With Valentine’s Day around the corner why not make the delicious and beautiful Courtesan au Chocolat for your loved one. Better yet, make it together! Never fear single people, loved one doesn’t have to mean your partner. I am sure that your parents, siblings, friends, flatmates, colleagues or anyone would be happy to receive such a beautiful and tasty hand made gift… and I’m sure you’ll have enough leftover supplies to make one for yourself too ;)
How to make a Mendl’s ‘Courtesan au chocolat’ (religieuse/choux/profiterole/cake) as featured in the film The Grand Budapest Hotel
Here is the official video by the people who made the film, 20th Century Fox / Searchlight pictures
Official (secret!) Courtesan au chocolat recipe
Note that I have combined the official recipe with my own comments and photos. Note that this is the first time I have ever made choux or attempted anything of this sort so if I can do it, you can do it too! :)
The ‘Courtesan au chocolat’ is a three-tiered dessert based upon the two-tiered ‘religieuse’ (nun) composed of two choux (cream puffs) filled with cream.
I – The Pastry
Make a choux pastry of flour, water, butter and eggs. Though correct proportions may vary depending on one’s elevation and humidity, we recommend:
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup fresh water
- 1/4 lb (1 stick/225g) butter
- 4 eggs beaten in a bowl
- A pinch of salt
- A larger pinch of sugar
Bring the water, butter, salt and sugar to a boil. Remove from the heat and quickly mix in the sifted flour. Return to heat for a few minutes, stirring and cook until the dough forms a single lump. Note that you do not need an electric mixer to do this (although it would make it easier – use the paddle (‘feuille‘) attachment). Keep stirring quickly until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pot and forms a dough ball. (Pic 1)
Allow to cool just enough to keep the eggs from cooking and stir the eggs in very gradually with a strong wooden spoon. It should end up being a thick, custard-like consistency and appearance and should be able to form a ‘bird’s beak” without dripping back into the bowl. Once you have reached this consistency stop stirring. (Pic 2 & 3)
Put a piping bag into a tall glass and turn the sides of the bag over the top of the glass. Spoon the mixture into the piping bag. (Pic 4)
Pipe the dough into small, medium and large-sized dollops onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper or a baking mat. I used a macaron mat that I bought ages ago. I also had a second larger baking mat but it wouldn’t fit into the oven so I used a tray. Make 3 sizes: Large tablespoon dollop, Teaspoon dollop, Hazelnut size dollop. Smooth the pointed tops over with a wet finger. (Pic 5 & 6)
Bake in the oven at 350ºF (180-200ºC) for about 20-30 minutes. The smaller pastries are best put on a second tray as they will cook more quickly (or ideally, if you have time, bake them in two batches with different oven baking durations). DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN at all during this stage as it will cause the choux to deflate. Bake until puffed up and golden brown (Pic 7 & 8). Remove from the oven (Pic 9 & 10) and discretely make a small piercing in the choux to allow the steam to escape.
II – The Filling
Once cooled, the large and medium choux should be filled with a crème pâtissière of chocolate, egg yolks, and sugar.
- 1 1/2 cups of whole milk
- Several large pieces semi of sweet chocolate
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 spoons cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon flour
- Cornstarch to thicken
Heat the milk gently, and add chocolate, stirring to melt into a rich, almost steaming chocolate milk. Whisk egg yolks, flour, sugar, cocoa and a few spoons of cornstarch into a smooth mixture. Add half of the hot chocolate milk to the bowl, a little at the time, stirring constantly. Then add this mixture back into the rest of the hot milk, stirring over gentle heat for a few minutes until the mixture thickens to a custard. Remove from heat and chill. (I don’t have a pic of this but it was pretty basic. You can also use any recipe you prefer for the filling since it won’t be seen anyway).
Once cooled, spoon the chocolate creme into a pastry bag and pipe into the large and medium pastry balls.(Pic 11)
III – The Decoration
Prepare a glaze of confectioner’s sugar, a dash of vanilla and enough milk to achieve the desired consistency. Separate into 3 small bowls and add food color to each – one lavender, one pale green and one pink. (Pic 12 & 13). Note that you only need the tiniest amount of food colouring. I only used about 1-3 drops in each bowl. If you prefer a deeper colour you can use more. The icing/frosting/glaze should have been more watery than I made mine but I purposely made mine thicker as I don’t like liquidy icing/frosting. However, if you want it to look exactly like in the film you need to add more milk to make it more liquidy.
Dip each pastry in icing (to the midline) and place it on a tray – the large pastry in the lavender, the medium in the pale green and the small in pink. Allow to dry. Decorate the balls with filigree of white chocolate as desired.
(photos steps I-IV: Fox Searchlight)
IV – The Assembly
Place a dollop of icing (preferably a pale blue) atop a large pastry ball. Take a medium size ball and press it gently on the larger so it sticks in place. The butter cream should act as a glue. Repeat with one of the small balls atop the first two. Make a small butter cream “star” on the top and place a single cocoa bean on the star as a garnish. Serve fresh.
V – The Packaging
To finish off, you could pick up a Mendl’s box template from my store here. Just print, cut out, fold and glue and make as many as you need to package up your delicious Mendl’s style treats for your friends and family.
You can also watch my video here where I talk about the boxes and show you how big they are.
VI – Open, and Serve!
(animated image: Fox Searchlight)
You can see more animated gifs at the Buzzfeed post here.
et Voilà! Enjoy! :)
Oh, I happened to make a choux swan too. Next time I need to learn how to make the head smaller but I think it’s not bad for a first attempt :)
