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Skriven 2012-05-16 16:33:00 av DAVE DRUM (1:123/140)
Ärende: The Patron Saint of Baker
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by Deena Prichep

Today is the day the French celebrate the Feast of St. Honoré, the patron saint
of bakers and pastry chefs.

And since the French hold their corner bakery right up there with the Catholic
Church, the celebration is not complete without a big bite of the complicated
confection named for the saint in question. More on the cake a little later.

First, the history: Honoré, also known as Honoratus, became bishop of Amiens in
Northern France in the sixth century. Sources disagree over whether he was a
baker, but when he was named bishop, a baker's peel - the flat wooden paddle
used to move loaves to and from a hot oven - was said to have put down roots
and transformed into a fruiting tree, much to the surprise of the incredulous
woman holding it.
 

After his death, processions in his honor reputedly stopped both droughts and
deluges, ensuring good wheat harvests and, consequently, winning him the hearts
of bakers.

Pictures of St. Honoré from church iconography reinforce his boulanger roots.
He's holding his wooden peel, often with a few delicious-looking loaves of
crusty French bread nearby.

But according to historian Steven Laurence Kaplan of Cornell University, who
wrote The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700-1775, for many years St.
Honoré had a rival in the battle for bakers' patron.

Initially, bakers organized around both Honoré and St. Lazare, the latter of
whom had a reputation for defending against leprosy. Bakers of the time, with
their physically demanding profession and rudimentary understanding of disease,
were especially afraid of leprosy, Kaplan tells The Salt.
St. Honoratus or St. Honore, patron saint of bakers
courtesy of Catholic Online

St. Honoratus or St. Honore, patron saint of bakers

Eventually the French bakers' guild settled in favor of Honoré in the 17th
century, subsidizing a chapel that became the central point for the gatherings
of their confraternity, a sort of religious arm of the guild.

Fast-forward to the 19th century, and Parisian bakers began bringing glory to
the saint's name in the best way they knew how - with a fabulous confection.
(Given the historical division between bread bakers and pastry chefs, the
latter probably had little connection to Honoré, making this more a worshipping
of butter and sugar than of a patron saint.)

The St. Honoré cake was developed at the legendary Chiboust pastry shop on
Paris' Saint Honoré Street, which, alas, no longer exists. It started out as a
ring-shaped brioche filled with pastry cream, which Chiboust lightened with an
airy Italian meringue to create a new kind of filling. That fussy filling
became known as crème Chiboust, which is still used by French bakers and even
has its own Facebook page.

According the book, Desserts, by Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, one of
Chiboust's bakers, August Jullien, came up with his own version, replacing the
ring of dough with a ring of little cream puffs.

By the late 19th century, the St. Honoré cake had taken its present form,
incorporating a pastry disk filled with Chiboust cream, topped with a crown of
cream puffs dressed up even further with a crunchy cap of caramelized sugar,
and draped with swags of whipped cream.

The plain version of the cake - simply flavored with vanilla and the
bittersweet notes of burnt sugar - is most common, but you can find fanciful
seasonal variations, showcasing everything from tropical fruits to green tea.

It's a sort of "master class" confection, because it contains all of the
fundamental elements that pastry school students need to conquer in one
package: puff pastry, pâte á choux, pastry cream and caramelized sugar.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

      Title: Pate a Choux - Cream Puffs Dough
 Categories: Five, Pastry
      Yield: 1 recipe

  4 3/4 oz All purpose flour (135 gr)
      1 c  Water (240 ml)
      2 oz Unsalted butter (58 gr)
    1/4 ts Salt (1 gr)
      1 c  Eggs (240 ml)

  Sift the flour and set aside. Heat the water, butter and
  salt to a full rolling boil, so that the fat is not just
  floating on the top but is dispersed throughout the
  liquid. Stir the flour into the liquid with a heavy wooden
  spoon, adding it as fast as it can be absorbed. Avoid
  adding it all at once or it will form clumps. 

  Cook, stirring constantly and breaking up the lumps if
  necessary, by pressing them against the side of the pan
  with the back of the spoon until the mixture comes away
  from the sides of the pan, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer the
  dough to a mixer bowl. 

  Let the paste cool slightly so that the eggs will not cook
  when they are added. You can add and stir the eggs by hand
  but it requires some serious elbow grease.Mix in the eggs,
  one at a time, using the paddle attachment on low or
  medium speed. 

  Do not add all the eggs at once. Check after a few, the
  dough should have the consistency of thick mayonnaise.

  Transfer the dough to a piping bag and use as desired.

  From: Bo Friberg’s books "The Professional Pastry Chef"
  editions 3rd and 4th, and "The Advanced Pastry Chef"

  Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives

MMMMM

... Love thy neighbour as thyself, but choose your neighbourhood. - Louise Beal
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