“Be inspired to create masterpieces from your own kitchen”.
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Religieuse Cream PuffsReligieuse is a French cream puff pastry, made of two choux pastry cases.
One larger than the other. Both filled with pastry cream, usually infused with exotic flavors. 
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The name religieuses means “nun” in French, which comes from some idea that these pastries look like a nun’s habit, I guess making them religious. Well, I don't know about them looking like nuns. I associated the nickname with the word 'none', meaning that there won't be 'none' left after a bite out of these.
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The religieuse cafe' is similar to an éclair. They both are pate’ a choux cream puffs. Both filled with pastry cream and both topped with poured fondant. |
All Dressed Up
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The religieuse cafe' is just dressed up a little more, with its fancy touches.
Just like the eclair, these pastries also make a wonderful and beautiful contribution to your dessert table. |
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Religieuse cream puffs are made up from two choux pastry cream puffs. In this recipe, the pastry cream is infused with espresso powder. The fondant is also flavored with espresso powder. This is a very delicious combination, and you don't have to like coffee.
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Although you can do this recipe in a day , can also make the cream puff shells the day before, which will lighten your workload when you assemble the religieuse. Make sure to bake the cream puffs long enough so that they dry out completely. Otherwise they will get soggy as soon as they are filled with cream. |
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A large one on the bottom and a smaller one on top. Both filled with pastry cream |
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They are traditionally iced with a chocolate or coffee flavored fondant, then joined together, and decorated with buttercream. However, you can get as creative with the toppings and fillings, as you want to. I say, stick with the fondant as the topping and get creative with the filling. Fill them with jam, or lemon curd, or another cream.
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Like a buttercream mixed with a Chantilly cream. Fill one cream puff with one flavor, and the other cream puff with a different flavor. Just make sure to be mindful whether flavor profiles are a good match. |
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This recipe will yield 30 religieuses. If you don't want to make that many, you can cut the quantities for the pastry cream and the fondant in half. Make a full recipe of choux pastry but pipe into other shapes with half the other of it. I live in sunny South Florida, and as you can see in the pictures, the fondant did its best to stand up to the heat. It was too beautiful a day to not take pictures outside.
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But let me tell you, there was something special going on, having the fondant melt all over the cream puff like that. Let me tell you. |
Your Mise' En Place'
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TOOLS EQUIPMENT All of these tools will be of great use for you. Most of them, you may already have on hand. |
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What's Next ?
Now that you've got your tools, you are now ready to complete the next three tasks in your mise en' place'.
The pastry cream, the pate' a choux, and the poured fondant.
The pastry cream, the pate' a choux, and the poured fondant.
The pate' a choux, once baked, can be frozen up to three months in advance. So when the mood for a cream puff just pops up in your head, you can have your pastry cream prepared, ready and done.
All within the hour you need for the frozen baked pate' a choux to thaw out. Just pop the pate' a choux in 350° F oven for about 5 -7 minutes, to bring back the 'crisp' of the edges.
All within the hour you need for the frozen baked pate' a choux to thaw out. Just pop the pate' a choux in 350° F oven for about 5 -7 minutes, to bring back the 'crisp' of the edges.
Tips for Preparation
Before getting started, check out these preparation tips
Day 1
What to do on Day 1
What to do on Day 1
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You could make these pastries in one day. While the puffs are baking, make the pastry cream, then make the fondant while the filled cream puffs set in the refrigerator. |
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This project can be broken down into two days. The items you make on Day 1 can be made up to three days in advance. On Day 1 prepare the pastry cream and bake the pate' a choux. |
Here is What You Need to Prepare
Your additional mise en' place for these cream puffs will be the completion of these next three tasks.
The pastry cream, the pate' a choux and the poured fondant. I broke it down into two days.
The items you make on Day 1 can be made up to three days in advance, so there's your head start right there.
The pastry cream, the pate' a choux and the poured fondant. I broke it down into two days.
The items you make on Day 1 can be made up to three days in advance, so there's your head start right there.
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The Espresso Pastry Cream Make the Espresso Pastry Cream. This can stay refrigerated, covered, up to 3 days in advance. The yield on the pastry cream should be enough to fill all 30 cream puffs.
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The Pate' A Choux Make the Choux Paste Keep in mind, when you pipe these, you will be making equal amounts of two different sized cream puffs.
