Marc Heu’s Vanilla Saint Honoré recipe is the ultimate gauntlet for intrepid bakers

Vanilla Saint Honoré at Marc Heu Patisserie Paris // Photo by Tj Turner

This recipe for Marc Heu’s elaborate, showstopping Vanilla Saint Honoré centerpiece is a masterclass in baking, assembly, and piping that’s complicated enough to make even Paul Hollywood break into a sweat. From an inverted puff pastry to a pate a choux cream puff with a perfect caramel glaze, this recipe is a crucible for intrepid bakers where pastry greatness will be forged.

The Saint Honoré cake recipe dates back to the 19th century and commemorates the patron saint of bakers, confectioners, and pastry chefs, St. Honoratus of Amiens. In honor of National Pastry Day, we present Marc Heu’s Vanilla Saint Honoré recipe.

Be sure to read our Minnesota Spoon profile on Marc Heu, “King of Croissants,” to get yourself inside the mind of a professional pastry chef.

Vanilla Saint Honoré

Recipe by Marc Heu

Prep time: 3–4 days

Assembly Time: 30 mins

Skill Level: Advanced

An additional tool that will help is a “Saint Honoré” Piping Tip

Cream Puffs with Caramel Glaze

Cream puffs // Photo by Tj Turner

These delicious filled and dipped cream puffs are the basic building blocks of the Vanilla Saint Honoré cake.

Ingredients

Pate a Choux Dough (cream puff dough)

100 grams water
100 grams milk
100 grams butter 
4 grams salt
5 grams sugar
120 grams flour
230 grams whole eggs

Vanilla Pastry Cream (filling for cream puffs)

50 grams egg yolk (about 3)
50 grams sugar 
12 grams flour 
16 grams corn starch 
200 grams milk
1 whole vanilla bean 

Caramel Glaze

50 grams water 
200 grams sugar 
40 grams glucose syrup 

Directions for Pastry Cream

Place egg yolks into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, corn starch, and flour. Whisk together completely until mixture turns from yellow to a pale creamy color and is slightly thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.

Place milk in a saucepan. Split vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape the cut side with a knife to extract the paste. Add vanilla paste to the milk. Heat over medium-high, stirring, until milk just barely starts to simmer. Remove from heat. Whisk hot milk into egg mixture, starting with a small splash, then incorporating the rest. Pour mixture back into saucepan.

Place pan over medium-low heat and whisk until mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool. Pass mixture through a fine-mesh strainer. Cover surface with plastic to keep it from discoloring; refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, 2 to 3 hours.

Directions for Pate a Choux Dough

Put water, milk, butter, salt, and sugar into a pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stop the heat, add flour and stir until combined. Cool the mixture by stirring, then add the eggs. Place batter into a piping bag and pipe small circles onto a buttered or parchment-lined tray. The puffs should be about 1 inch wide and half an inch in height. Bake at 325° F for 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Once cooked, take the trays out of the oven and allow the puffs to rest for 20–30 minutes before filling with pastry cream. The key is to poke a hole in the flat part of the puff in order to fill the puffs more easily. Use a pointy piping tip to make the incision. Fill your puffs with the vanilla pastry cream. 

Directions for Caramel

Measure water, sugar, and glucose syrup together in a pot. Heat up your mixture until caramel forms. Immediately transfer into a glass/heat-safe container and allow to cool. Before use, heat up caramel in microwave for 30 seconds then stir. Repeat 3–4 times until the caramel is liquid again.

Take the round end of your puff and dip it into the caramel, making sure all of the extra caramel has dripped off. Repeat for all of your puffs. You can place the puff into a small round silicone mold to get a sleeker, caramelized puff.

Vanilla Saint Honoré Assembly 

Vanilla Saint Honoré topped with a perfect caramel-covered cream puff with 24k gold leaf // Photo by Tj Turner

1. Take your finished inverted puff pastry and pipe the vanilla pastry cream all over the puff pastry, leaving only an inch around the edge of the circle.
2. Take the finished caramelized and filled cream puffs and place it onto the border of the puff pastry where the vanilla pastry cream was not piped
3. Make your vanilla whipped cream before moving forward.
4. Mix all of your ingredients together and mix on high until the cream is whipped and fluffy.
5. Prep your piping bag with a “Saint Honoré Tip” (this part is very important! If you don’t use this tip, it will not look like a flower petal when piped!)
6. Fill a piping bag with the cream and begin to pipe the petal onto the cake.**PRO TIP** You have to start piping from the outside-in, in order to create the illusion of a flower! Place a final puff into the center of the cake.
7. Garnish with vanilla powder and 24K gold leaf to finish off this gorgeous creation.

Congratulations you reached the end of the Vanilla Saint Honoré gauntlet! After taking mental and real-life photos of your finished masterpiece, treat yourself to a slice.

And if your bake turned into an epic fail, don’t fret. Some things are better left to the professionals. Marc Heu Patisserie Paris is open Tuesday–Friday from 7am–12pm and Saturday & Sunday from 9am–2pm.