Classic cream puffs in a completely new, festive version with chocolate-gingerbread cream and hot cherry sauce. They are perfect as an extraordinary dessert for the holidays.
Ingredients
Hot cherry sauce
- Sugar, 100g
- Cornstarch, 1 teaspoon
- Cherries, 500g
- Mixed spice, 0.5 teaspoon
- Red wine, 100ml
Decoration
- Powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon
- Fresh mint, 1 tablespoon
Chocolate-gingerbread cream
- Sugar, 100g
- Dark chocolate, 100g
- Milk chocolate, 100g
- Espresso, 25ml
- Eggs, 3 pieces
- Ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
- 30% cream, 300ml
Cream puff pastry
- Eggs, 4 pieces
- Butter, 50g
- Wheat flour, 150g
- Cornstarch, 25g
- 3.2% milk, 125ml
- Water, 125ml
Preparation
Place water, milk, and butter in a saucepan, bring to a boil, and stir until the ingredients are combined. Without removing the saucepan from the heat, sift wheat flour and cornstarch through a fine-mesh sieve over the mixture. Vigorously and thoroughly mix the dough with a spatula in the saucepan over the heat until it becomes a smooth mass without lumps. Then set it aside for about 30 minutes to cool.
Using a mixer, beat the dough while gradually adding eggs. Add each egg individually only when the previous one has been thoroughly incorporated into the dough. Mix at medium speed. Carefully observe the consistency of the dough—it should resemble cooked pudding. If the consistency is right after adding 4 eggs, do not add the fifth.
Grease a baking sheet with butter and dust it with flour. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe rosettes onto the baking sheet with a diameter of about 4 cm. Bake the cream puffs for about 25-30 minutes in an oven preheated to 180°C with the convection function on. After baking, set the cream puffs aside to cool.
In a bowl set over a water bath, beat sugar and eggs. While beating, add espresso. When the mixture becomes airy, briefly remove it from the water bath and add ground cinnamon. Then place the bowl back over the water bath and continue beating for a while.
Remove the mixture from the water bath and add broken pieces of milk and dark chocolate. Wait for a moment until the chocolate melts, then mix again until the ingredients are combined. Set the mixture aside to cool. Whip the cream in a tall container (it doesn’t have to be stiff). Gradually add the whipped cream to the cooled chocolate mixture, stirring continuously. Transfer the cream to a clean bowl and refrigerate for about 1-1.5 hours.
Place cherries and sugar in a skillet. Cook for a while over very low heat until everything boils. Then add mixed spice and wait for some of the cherry juice to evaporate. In a small bowl, mix wine with cornstarch. Pour this mixture into the simmering cherries and cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens again. Remove the finished sauce from the heat.
Cut the baked cream puff shells in half lengthwise. Place about 2-3 tablespoons of chocolate-gingerbread cream on the bottom half of each cream puff and cover with the top half. Arrange the finished cream puffs on a plate and sprinkle with a little powdered sugar sifted through a fine-mesh sieve. Garnish with a sprig of mint and serve with the hot cherry sauce on the side.
