Cream Horns – Lemon Posset & Raspberry and Apple Crumble & Custard

So let’s get to it and bake.

Cream Horns – Lemon Posset with Raspberry and Apple Crumble & Custard     Yum
Yield: 16 cones, 8 of each flavour
Difficulty: Moderate – Difficult
Freezable: Sorry, untested
Time: hands on time about 90 minutes; plus chilling time, 30 – 39 minutes total  bake time.

You will need:
2 x Baking Trays
Greaseproof Paper
Cling Film
Rolling Pin
Balloon Whisk
Tin Foil
2 x Piping Bags
Small heavy Based Pan
Medium Heavy Based Pan
Kitchen Timer
21 x ice-cream cones or manufactured metal cones
Pastry Brush
Stick Blender (optional)
Tumbler glasses to stand the horns in
For the Puff Pastry
200g Plain Flour, plus extra for rolling
100g Strong White Bread Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
300g Unsalted Butter, chilled
1 tsp Lemon Juice
140ml – 150ml Cold Water
Butter or Margarine to grease
Milk
Caster Sugar for sprinkling
For the Lemon Posset with Raspberry Filling
300ml Double Cream
75g Caster Sugar
2 Lemons (zest of 1, juice of 2)
8 Fresh (or frozen, defrosted) Raspberries
Freeze Dried Raspberry Pieces
For the Apple Crumble & Custard Filling
Apple Compote
1 Bramley Apple
1 Small eating apple, eg Coxs
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 dessert spoon Caster Sugar
Splash of Water
Crumble
20g SR Flour
10g Butter, chilled and diced
10g Golden Caster Sugar
Crème Patissiere
180ml Milk (not skimmed)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 egg yolks
32g Caster Sugar
1 tbsp. Corn Flour

How to make them:
1.  Make the lemon posset.  Place the cream and sugar into a medium heavy based pan.  Place over a low heat to allow the sugar to slowly dissolve.  Increase the heat slightly and set the kitchen timer to 3 minutes.  Once the cream comes to the boil reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. After the 3 minutes add the lemon zest and half of the juice.  Beat with a wooden spoon until well combined and smooth.  Taste and add more lemon juice as necessary, beat again. Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool.  Once cold cover and place into the fridge for at least 2 hours or even over night.

2.  Make the puff pastry dough.  Place the flours and salt into a bowl and combine with you hand.  Add 50g of the cold butter and cut into small cubes.  Rub between your fingers to make breadcrumbs.  Slowly add the cold water and using a pallet knife, or similar, cut through the mixture until it makes a dough.  Tip onto a lightly floured work surface and bring the dough together into a ball and flatten into a disc.  Avoid over handling the dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

3. Prepare the butter layer.  Place the remaining cold butter between two sheets of greaseproof paper.  Using a rolling pin pound the butter to flatten it out.  Fold it to make the surface area smaller and pound again.  Repeat until the butter is soft and more pliable, but still cold.  Shape into a square measuring about 12cm.

4.  Encase the butter in the dough.  Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it and place it onto a lightly floured work surface.  Roll the dough out into a neat oblong measuring about 15cm x 38cm.  Place the butter into the centre of the dough.  Cover the butter with the dough. With your fingers (or the side of a knife if your hands are naturally warm) seal the sides of the dough parcel so that the butter is well encased.  Turn the dough over so that the seam is now on the underside and sprinkle some more flour on the work surface.

5.  Fold and ‘Turn’ the dough.  Roll the pastry into a long neat oblong about 40cm long.  Lift the pastry edge furthest from you and lay it at the centre point.  Lift the pastry edge nearest to you and also lay at the centre point.  The two pastry edges will now be butted.   Fold the pastry in half along this line.  Turn the dough 90 degree to the right.   This is one turn.  Roll the pastry into an oblong and repeat another turn.  Place two thumb marks on the side of the pastry to remind yourself it’s had two turns.  Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

6.  Perform two more turns.  Remove the pastry from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured work surface in the correct orientation (ie/ the dough’s ‘smiley face’ is to the right hand side).  Roll out into a neat oblong and perform two more turns.  The dough will have had 4 turns now.  Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes (or overnight as I did) until you are ready to make the pastry horns.

