Another bout of allergy, giving me runny nose, most probably due to the msg content in the can of diced tomatoes and jalepenos sauce I cooked with the fish for dinner.
It is week 7 through the term in Level 1. Another 3 week and I will be doing my final for level 1 in Baking & Pastry Arts with CIAML. How time flies when we enjoy and focus on the present.
I just realised the date as I was writing my journal – 19 August, I quickly called my sister via skype to wish her a Happy Birthday. Singapore time is 13 hours ahead and it is about 2pm in Singapore. She was standing by the roadside waiting for a cab, mum has cooked her “longevity noodles” for her birthday, as well as packed 卤鸡 (chicken in dark soya sauce stew) and curry chicken for her, David & children for their lunch and dinner. I miss these treats!
Thinking through the recipes we have completed in the pastry lab for the last 6 week, I really love 2 desserts in particular. The first one is a simple Lemon Tart with Italian meringue which we did on week 1, the next is of course Saint-Honore Chiboust Cake, which we did on wk 3. I was reminded of St Honore Chiboust Cake again as Chef Sebastien included it as a keyword for our Monday quiz.
In the quiz today – Q4. What are the four main products you need to make a Saint-Honore cake? Puff pastry, choux paste, chiboust cream and caramel, I wrote. A tick for correct answer. I scored 270 points of a total 300, again missing 30 points for 1 wrong answer. I don’t call it a mistake as I pondered hard if financiers are small individual pastries or breads with sliced almonds in the bottom, I didn’t know the answer as I thought of financier as bite sized cakes.
I did some searches on Saint-Honore Chiboust Cake to satisfy my need for information, I rarely have craving for sweets.
I remembered popping a caramel-coated and chiboust-filled choux into my mouth, … Mmmwa, I loved it! The caramel gave it a light crunch, complemented by the cool soothing chiboust cream, alongside the light choux and flaky puff pastry. As a whole, it did not taste sweet, surprisingly. By the end of class, I have popped 3. By the end of lunch, I had eaten a total of 6 choux. It was simply addictive! I was on a sugar high. Be careful, don’t eat too much, or your husband can’t recognise you at the end of the year, warned Chef Sebastien jokingly. Chef Sebastien doesn’t like sweet stuff, and even when he goes for it, he believes it is just for tasting, ie. in small portion.
As Chef of the Day, I got to present what we served to the school during lunch. I presented St Honore Chiboust Cake that day, ”Level 1 Pastry we are serving St-Honore Chiboust Cake. The bottom layer is a puff pastry topped with a layer of choux paste ring, baked and coated with caramel and filled with chiboust cream. It is them lined with small caramel-coated choux, also filled with chiboust cream. The cake is covered with chantilly cream. The caramel crown is optional.” This was the second time I presented. In week 1, I got to present my other favourite – the Lemon Cream Tart. It made presenting to a dining room of about 50 chefs, students and staff so much yummier when I love the desserts!
In Chocolate Epiphany, Chef Francoise Payard shared a chocolate variation of Saint Honore cake. He wrote that the contrast between the textures of the components from puff pastry, to small choux filled with pastry cream and dipped in caramel is unique. He had given the recipe a chocolate twist by using chocolate choux and chocolate pastry cream.
I learnt & am still learning… , Saint Honoré (pronounced o-naw-ray) cake is a traditional French cake named for Saint Honoré, the patron saint of pastry bakers. According to Saint Honoré Boulangerie website, as tradition goes, a young man named Honoré became the Bishop of Amiensin 554. During his service a number of miraculous events occurred, which spared farmers, millers, and bakers from natural disasters. Residents of France connected the miracles with Bishop Honoré and in 1204 a Parisian baker built a chapel to commemorate him. Today, the chapel is no longer standing, but the name, Saint Honoré, is etched in a gate leading to Faubourg and Rue Saint Honoré in the heart of Paris. (Added info: Chef Sebastien shared that St Honore Cake was popular in bakeries in France in 1970s).
I also read that Pastry Chef Chiboust is rumoured to have created it in his Paris shop in 1846. Before the search, I did not know that Chiboust is the name of a pastry chef? The middle of the cake is filled with Chiboust cream using a piping bag and the signature Chiboust/St. Honoré tip? I didn’t know there is a piping tip named after Chiboust or St Honore. The cake is sometimes also referred to as “ball cake”? May 16th was Saint Honore Day, to commemorate the day he passed away more than 1260 years ago…
So awesome! So much history over a cake I enjoyed making and eating in class.
