Cream Horns

Here's something I never knew existed

but it looks like the rest of the world knew about them.

They even make special forms for them.

Cream horns are little puff pastry cones filled 

with fruit preserve and whipped cream.

I don't know if the preserve part is traditional, I just

know that that is the way Maggie made them.

Some day I'll write about Maggie. 

She's the funnest friend I have who I have never met.

I have a whole theory of Facebook as the current

form of Pen Pals.

At least, that's what Maggie is.

But I digress, 

the Cream Horns!

 These are actually my second round of them. 

I learned a few things that really seemed to be more

technique than instruction.

Here they are fresh out of the oven on their little forms.

These are really easy but like I said there is a bit of

finesse you need to acquire so don't give up. 

I'll give you all I figured out thus far:

Roll a sheet of puff pastry to 14 x 8.

I brushed it with an egg wash and then cut into 

1/2 inch by 14 inch strips.

Oil the forms.

One sheet of pastry will make 12 horns, it's best to have 12 forms.

Start at the bottom wrap the pastry around the horn 

(be sure to overlap) , egg wash

side out and then dust with sanding sugar.

(or regular sugar)

Place on parchment lined sheet pan and refrigerate for 30 min.

Hence the need for 12 forms.

Bake 400 degrees 15 minutes.

Allow them to cool slightly but not all the way

and remove tubes. 

A little twist of the form while you gently

hold the pastry seems to help. 

After they are totally cooled you can fill them. 

You really do need to pull out the pastry bag for this.

You want to get a line of preserve all the way to the bottom

but then pull it up to the top and then fill with whip cream.

I tried the old "ziploc bag with a hole in it"

the first time and you just can't get the preserves

to run the entire length. I had a tip 

full of fruit and a top full of whip cream.

Maggie did a beautiful job of dipping the tops of 

some horns in chocolate.

 Mine did not look so great.

Mike and Shanna voted for the drizzle of chocolate over the 

whole thing so as to get chocolate in every bite. 

Maggie's whip cream also looked better. 

There is a trick to getting whip cream stiff enough

so that it will hold the lines from your pastry tip

but not so stiff that it becomes butter. 

As you can see, I haven't figured that tip out yet.

I'll keep you posted....