Mocca-Cream Horns

By: Pete on 08:41:00

I've actually had the cream-horn moulds sitting round for ages, but I've never gotten round to using them, however it was my turn for Bake Club (Rule 1 : Talk about it all the time), so I thought it was time that I cracked them out.

I looked up a couple of recipes as guidelines, and then tweaked and played around with them a bit. I wanted to try a couple of other things as well (flavoured crème patisserie, rather than just vanilla, and also a bit of sugar-work), and I ended up with these.

When I made them they looked pretty good, though overnight in the fridge was not kind to the hazelnut spikes (also, hazelnut spikes will make a right mess of your kitchen, and if I do them again I will plan ahead...something to stick the cocktail sticks into, and paper on the floor to capture the mess they make...)

Mocca-Cream Horns - Recipe

Rough Puff Pastry recipe

I did a batch of my fast rough puff, only using just butter for the fat (so 200g of butter)

Other Ingredients

• 1 egg
• Icing Sugar 
• 100g blanched hazelnuts

1) Roll the pastry out to a rectangle 35cm x 45cm.

2) Cut strips about 2½cm wide, and 45cm long (I have a metal ruler just the right thickness, and used a pizza wheel to do the cutting)

3) Starting at the point of the horn mould, wrap the pastry strip round, half-over-lapping the strip as you go

4) Brush a little water on the end to seal it, then place it on a baking tray, or I used a 12-bun muffin tin

5) Repeat for 12 horn moulds

6) Chill the horns, and pre-heat the oven to 190'C

7) Beat an egg, and lightly brush the horns

8) Sprinkle icing sugar on the horns to very lightly coat them

9) Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes,until the horns are golden. While they are baking, make the cream filling

9a) Also put the hazelnuts in the oven at the time time for 15 minutes, on a baking tray. WE will use these later for assembly

10) Once baked, remove from the oven, carefully remove the moulds, and leave to cool. also remove the hazelnuts and leave to cool

11) Once cool, transfer to the fridge (this helps apply the chocolate)

Coffee Crème Patisserie Ingredients

• 6 egg yolks
• 120g caster sugar
• 500ml full fat milk
• 50g cornflour
• 2tbsp coffee granules

1) Place the coffee in a small bowl with a splash of milk, and mix until smooth

2) Place the rest of the milk in a medium saucepan over a low heat, and bring to just before boiling

3) Place the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a large heatproof bowl

4) Whisk the egg mixture until pale and creamy

5) While whisking, slowly pour the heated milk into the egg mixture.

6) Add the coffee mixture, and mix in.

7) Transfer the custard back to a large, clean saucepan over a medium heat

8) Whisk until it begins to thicken

9) Once it's reached the desired thickness (pipeable), then quickly transfer to a lipped baking tray (I use a swiss roll tin, seems to be the perfect size), level and cover with cling-film

10) Place in the freezer to chill

Hazelnut Spike Ingredients

• 100g caster sugar
• 30ml water
• 12 hazelnuts, on cocktail sticks

1) Place the sugar and water in a small, very clean saucepan

2) Place on a low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved

3) Increase the heat, allowing the mixture to boil

4) After 5-6 minutes it should begin to brown. Watch carefully, and as soon as the mixture is all nut brown remove from the heat (it will go quickly!)

5) Leave to cool for a minute or two to thicken slightly

6) Dip the hazelnuts in one at a time, then place hanging over the edge of a work surface
Notes - this is messy. Consider putting some baking parchment on the floor, and also you want something to anchor the cocktail sticks!

 Assembly

• 200g dark (50%) chocolate

1) Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie

2) Allow to cool and thicken slightly

3) Put the roasted hazelnuts in a food processor, and blitz to coarse pieces

4) Take the chilled pastry horns, and pour 2 tsp of melted chocolate inside, swirling to coat as much of the inside as possible

5) Dip the open end of the horn in the chocolate, tipping off any excess

6) Now dip the open end of the horn in the blitzed hazelnuts, coating the chocolate

7) Repeat for all the horns, then place back in the fridge to set the chocolate (as you chilled the pastry, this should be fairly quick!)

8) Take the crème patisserie out of the fridge, and transfer it to a piping bag with a long bismarck nozzle

9) Once the chocolate has set, fill each horn with the crème patisserie to the rim

10) Place a hazelnut spike into the top of each horn