Frog Religieuses

Get ready to leap to new heights with this fun take on a classic French pastry!

A traditional religieuse — so named because it resembles a plump "nun" in a habit — is made of two iced choux buns filled with cream or custard: a smaller bun for the head on top of a larger round body.

In this version, filled with pastry cream and strawberry jam, choux is used to create an army of hungry frogs with green craquelin exteriors.

Camila’s Frog Religieuses helped earn her a second Star Baker title for Patisserie Week in Season 7 of The Great Canadian Baking Show.

Frog Religieuses

By Camila García Hernández

Ingredients

White Chocolate Pastry Cream:

• 2 cups milk
• 3 tbsp cold water
• 1½ tsp powdered gelatin
• 6 tbsp (75 g) sugar
• ¼ cup (28 g) cornstarch
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 4 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp (43 g) unsalted butter
• 200 g white chocolate

White Chocolate Ganache:

• 80 g white chocolate
• ½ cup 35% cream

Craquelin:

• ⅔ cup (100 g) all-purpose flour
• ½ cup (100 g) sugar
• 7 tbsp (100 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• Kelly green gel food colouring

Choux Pastry:

• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup (150 g) bread flour
• 5 large eggs, beaten

Strawberry Jam:

• About 2 cups (300 g) strawberries, hulled and puréed
• 1 cup (200 g) sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 tsp pectin

Marzipan:

• ¾ cup plus 2 tbsp (100 g) almond flour
• ¾ cup (95 g) icing sugar
• 1 large egg white
• 1 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
• Red, white and black gel food colouring

Preparation

White Chocolate Pastry Cream:

In a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat, bring milk just to a boil. Meanwhile, combine water and gelatin in a small bowl. Whisk together sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium heatproof bowl. Add egg yolks and vanilla, and whisk to combine.

Once the milk has boiled, remove from heat and then slowly whisk it into the cornstarch mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and set it over medium-low heat. Whisk until the mixture thickens. Whisk in butter and chocolate until melted. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin until melted.

Transfer to a quarter-sheet pan lined with plastic wrap, cover the surface of the cream with more plastic wrap, and transfer to the fridge to cool completely.

White Chocolate Ganache:

Add chocolate to a small heatproof bowl. Bring cream just to a boil in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it stand for 3 minutes, then stir together until melted. Set aside to cool and thicken.

Craquelin:

Add flour, sugar, butter and a small amount of food colouring to a food processor. Pulse until it comes together into a ball, adding more colouring if desired.

Transfer mixture to a silicone baking mat or parchment paper on a counter and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap roughly the size of the mat or parchment. Roll dough into roughly a 6-by-6-inch square that’s about ⅛ inch thick. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet, and freeze while you prepare the choux.

Choux Pastry:

Heat oven to 400 F.

Combine milk, water, butter and salt in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat and vigorously stir in flour with a wooden spoon until combined. Return to heat and continue to stir vigorously until there is a film on the bottom of the pot.

Transfer dough to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and mix on low until the steam has subsided and dough is lukewarm, about 3 minutes. 

Add about one-fifth of the eggs at a time, incorporating fully in between additions until only one-fifth remains. Scoop out some of the batter and let it fall back into the bowl. It should run off the beater in a V shape; if it falls off in clumps, add the rest of the egg and incorporate. 

Transfer the dough to a large piping bag fitted with a ½-inch round tip.

Remove the craquelin from the freezer and use a 1-inch round cutter to cut 10 rounds. Use a ½-inch cutter to cut 10 rounds. Cut each of the ½-inch rounds in half to make 20 half moons.

Pipe ten 1-inch mounds of the choux mixture and twenty ½-inch mounds on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan. Place a 1-inch craquelin round on each of the larger mounds and a half moon on each of the smaller mounds, pressing lightly to adhere.

Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 F and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove the smaller buns and set aside. Return the pan to the oven and continue to bake the larger ones for 5 to 10 minutes, until golden and puffed. Cool completely.

Strawberry Jam:

Combine puréed strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and pectin in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until thickened, about 4 to 6 minutes. Pour onto a quarter-sheet pan lined with plastic wrap and transfer to the fridge to set.

Marzipan:

Add almond flour, icing sugar, egg white and strawberry powder to a medium bowl, and stir to form a rough dough. Transfer to a clean work surface and knead to form a uniform ball. Divide in half, and divide one-half in half again. Colour the largest ball with red food colouring for the frogs’ tongues. Colour one of the small halves with white and the other with black for the flies and eyes.

To make the tongues, roll the red marzipan into a thin sheet measuring about 10-by-2 inches. Cut the long edge into ten 2-by-1-inch strips. Shape one short end of each strip into a semicircle to resemble the tip of a tongue. Use the back of a paring knife to make a groove lengthwise down the centre of the strip.

For the flies and the pupils for the eyes, roll the black marzipan into 30 small balls, and the white into 20 small balls. Flatten the white balls into small disks to create wings and stick two of each onto 10 of the black marzipan balls.

Assembly:

Transfer the pastry cream and strawberry jam to separate piping bags fitted with medium round, bismarck or eclair piping tips. Transfer the white chocolate ganache to a piping bag and snip a small hole in the end.

To fill the choux buns, insert the piping tip for the pastry cream into the flat bottom of the bun and gently squeeze, leaving room for the strawberry jam, then repeat with the piping bag filled with jam. (If using a round tip, you may need to poke a hole in the choux with a chopstick.) You want the choux bun to feel heavy without the filling seeping out. 

For the eyes, place two dabs of white chocolate ganache on the craquelin of each of the large choux buns. Stick two small choux buns to the ganache on each large bun. For the pupils, press two black rounds of marzipan on the front of each small bun. Then cut a horizontal slit, slightly longer than 1 inch, in the front of each large choux bun where the green craquelin meets the brown choux, and stick a tongue in each slit. Place a marzipan fly on each tongue.

Makes 10 pastries