The pate' a choux recipe will yield you just over two dozen cream puffs. Once assembled you will have yourself about one dozen or more religeous pastries. |
Don't forget to preheat the oven to 400° F/200'C°, and make sure your sheet pans are lined with parchment paper. Dab a little of the choux paste into the corner of the sheet pan prior to laying down the parchment. This action will keep the parchment
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The Piping 
I know, they're not staggered rows.
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Fit your pastry bag with a 1/2 inch round tip. Fill the pastry bag with the choux paste, and pipe the batter into 1 3/8 inch-wide by 3/8 inch rounds onto one sheet pan. |
Make about 15 puffs. Try to stagger the rows and leave at least 1/2 inch between each round. These will become your bottom pastries. And your top pastries...
On the second sheet pan, pipe the batter into 1 inch wide by 1 inch high rounds. Make 15.
On the second sheet pan, pipe the batter into 1 inch wide by 1 inch high rounds. Make 15.
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Make a recipe of egg wash, to glaze the top of each puff. Use a pastry brush. Then cross-hatch the top with the tines of a fork, to ensure that the dough rises evenly in the oven. |
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Tip
You may have extra batter, so you can make even more. Or make new shapes. At this point, once piped, you can freeze the raw choux paste, or bake them first and then freeze them. |
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If it helps' draw the circles onto the parchment paper before piping, however make sure you flip the parchment paper over so the pencil marks do not bake onto the pastries.
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The Baking
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It's important that your oven has already been preheated to 400° F/200'C°. This high heat will elevate the necessary steam. To gain a full understanding of what this means please read all about this in Pate' a Choux
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Bake the puffs at 400° F,/200° C for 10 to 15 minutes, until they rise.
Then turn down the oven to 325° F/160° C. and bake until they are golden brown. For the small ones, bake for another 25 minutes. For the large ones, bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.
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Do not interrupt the baking by opening the oven door multiple times, as this 'releasing of heat' might cause the puffs to collapse. If they collapse they will not rise again. At the appropriate time, remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely. These puffs are crispy on the outside, with a nice bite. Their hollow centers are now ready to be filled with espresso pastry cream.
Extra golden brown.
Day 2
Assembly Time |
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Step 1
Prepare your pastry bag with your 'filling tip'. I used Wilton's Filling Tip, the Bismarck 230. Remove pastry cream from the refrigerator and whisk vigorously for a few seconds. |
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Reserve 2 1/2 ounces of the coffee pastry cream, for the mouselline cream, later. You will be using this mouselline to pipe the garnishing onto the pastries. Mouselline is pastry cream enriched with soft butter. Fill pastry bag with the cream. Fill the pastries.
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Press the tip end of the pastry tip into the top of the cream puff.
And lightly squeeze that pastry cream into the cream puff. It doesn't take a lot of cream to fill in the pockets of the cream puff. |
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You don't want any extra filling spilling out. When all the cream puffs are filled, place them in the refrigerator while you prepare the Expresso Fondant Glaze.
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Expresso Fondant Glaze
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If you don't have fondant prepared already, you can find the recipe here. But if you do have fondant on hand, you'll need about 1/2 cup of the fondant and about 1/4 of simple syrup to thin it out. |
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Preparation
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Let's Dip
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Step 2
On with Step 2 and we begin with the larger cream puff. Remove from the refrigerator. Dip the top of each puff into the fondant first, covering the hole. Return the large cream puffs to the refrigerator. Remove the smaller cream puffs. Dip the smaller puffs in the same manner.
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Align the smaller cream puff on top of the larger cream puff. Place them in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to allow the fondant to set. Doing this will make garnishing pain free.
My fondant's consistency is a little thin.
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As you can see, I did not go for pastry perfection here, with the fondant being a little thin. Truth be told, at this point I was ready to get done.
The remedy would be to add more fondant until a thicker consistency is reached. |
The Finishing Touch
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You have a couple of options for the garnishing of these pastries. Buttercream is great if you happen to have any leftovers stashed in the fridge.
For coffee flavored buttercream mix 1 tablespoon of espresso powder with two tablespoon of milk, then stir that into 1 cup vanilla of buttercream. |
For this recipe, I made a mousseline with the the remaining coffee pastry cream and butter.
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Mousseline
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Eat. Serve. Share. The religieuses are now ready to be served. |
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