Vegan Saint Honoré Dessert
These Saint Honoré cream puff desserts are named after the French patron saint of bakers. This dessert is the perfect combination of silky creams, a crisp shortcrust cookie, and a bit of crunchy caramel.
Ingredients
Pâte Sucrée
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour (96g)
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar (25g)
- ¼ cup vegan butter (56g)
- 1 ½ tbsp Just Egg (22g)
- 1-3 tbsp cold water
Diplomat Cream
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk (235g)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp agar agar powder
- pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp cornstarch (17g)
- ⅓ cup Just Egg (80g)
- ¼ cup sugar (50g)
- 1 cup Silk whipping cream (225g)
30 Small Cream Puffs
Caramel
- 113 grams granulated sugar (or about 1 cup and 2 tbsp)
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 ½ tbsp corn syrup
Whipped Cream
- 1 cup Silk whipping cream (225g)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Start the pâte sucrée (sweet shortcrust pastry).
- Mix the flour and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into pieces and add to the flour and sugar. Using a hand mixer, beat the mixture until it is coarse and the butter pieces are about the size of a pea.
- Add in the Just Egg and mix again to incorporate it. The mixture should still look coarse.
- Add in the cold water a tablespoon at a time and mix with the hand mixer after each tablespoon added. We only needed two tablespoons to get the dough to just start coming together as you can see in the picture.
- Form the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge to cool and rest while making the diplomat cream. The flatter you can make the disc, the easier it will be to roll out later.
Prepare the diplomat cream.
- Do this step first to avoid running around to get it together when the time comes! Place a medium or large sieve over a mixing bowl. No butter! Ignore the butter in the background haha.
- Add the soy milk, vanilla extract, agar agar powder, and pinch of salt to a small sauce pan. Mix to combine and leave on medium heat until it begins to simmer. It will simmer pretty quickly, in a few minutes.
- In a small or medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and Just Egg. Mix with a whisk until evenly combined.
- Once the milk mixture has started to simmer, slowly whisk in half of it into the Just Egg mixture.
- Next, slowly whisk in all of the mixture from the mixing bowl back into the pot with the remaining milk mixture. Whisk continuously on medium heat to cook and thicken the mixture. It should be thick enough to see the streaks of the whisk in it.
- Turn off the heat. Scoop the mixture from the pot into the sieve you prepared earlier. Using a rubber spatula, press it through the sieve to get rid of any lumps in the mix. Don’t forget to scrape the outside bottom of the sieve to get any of the mix that collects there. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool in the fridge until it is not hot anymore, just barely warm.
- Next, to make the whipped cream, pour 1 cup of Silk whipping cream into a mixing bowl.
- Using an electric hand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the cream for about 3 minutes, or until stiff peaks form.
- Get your bowl of pastry cream from the fridge. It's easiest to mix with the whipped cream if it's still just slightly warm, before the agar agar sets. Add the whipped cream to the bowl with the pastry cream.
- Whisk together until incorporated. If you still have lumps in the mix, you can pass it through a sieve again using a rubber spatula to get it through.
- Place the mix into a piping bag and let it cool completely in the fridge.
Finish the pâte sucrée (sweet shortcrust pastry).
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and place it between two pieces of parchment paper to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin and the work surface. We like to slide a silicone mat underneath the bottom parchment paper to keep it from sliding around. Flatten and roll out the dough to 2mm in thickness.
- Cut out six 3-inch circles of the dough while it's still cold and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. If the dough warmed up too much while rolling it out, before you cut the circles, you can pop it in the freezer for one minute and it will quickly become more solid again. The sixth crust is a back-up one, or one for you to taste when they are done baking.
- Place the six crusts in the freezer again for one minute to solidify them again before placing them into the oven. Bake them for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. While they are baking, start making the choux pastry.
Start the cream puffs.
- Follow our recipe for vegan cream puffs up until the cream puffs need to be filled. You will be filling them with the diplomat cream later. You will need 30 cream puffs.
- Make the dough while the pâte sucrée is baking. When you remove the pâte sucrée from the oven, raise the temperature to 400° F. While the oven is preheating, pipe the cream puffs. Then place them into the oven to bake when it has finished preheating.
Make the whipped cream.
- While the cream puffs are baking, beat another 1 cup of Silk whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Place into a piping bag with a star-tipped nozle then put it in the fridge.
Make the caramel.
- Still while the cream puffs are baking: pour the sugar, corn syrup, and water into a small saucepan on medium heat. Stir it briefly to mix it together and then leave it to boil without stirring it. Watch the mixture until the caramel turns an amber color. If using a dark pan, test the color by dipping the tip of a spoon into it. If the caramel goes beyond an amber color it will start to smoke and taste burned. Once ready, turn off the heat immediately.
Finish the cream puffs.
- After the cream puffs have cooled and you have made the holes on the bottom of each one, you can begin dipping them in the caramel. You can keep the caramel workable and liquid by periodically turning the heat back to high again for a minute and then back off.
- Very carefully grab a cream puff by the bottom and dip and rotate the top into the caramel. Then place it upside down into a small sphere mold. You can also use a silicone baking mat-- the tops will be flat instead of rounded this way. Repeat until your molds are filled. TIP: Once you're done dipping all the puffs into the caramel, fill the pot with water and leave it to boil on high heat. The caramel will dissolve into the water and make cleaning up much easier later.
- You can pop the molds into the freezer for one minute to quickly harden the caramel so that you can remove the cream puffs from the mold to make room for the remaining ones. BEFORE removing them from the mold, fill them with the diplomat cream. This way you can avoid touching the caramel tops and getting fingerprint marks all over them.
- Once all the cream puffs are dipped in caramel, set, and filled with diplomat cream, you can begin assembling the final dessert.
Assemble the final desserts.
- Place a circle of diplomat cream into the center of each shortcrust disc.
- Arrange five cream puffs around each shortcrust disc by pushing them slightly into the diplomat cream in the center.
- Grab the bag of whipped cream from the fridge. Pipe a swirl of whipped cream over the diplomat cream center. And then pipe a ring around the outside above the cream puffs.
- Place a sixth cream puff on top of the whipped cream in the center and you're done!
