Gâteau St. Honoré

Makes: One 10-inch cake, enough for 8 to 10 servings

Time: About 2½ hours

This is perhaps the ultimate pastry. With a crown of caramel-coated cream puffs atop a puff pastry base and a luxurious center of pastry cream and whipped cream, this classic French “cake” is the culmination of many basic techniques and recipes, and is fun to eat. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and you can spread the prep over the course of days or even weeks to keep it manageable.

For such a celebratory and elaborate dessert, you should feel free to customize the flavors at will. Variations abound, including one elevated with a hidden layer of cream puff pastry and one flavored with chocolate—see the ideas that follow.

1. Heat the oven to 400°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry into an approximately 10-inch square, then trim the corners to make a 10-inch circle; use a plate, pot lid, or cake pan as a stencil if you like, but don’t obsess over the precise measurements. Transfer this to a prepared baking sheet, prick it all over with a fork, and refrigerate while you prepare the cream puffs.

2. Put the cream puff pastry dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip or a zipper bag with a corner snipped off. Pipe it onto the other baking sheet in mounds about 1 inch wide and a little taller than 1 inch, about 2 inches apart; you should have about 18 of them. Moisten your fingertip and gently smooth out any pointy tips on the puffs.

3. Bake the puff pastry base and the cream puffs at the same time until they’re deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes; the cream puffs should be crisp and hollow. Check periodically during baking in case one sheet finishes before the other. Let cool completely on racks. These can also be baked separately; both freeze wonderfully for up to several weeks if wrapped tightly.

4. Use a skewer or chopstick to poke a small hole in the side or bottom of each cream puff. Reserve and refrigerate 1 cup of the pastry cream and put the rest in a pastry bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe some cream into each puff so they’re full but not bursting. Keep the puffs on a parchment-lined baking sheet while you make the caramel.

5. Combine the sugar and ¼ cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; stir just until all the sugar is moistened, then leave it alone until it comes to a boil and becomes light amber (about 340°F on a candy thermometer). Remove from the heat.

6. Using tongs or, if you’re comfortable using them, chopsticks, or working very carefully by hand, dip the top of each puff in the caramel; don’t let any pastry cream seep into the pan, and don’t submerge the puffs too much or they’ll be coated in an impenetrable shell. Set the puffs, caramel side down, on the parchment-lined sheet and let harden.

7. Put the puff pastry base on your serving platter and keep it handy. Set the saucepan with the caramel over high heat for 30 seconds or so, just until the caramel is liquid again. Dip the other side of each cream puff in the caramel (again, try not to let the caramel come too high up the sides of each one), then arrange the puffs along the border of the base, using the hot caramel to cement them in place. If you have a few cream puffs left over, that’s okay—consider them a baker’s treat. At this point, you can proceed immediately or refrigerate the cake for up to 6 hours.

8. Fold together the remaining pastry cream and the whipped cream. Spread the mixture in the center of the cake or use a pastry bag fitted with a star tip to pipe it in a spiral that covers the base. Serve within a few hours and keep refrigerated until shortly before it’s time to eat.

TALLER GÂTEAU ST. HONORÉ Increase the cream puff pastry dough to 1 recipe’s worth. After you pipe 18 puffs, pipe the remaining cream puff dough over the unbaked base, first along the outer edge to form a ring, and then spiraling inward until you’ve used it all. Don’t worry about making it pretty. Proceed with the recipe.

CHOCOLATE GÂTEAU ST. HONORÉ Use Chocolate Cream Puff Pastry and Chocolate Pastry Cream. If you like, drizzle cooled Chocolate Ganache Glaze over the cake before serving.

Assembling Gâteau St. Honoré

STEP 1
Dip the top of each cream puff in the caramel; set them, caramel side down, on a parchment-lined baking sheet for the caramel to harden. Dip the other side of each cream puff in caramel.

STEP 2
Arrange the cream puffs in a ring around the border of the puff pastry base.

STEP 3
Pipe or spread the pastry cream over the base.