7.  Make the crème patissiere.  Pour the milk and vanilla extract into a small heavy based pan and place over a medium heat.  Using a balloon whisk, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and corn flour in a bowl sat on a tea towl.  Once the milk is about to come to the boil slowly pour half of the milk over the egg mixture whisking constantly.  Pour the egg mixture back into the pan and cook over a low heat, stirring thoroughly all of the time until thickened.  Empty the mixture into a bowl.  Cover with cling film so that the film is in contact with the mixture. Set aside to cool.

8. Preheat the oven to 180c / 160 fan / Gas 4.

9.  Make the apple mixture.  Peel, core and dice the two apples.  Place into the pan along with the sugar, cinnamon and a little water.  Set the pan over a medium heat to cook and break down the apples.  Once cooked you may want to puree the mixture with a stick blender (or similar).

10.  Make the crumble mixture.  Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper which is tacked down with margarine or butter in the corners.  Place the flour and chilled butter into a bowl.  Rub together with your thumb and finger tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.  Stir in the sugar.  Tip the mixture onto the prepared baking tray.  Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, forking through the mixture after 8 minutes.  Once baked, tip the crumble into a bowl and set aside to cool.

11.  Prepare the horn moulds.  If you are using the ice-cream cones you may need to trim the cones with a sharp knife to remove the open section which is at a different angle to the body of the cone.  Wrap in foil squares tucking the excess foil in the open end to secure.  Grease the makeshift or manufactured moulds with butter or margarine.

12.  Prepare the baking trays.  Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper, tacked down in each corner with margarine.  Place the trays in the fridge.

13.  Shape the pastry.  Remove the pastry from the fridge and place onto a floured work surface.  Roll out into a neat square measuring about 38-40cm (this will be the length needed for each cone).  Neaten the edges with a sharp knife if necessary.   Cut a strip of pastry about 2.5 – 3cm wide.  Using a pastry brush lightly paint the upper surface with water.  Carefully lift the pastry and with the wet side on the outer side wrap the pastry around the horn in a spiral, overlapping it a little .  Trim off the excess pastry and gently apply pressure to seal to the top edge and the pointed end.  Lay the prepared horn seam side down on the baking tray.   Keep the tray in the fridge.  Repeat with the rest of the pastry, positioning them on the tray with sufficient space for them to expand and puff up.  Chill for at least 30 minutes.

14.  Preheat the oven to 200c / 180 Fan / Gas 6.

15.  Bake.  Gently paint them with a little milk.  Liberally sprinkle with caster sugar.  Place in the oven and bake for 20 – 27 minutes.  You may need to rotate the tray after about 15 minutes.

16.  Cool.  Once baked remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack.  After 5 minutes remove the horn moulds from their centre.  Take your time doing this.  Allow to cool fully.

17.  Assemble the lemon posset with raspberry cream horn, just before they are required.  Stir through the posset mixture and spoon into a piping bag, no nozzle required.  Half fill 8 of the horns with the mixture.  Place a raspberry into the horn (being careful of the juice emitting from the defrosted raspberries).  Fill with some more posset.  Stand in a tumbler to allow the mixture to firm up again.  Scatter with freeze dried raspberries.

18.  Assemble the apple crumble & custard cream horns, just before they are required.  Thoroughly stir the crème patisserie to ensure it is smooth.  Spoon into a piping bag and three quarter fill the pastry horn.  Using a teaspoon add some of the apple compote.  Stand the horns in tumbler glasses as they are assembled.  Scatter with crumble mixture, firming it into the apple a little with your finger.

Enjoy!