It was pastry week in the Great British Bake Off Bake Along hosted by Little House Big Alaska and those of us participating were given a fun challenge; Puits d’Amours. What you ask? If I had not seen the episode of the show on Netflix I would be off googling right now so I understand. It’s not an easy recipe but it is also not the most complicated dessert I have attempted. That falls to the German Chocolate Bombes I attempted. I write attempted because I started the recipe before I read it through (never do this, it only presents problems) and found I did not have a key piece of equipment. By the time I realized it I was too far along to do anything about it so I improvised.
The Puits d’Amours are more time consuming than difficult if you ask me. You need to make rough puff pasty, choux pastry, a fruit compote, and pastry cream. If you just organize yourself (I can hear my husband laughing because he has seen me in the kitchen) and follow the steps, it is not bad. I had never made a rough puff before - I had only made full puff. I had never made a pastry cream. So I went in to this with baking experience but not experience with all of the components and still made a tasty dessert.
The recipe below is from Laura at Little House Big Alaska. She adapted it from Prue Leith (the new host on The Great British Bake Off.)
Puits d’Amour
Makes 9 with leftover compote and pastry cream
- 1 1/3 cup flour sifted then measure
- pinch salt
- 1/4 pound frozen butter
- 6-7 TBSP cold water
- 2 cups milk
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 3 1/2 TBSP butter
- 2 cups frozen strawberries
- 1/3 cup frozen raspberries sub in more strawberries if needed
- 2 TBSP Sugar
- 1 TBSP lemon juice
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2/3 cup water
- pinch salt
- 7 TBSP flour sifted before measuring
- 2 eggs beaten
-
mix the flour and the salt in a bowl
-
grate the frozen butter directly in the bowl on the flour, stir with a knife
-
add 6 TBSP cold water, keep stirring, if it comes together in a loose dough don’t add more water if it doesn’t add the last TBSP
-
use a floured hand to bring it together in a ball, pat to 5×7 inch square wrap in plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes
-
after 30 minutes roll out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle 5 inches wide 14 inches long
-
visualize the dough being bisected in thirds fold the bottom third over the middle third, fold the top down over that wrap and chill 30 minutes, repeat and wrap and chill again for 30 minutes or until needed (you do THREE roll outs and folds all together)
-
while the rough puff is chilling make your pastry cream, warm 2 cups of milk over medium heat
-
split a vanilla bean, scrape seeds in the milk, and drop it in the milk, or add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-
while the milk is warming mix the sugar, egg yolks and corn starch in a bowl
-
once the milk is almost boiling add some of the hot milk to the egg mix and stir
-
then tip it back in the sauce pan on the stove, cooking and stirring until it’s very thick
-
remove from the heat, stir in butter until it’s melted
-
pass it through a sieve to remove any lumps, cover and chill until ready to use when covering lay plastic wrap right ON the cream to avoid a skin
-
cook strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar together for 10 minutes
-
add raspberries cook another 5-10 minutes ( I used all strawberries)
-
don’t let it get too thick, you just want the berries cooked through and the juice thickened up so it isn’t runny
-
to make the Puits d’Amour, roll out the puff pastry dough to a 14-inch square and cut 9 4 inch circles out, place on parchment lined baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes
-
preheat oven to 425˚
-
make the choux dough by cooking butter salt and water together, once it boils add the flour and cook until it comes together in the center of the pan, remove from heat
-
then add the eggs slowly until they’re incorporated
-
fit a pastry bag with a 1 cm (.39inch) tip, fill with choux dough
-
remove the circles of pastry from the refrigerator
-
pipe a circle of choux dough just inside the edge of the pastry dough
-
brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar or demerara (sugar in the raw) sugar if using
-
bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until puffed, glossy and browned, do NOT open the oven to check on them until 20 minutes have passed or they could fall
-
cool slightly and remove to wire rack to cool completely
-
once cooled divide the compote between the wells of the 9 pastries
-
fit a pastry bag with 1.5 cm tip, fill with pastry cream and pipe over the compote
-
using a torch lightly brown the top of the creme pat, if you don’t have a blow torch you can easily skip this step
How Were the Puits d’Amours?
