Salammbos

These are from Michel Roux's brilliant "Pastry" book. They are choux buns filled with chocolate creme patissiere and topped with caramel.

I'd made the choux buns on friday, so they were ready to go.

I made up a small amount of creme patissiere (250ml), added chocolate. Then whisked up some double cream and blended the two together.

Then I made the caramel - 150g sugar to 25ml water - so it was very thick. I boiled it up til it started to turn amber, then as directed, plunged the pan into cold water. This stopped the cooking process, but also hardened the caramel very fast. In order to dip the choux buns in and for them to come out smoothly, i had to keep returning the caramel pan to the stove to melt again - without over-cooking it. I got there in the end, with only a few blisters on my hands where the caramel got me.
Once the choux was coated with caramel, I piped the creme patissiere in.
They were really delicious - very light - not at all heavy feeling, which is surprising with all that sugar, pastry, cream ;) I liked the almost smoky deep flavour of the caramel, with the soft choux bun, and creamy chocolatey middle. Yum.