food

Mendl’s Courtesan au Chocolat

Mendl’s Courtesan au Chocolat is the super sweet dessert from The Grand Budapest Hotel. Kate breaks it down and shows us how to make it at home!

food

Mendl’s Courtesan au Chocolat

Mendl’s Courtesan au Chocolat is the super sweet dessert from The Grand Budapest Hotel. Kate breaks it down and shows us how to make it at home!

Supplies

  • 125ml water
  • 125ml whole milk
  • 110g butter
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • 150g plain flour
  • 4 medium eggs
  • Filling:
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 70g caster sugar
  • 2 tsp cocoa powder
  • 335ml whole milk
  • 40g dark chocolate
  • 15g plain flour
  • 15g corn flour
  • Buttercream:
  • 225g icing sugar
  • 75g unsalted butter
  • 20ml whole milk
  • Blue gel food colour
  • Icing Glaze:
  • Icing sugar
  • Water
  • Pink, green and red gel food colour
  • Cocoa beans or chocolate covered raisins

Steps

  1. Pour water, milk, butter, salt and caster sugar into a pan and stir over medium heat until the butter has melted. Once the mixture comes to a boil take it off the heat and tip in the flour. Stir until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Place pan back over the heat and cook for a few minutes to dry the dough out.
  2. Pour dough into a bowl and leave to cool for 10-15 minutes before beating in the eggs one at a time. Once you have a smooth dough, spoon it into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. You will need to pipe three different sizes to create small, medium and large profiteroles. Make sure to pipe the dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper so the profiteroles don’t stick.
  3. Place the profiteroles into a preheated oven at 200ºC for 15-25 minutes. The smaller ones will need less time than the larger profiteroles.
  4. Once baked poke a hole into the bottom of each profiterole to allow the hot air to escape and place them on a cooling rack to cool.
  5. For the filling, gently heat the chocolate and milk in a saucepan until the chocolate has melted and the milk is hot but not boiling. Meanwhile, mix together the egg yolks, caster sugar, cocoa powder, flour and corn flour until the mixture is smooth and combined.
  6. Pour 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture and stir together before pouring it back into the pan. Bring mixture to a boil and continuously whisk until the mixture is smooth and has thickened. Leave to cool completely before spooning into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Pipe chocolate filling into each profiterole.
  7. To make the water icing mix a small amount of water into the icing sugar until you have your desired thickness. It needs to be runny enough to dip into but not too runny that the icing slides off the profiterole. Separate the icing into 3 bowls and colour them light pink, green and a deeper pink. Dip the top of each profiterole into the water icing (small - deep pink; medium - green; large - light pink) and leave to set.
  8. To make the buttercream beat together the icing sugar and butter until sandy, pour in the milk and beat for a good five minutes until it’s pale and fluffy. Keep some plain and colour some blue.
  9. To assemble, place the large light pink profiterole onto your serving plate. Pipe some buttercream on top, to act as a glue. Add a medium green profiterole and pipe some buttercream on top before finally adding on the small deep pink profiterole. Fill the gaps between the profiteroles with small beads of blue buttercream using a smaller round tip.
  10. Pipe shells around the base of the large profiterole and finally pipe a dot of buttercream on top for the cocoa bean to sit on. I use chocolate covered raisins. Enjoy :D