They were very tasty. I mean what’s not to like? You have flaky puff pasty, airy choux, strawberry compote (or any other fruit you might choose to add to the center, a rich pastry cream and that little bit of char if you have a torch.
We both enjoyed having a celebration dessert like the puits d’amours for the first time. I am sure I will make them again when I have company for dinner. They sure do make an impression.
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Puits d’Amours
A real celebration dessert with a puff pastry bottom, a choux “wall” surrounding a fruit compote topped by pastry cream
- Prep Time: 90 min
- Cook Time: 25 min
- Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
- Yield: 9 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stove Top/Baking
- Cuisine: French
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup flour sifted then measure
- pinch salt
- 1/4 pound frozen butter
- 6-7 TBSP cold water
- 2 cups milk
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 3 1/2 TBSP butter
- 2 cups frozen strawberries
- 1/3 cup frozen raspberries sub in more strawberries if needed
- 2 TBSP Sugar
- 1 TBSP lemon juice
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2/3 cup water
- pinch salt
- 7 TBSP flour sifted before measuring
- 2 eggs beaten
Instructions
-
mix the flour and the salt in a bowl
-
grate the frozen butter directly in the bowl on the flour, stir with a knife
-
add 6 TBSP cold water, keep stirring, if it comes together in a loose dough don’t add more water if it doesn’t add the last TBSP
-
use a floured hand to bring it together in a ball, pat to 5×7 inch square wrap in plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes
-
after 30 minutes roll out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle 5 inches wide 14 inches long
-
visualize the dough being bisected in thirds fold the bottom third over the middle third, fold the top down over that wrap and chill 30 minutes, repeat and wrap and chill again for 30 minutes or until needed
-
while the rough puff is chilling make your pastry cream, warm 2 cups of milk over medium heat
-
split a vanilla bean, scrape seeds in the milk, and drop it in the milk, or add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-
while the milk is warming mix the sugar, egg yolks and corn starch in a bowl
-
once the milk is almost boiling add some of the hot milk to the egg mix and stir
-
then tip it back in the sauce pan on the stove, cooking and stirring until it’s very thick
-
remove from the heat, stir in butter until it’s melted
-
pass it through a sieve to remove any lumps, cover and chill until ready to use when covering lay plastic wrap right ON the cream to avoid a skin
-
cook strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar together for 10 minutes
-
add raspberries cook another 5-10 minutes
-
don’t let it get too thick, you just want the berries cooked through and the juice thickened up so it isn’t runny
-
to make the Puits d’Amour, roll out the puff pastry dough to a 14-inch square and cut 9 4 inch circles out, place on parchment lined baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes
-
preheat oven to 425˚
-
make the choux dough by cooking butter salt and water together, once it boils add the flour and cook until it comes together in the center of the pan, remove from heat
-
then add the eggs slowly until they’re incorporated
-
fit a pastry bag with a 1 cm (.39inch) tip, fill with choux dough
-
remove the circles of pastry from the refrigerator
-
pipe a circle of choux dough just inside the edge of the pastry dough
-
brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar or demerara (sugar in the raw) sugar if using
-
bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until puffed, glossy and browned, do NOT open the oven to check on them until 20 minutes have passed or they could fall
-
cool slightly and remove to wire rack to cool completely
-
once cooled divide the compote between the wells of the 9 pastries
-
fit a pastry bag with 1.5 cm tip, fill with pastry cream and pipe over the compote
-
using a torch lightly brown the top of the creme pat, if you don’t have a blow torch you can easily skip this step
Notes
Not noted in the time amounts below is about 3 hours of down time waiting for dough to chill
Keywords: celebration dessert, puits d'amours, puff pastry, choux, strawberry compote
