Celebration Dessert - Puits d'Amours: A Special Way to End Your Meal

It was pastry week in the Great British Bake Off Bake Along hosted by Little House Big Alaska and those of us participating were given a fun challenge; Puits d’Amours. What you ask? If I had not seen the episode of the show on Netflix I would be off googling right now so I understand. It’s not an easy recipe but it is also not the most complicated dessert I have attempted. That falls to the German Chocolate Bombes I attempted. I write attempted because I started the recipe before I read it through (never do this, it only presents problems) and found I did not have a key piece of equipment. By the time I realized it I was too far along to do anything about it so I improvised.

The Puits d’Amours are more time consuming than difficult if you ask me. You need to make rough puff pasty, choux pastry, a fruit compote, and pastry cream. If you just organize yourself (I can hear my husband laughing because he has seen me in the kitchen) and follow the steps, it is not bad. I had never made a rough puff before – I had only made full puff. I had never made a pastry cream. So I went in to this with baking experience but not experience with all of the components and still made a tasty dessert.

The recipe below is from Laura at Little House Big Alaska. She adapted it from Prue Leith (the new host on The Great British Bake Off.)

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Table of Contents

Puits d’Amour

Makes 9 with leftover compote and pastry cream

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Rough Puff Pastry

1 1/3 cup flour sifted then measure
pinch salt
1/4 pound frozen butter
6-7 TBSP cold water

Pastry Cream

2 cups milk
1 vanilla bean
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 1/2 TBSP butter

Strawberry Compote

2 cups frozen strawberries
1/3 cup frozen raspberries sub in more strawberries if needed
2 TBSP Sugar
1 TBSP lemon juice

Choux Dough

1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup water
pinch salt
7 TBSP flour sifted before measuring
2 eggs beaten

Rough Puff Pastry Dough

mix the flour and the salt in a bowl
grate the frozen butter directly in the bowl on the flour, stir with a knife
add 6 TBSP cold water, keep stirring, if it comes together in a loose dough don’t add more water if it doesn’t add the last TBSP
use a floured hand to bring it together in a ball, pat to 5×7 inch square wrap in plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes
after 30 minutes roll out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle 5 inches wide 14 inches long
visualize the dough being bisected in thirds fold the bottom third over the middle third, fold the top down over that wrap and chill 30 minutes, repeat and wrap and chill again for 30 minutes or until needed (you do THREE roll outs and folds all together)

Pastry Cream

while the rough puff is chilling make your pastry cream, warm 2 cups of milk over medium heat
split a vanilla bean, scrape seeds in the milk, and drop it in the milk, or add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
while the milk is warming mix the sugar, egg yolks and corn starch in a bowl
once the milk is almost boiling add some of the hot milk to the egg mix and stir
then tip it back in the sauce pan on the stove, cooking and stirring until it’s very thick
remove from the heat, stir in butter until it’s melted
pass it through a sieve to remove any lumps, cover and chill until ready to use when covering lay plastic wrap right ON the cream to avoid a skin

Strawberry Compote

cook strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar together for 10 minutes
add raspberries cook another 5-10 minutes ( I used all strawberries)
don’t let it get too thick, you just want the berries cooked through and the juice thickened up so it isn’t runny

Puits d’Amour

to make the Puits d’Amour, roll out the puff pastry dough to a 14-inch square and cut 9 4 inch circles out, place on parchment lined baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes
preheat oven to 425?
make the choux dough by cooking butter salt and water together, once it boils add the flour and cook until it comes together in the center of the pan, remove from heat
then add the eggs slowly until they’re incorporated
fit a pastry bag with a 1 cm (.39inch) tip, fill with choux dough
remove the circles of pastry from the refrigerator
pipe a circle of choux dough just inside the edge of the pastry dough
brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar or demerara (sugar in the raw) sugar if using
bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until puffed, glossy and browned, do NOT open the oven to check on them until 20 minutes have passed or they could fall
cool slightly and remove to wire rack to cool completely
once cooled divide the compote between the wells of the 9 pastries
fit a pastry bag with 1.5 cm tip, fill with pastry cream and pipe over the compote

using a torch lightly brown the top of the creme pat, if you don’t have a blow torch you can easily skip this step

How Were the Puits d’Amours?

They were very tasty. I mean what’s not to like? You have flaky puff pasty, airy choux, strawberry compote (or any other fruit you might choose to add to the center, a rich pastry cream and that little bit of char if you have a torch.

We both enjoyed having a celebration dessert like the puits d’amours for the first time. I am sure I will make them again when I have company for dinner. They sure do make an impression.