Crispy and buttery puff pastry cannoncini (horns) filled with velvety and rich custard cream
I want to start the new year with the recipe of something special. Something Italian.
Something that I simply LOVE.
Something that is … what’s the right word?!?… DESSERT of course!!
And I don’t mean any random dessert but a crispy and buttery puff pastry shell exploding with rich and sinfully creamy custard.
Here is all I love (and need) in a pastry: lick-your-finger delicious (seriously!), easy to make (I used frozen puff pastry to make things easier), and oh-so pretty.
It goes without saying that I love custard cream. You probably have guessed it by the many recipes with cream on the blog.
Fruit and custard tart, Italian Torta della Nonna (custard filled tart), my strawberry rose tart, cream-filled frittelle, strawberry and cream bars, berry meringue cups … and so many others that I can’t even remember.
What’s not to love about vanilla flavored and dense cream, wrapped in a buttery and crispy pastry?!?
Mouthwatering and comforting, especially on cold winter days.
Yes, even here in Southern California we’ve had, strangely enough, a bit of winter showing this year!
In today’s recipe, I used frozen puff pastry.
And all I did was rolling the pastry out sprinkle with a little sugar (for extra crunchiness), cut in strips and roll around the mold.
You can see in my video, how easy is to make these horns:
Ingredients
+To prepare the custard cream
°3 egg yolks
°3 tablespoons (30 g) all-purpose flour
°1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
°1 teaspoon vanilla extract
°8 ounces (235 ml) of milk
+for the cannon
°1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed (about 8 ounces, 225 grams)
°1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
°1 egg (for egg wash)
°powder sugar for decoration
Methods :
Begin by make custard cream:
Heat the milk until it is hot (not boiling).
In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract, and flour until light and fluffy.
Add a little milk at a time while whisking, making sure there are no lumps.
Place the skillet over medium heat and stir constantly until it comes to a slow boil. The cream will thick, so be careful not to letting it stick to bottom. Lower the flame and let it cook for a few more minutes, until it reaches the desired intensity.
Pour the cream into a glass container, cover with plastic wrap and leave to cool. Refrigerate about at least 1 h.
For pastry horns:
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Sprinkle some sugar on the counter and over the puff pastry and roll it into a rectangle about 9 x 12 inches.
Cut into 12 strips (about 1 inch thick). An easy way to do this: cut the dough into three parts, and then each part into four slices.
Roll each strip onto a horn template (cone shaped). The pastry should overlap (about half the length).
Lay it out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper with the side (the end of the strip) facing down.
Beat 1 egg with a tsp water. Gently brush each piece of pastry with the beaten egg.
Make sure to keep eggs away from mold. This will make it difficult to remove the pastry horn from the mold once it’s baked.
Bake at 400 F (200 C) for 15-20 minutes until golden on top.
Let them cool for a few minutes and then gently remove them from the mold. If the dough sticks to the mold, you can press down on the mold a little (to make the circumference smaller) and gently flip it inside the pastry until it pops.
Before serving, fill with cream using a piping bag. Sprinkling with powder sugar if you like, & Enjoy!