6.19.18
My pastry journey has been a short, almost non-existent one. There is something so daunting about making puff pastry, especially when it’s so easy to buy in the freezer section. And if you search around the all-knowing internet, most recipes that include puff pastry never instruct you to make it yourself, they advise you to buy it. So if the internet doesn’t recommend it, why would I do it????!!
Well, recently I upped the ante and went on a rough puff pastry bonanza. And guess what, it was not scary…..at all. And the result is so flaky and buttery and better than that store bought stuff. I knew I had to put it to good use. I decided to go all out and create something…..ON. TREND.
Unicorns are the thing now, they’re cool and magical and in. So why not take the traditional dessert that my mom used to buy from the store when we were kids, and turn it on its head. I made unicorn horns, puff pastry cream horns that are filled with colorful whipped cream, topped with glaze and glitter and magical shit. Wanna feel your inner uniqueness, wanna feel like you are filled with sparkle and shine? Time to try your hand at making some unicorn horns.
Unicorn Horns
Ingredients
For the Rough Puff Pastry
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 10 tbsp unsalted butter, sliced into small cubes and cold
- 1/3 cup ice cold water
- Heavy cream for wash
For the Filling
- 3/4 cup heavy cream, cold
- 3/4 confectioners sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- blue, purple, and pink food coloring
For the Glaze
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 1-3 tbsp milk
- sprinkles, edible glitter of your choice
Instructions
For the Rough Puff Pastry
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt
- Add in half of the cold cubed butter and cut in with two knives or a pastry blender until they’ve become small crumbs in the flour, add in the second half of butter and repeat
- Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in cold water
- Use a fork and gently mix in water until a shaggy dough begins to come together
- Lightly flour your work surface and dump out shaggy dough and pat into a thick square
- Lightly flour your rolling pin and roll dough into a 10 inch long rectangle
- Fold the top half down, then the bottom half up (like a letter), rotate the dough a quarter turn and roll out into a 10 inch long rectangle, repeating the folding, rotating, and rolling up to 7 times
- On the final rectangle, fold flaps, but do not roll, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill, at least one hour, but overnight is recommended
- Once chilled, Lightly flour work surface and roll puff pastry into a 12″ x 13″ square, pastry will be about 1/4″ thick
- Trim off the rough edges so it’s a clean rectangle
- Using a ruler, measure and cut 3/4″ strips of pastry, you should have about 16 strips
- Place parchment paper or silpat on baking sheet
- Carefully wrap strips around cream horn molds (or fashion your own with foil, or foil covered ice cream cones) by using one hand to turn the mold and the other to hold the dough
- One strip will cover about half a mold, connect a second strip to the end of first and continue wrapping, making sure dough overlaps layers to avoid holes, and to hold the connecting pieces in place
- Place cream horn seam side down on baking sheet, once all eight are done place them in the freezer for 30-40 minutes
- Preheat oven to 400
- Using aluminum foil, cream 8 small “arches” that will fit over the top of the cream horn to avoid burning too quickly
- Remove cream horns from freezer, brush with heavy cream, place foil arch over the top of the dough at the end (where the hole will be) and bake for 17 minutes**
- Remove from oven, carefully remove all the foil arches and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes, until golden brown all over
- Allow to cool 5 minutes before carefully removing molds, allow to cool another 10 minutes before moving to wire wrack and cooling completely
For the Filling
- Chill the bowl of a stand up mixer and whisk attachment for 15 minutes
- Once chilled, beat heavy cream until soft peaks begin to form
- Add in confectioners sugar and vanilla and continue to beat on medium until firm peaks form
- Divide the whipped cream into four separate bowls (use the mixer bowl for the cream you’ll keep white)
- Add a different food coloring to each section of whipped cream and blend, then place all whipped cream back into mixer bowl and swirl to combine colors
- Place whipped cream into pipping bag with open star tip and fill each cream horn
For the Glaze
- Mix together sugar and milk until a thick, but pourable glaze comes together
- Carefully pour over tops of cream horn and decorate as desired
P.S.
**Do not press the foil onto the dough, gently place it on top, otherwise it will stick to the dough and rip when you remove it in the middle of the baking process
*The glaze makes them quite sweet, feel free to omit for a more traditional cream horn dessert
*Turn up that AC! Puff pastry needs to be kept cold while you’re working on it, so the butter doesn’t melt
