fills the tin. Using a fork, prick the dough all over, right through to the tin.

Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour and preheat the oven to 150 C/300 F.

Take the dough from the fridge, and sprinkle with the fleur de sel and place the tin on a baking sheet. Bake until the shortbread is just firm in the center and beginning to colour, about 40 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it cool in the tin. Please note that the shortbread is wonderful on it's own if that's as far as you care to go this time around.

On to the caramel...

Salted Caramel

1 1/4 cups / 9 ounces / 250 g caster sugar

1/2 cup / 4 ounces / 115 g salted butter, diced

1 cup / 250 ml whipping cream

Pinch of salt

Combine the butter and sugar in a deep, heavy saucepan over medium heat. It is easier if you use a silver based pan as that way you can see the caramel turning colour, this is not so easy with a black non-stick pan. Stir to mix and cook, stirring occasionally, until the butter and sugar caramelize, 10 to 15 minutes. The sugar and butter will go through several stages. First it will look like a flour and butter roux, then it will appear curdled and then the butter will leak out of the sugar mixture. Don't worry: it will all come together in the end!

While the caramel is cooking, pour the cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Keep stirring the butter and sugar mixture, watching carefully as it begins to caramelise and remembering that the heat in the pan will continue to cook the caramel once it is removed from the burner. You want a rich, dark caramel colour, but you don't want to burn the mixture. When the caramel reaches the right colour, remove the pan from the heat and slowly and carefully pour in the cream; the mixture will bubble and spit. When the caramel stops bubbling, return it to low heat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the caramel in the cream. Remove the pan from the heat and let the caramel cool in the pan. It may be wise to leave this overnight, if you have the time. Alternatively, let it cool for about 45 minutes then poor it directly onto the shortbread and leave it to set overnight.

When the caramel is set (be warned, it will always be slightly runny rather then a stiff fudge-like consistency you often get with a millionaire's shortbread) you can finish it off with the chocolate topping:

Melt 200g of the finest milk chocolate you can get your hands on - or if you prefer it slightly richer you can up the cocoa - in a bain marie and smother over the caramel. Leave this to set until the chocolate is hard and then here comes the only hard bit of this:

To cut the chocolate squares take a bowl of boiling water and a sharp knife. Gently cut straight lines in a sawing motion rather than just applying pressure as this will cause the chocolate to crack in uneven shards and wont look as pretty. Continue in the same method - you will need to dip you knife in the boiling water from time to time to help it through the chocolate.

Once they are cut into squares lift them out all together using the greaseproof paper as a handle and share with friends. They will like you for it.