Hello and welcome back to Bake Experiments - where we play with flavours and techniques. With a bit of baking history & folklore thrown in too.

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A date for your diaries!

The gorgeous

I would be utterly delighted if you would come and join us for a bake along on May 16th at 6pm (GMT+1)/12pm (CST). Where we’ll be baking up a storm - there will be a cocktail too!

More details coming soon!

To the Choux!

Back to the choux series we go, with a summery take on the religieuse.

For the uninitiated, at Bake Experiments, 2025 is all about improving choux technique. Focusing on a technique each month, and gradually building on them as the months go by.

This month, is the religieuse. One large choux bun, with a little choux bun popped on top and fixed into place with a collar of cream.

Why is it called a religieuse? Because the traditional chocolate and vanilla cream version is said to resemble a squat little nun in a black and white habit.

Before we begin, a little vote if you please! What shall the choux experiment be next month?

The religieuse was invented around 1856 by a Parisian pastry chef called Frascati. Traditionally filled with chocolate or coffee pastry cream and covered in a chocolate ganache, I have gone off-piste with my flavour combination today.

We’re having a bit of a heatwave the the UK right now (well, it’s a heatwave for us at least - I can almost hear readers in the tropics laughing), so this summery coconut and zesty raspberry flavour is very fitting.

Religieuses on Substack

There is something about the religieuse that elicits a feeling of fun and cuteness.

Just like this incredible Easter Bunny version from the pastry chef Queen that is Sophie Bamford.

Or this cute little Easter Lamb from, er, Nicola Lamb (oh, I get that now) and her days of working at Dominque Ansel, creating assorted little cute animal religieuse, from Hooty the owl to scarf wearing winter penguins.

The Snow Nuns

The first time I attempted a religieuse is also the first time I ever got choux right. We were in the depths of a Covid lockdown, and I decided to bake my way through the weighty tome that is the Le Corden Bleu’s Pastry School.

This particular evening, I attempted their Coconut and Ginger Religieuses. And they worked!

I’d had so much failed and flat choux up until this point. I didn’t care that I’d been baking for hours and it was two in the morning. That my baby daughter was likely to require feeding at any second. That I was smeared in crème pat. I’d finally mastered choux and I was deliriously dancing around the kitchen!

I cannot tell you how proud I am of those little snow nuns.

Today's recipe is an upgrade to that one. With a sharp raspberry glaze, thick, smooth coconut crème pat and a whole raspberry inside.

Cheat's Raspberry Glaze

Recently, I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about making patisserie accessible. So, this raspberry glaze is a bit of a cheats glaze. It doesn’t include any fancy pectin powder or confectioners glaze or glucose syrup, which can be difficult to source. I’ve thickened it with something most people have in their cupboards - seedless raspberry jam.

It does require overnight setting and will need to be made in advance. I’m telling you this now so you don’t get to the recipe on the day and think, oh bugger.

The Recipe - Raspberry & Coconut Religieuses

Level: Advanced

Time: 3-4hrs (with overnight setting)

Serves: Makes 6 buns

Special Equipment: no. 3R Savoy and Wilton 4, 6 and 2D piping nozzles, and piping bags, silicone mats - ones with a choux bun guide useful.

Ingredients

For the raspberry glaze

200g fresh or frozen raspberries

A squeeze of lemon juice

20g caster sugar

2 tbsp raspberry jam (seedless)

For the coconut crème pâtissière

180ml coconut milk (full fat)

1/4 tsp vanilla paste

3 egg yolks

52g caster sugar

7g cornflour (cornstarch)

7g strong flour

150ml double cream

For the choux

125ml water

50g unsalted butter

Pinch of sugar

Pinch of salt

75g strong bread flour

Approx. 2 eggs, whisked together

For the vanilla cream collar

150ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla paste

1 tbsp caster sugar

For decoration

6x fresh raspberries

50g desiccated coconut, for sprinkling

Method

Your raspberry glaze requires time to set. I advise making it the night before so it has good time in your fridge.

Place your raspberries in a saucepan with a squeeze of lemon juice and splash of water.

Put them on a medium heat and, once they are starting to soften, use a potato masher to crush them into a puree.

In the meantime, mix up your raspberry jam in a bowl until soft.

Once pureed, put your raspberries through a fine mesh sieve. I tend to sieve them straight into the bowl with the raspberry jam - just to save on a little washing up.

Place them back on a high heat and leave to bubble away.

After a few minutes, around five, the sauce should be nice and thick. Place in a bowl (you can use your previous jam bowl if you like), cover and get in the fridge to set.

Next, your crème pâtissière.

Place the coconut milk in the saucepan. Add your vanilla paste and stir.

Place the egg, sugar, flour and cornflour in a bowl and whisk until thick and pale. You can do this by hand or with a stand mixer if you are feeling very lazy.

Place the milk on the gas hob and bring to the boil.

As soon as the milk is boiled, pour around a third of the mixture into your egg and sugar mix, whisk hard. (Be careful as the milk will be hot!)

While you are doing this, place the rest of your milk back on the heat to boil again.

When the remaining milk has re boiled, pour your egg and sugar mix into the saucepan, turn down the temperature to a medium heat and again whisk hard until the mixture is nice and thick. This should take around five minutes.

Place on a tray, cover with cling film to stop the crème pat developing a skin, and chill in the fridge until needed.

Now, move on to your choux pastry.

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Don’t use a fan oven, it pushes your rising buns over

Chop up your butter into little cubes and place in a saucepan with the water, butter, sugar and salt. It’s important to do this so the butter is melted before the water starts boiling.

Bring it all up to a boil and add your flour, turning the heat to medium. Stir in with a wooden spoon until the dough forms a ball, cooking out the flour for a minute or so. With choux pastry, you need to get the liquid and the steam out of the dough to help it rise.

Your next step is to spread it over a clean tray and let it cool. This step takes patience, you have to let it cool until it is blood heat.

Once cool, you can either grab a bowl, a wooden spoon and a strong pair of arm muscles. Or you can use a mixer, to save a bit of time and energy.

Slowly add the egg into the bowl (you may not need it all) and keep mixing, keep mixing… your dough at one point will look awful, just sludgy blobs, but keep going!

Once it resembles a dropping consistency – which means that it falls fairly quickly off your wooden spoon, the remaining dough will leave a V shape on the spoon. Don’t go overboard, you don’t want it too runny. It has to hold its shape.

Grab your piping bag and a large round nozzle – I use a no. 3R Savoy nozzle.

Line a flat baking tray with a silicone mat and fill your piping bag with the choux mixture.

In terms of size of your buns, you will need to pipe six big buns (Approx. 5cm) and six little buns (Approx. 2.5cm). This is where a choux mat or template really helps.

Pipe them far apart, they will grow!

Press the peaks down gently with a wet fork, before glazing them with a little egg wash.

Sprinkle the silicone mat with a little water. This will help encourage some steam in the oven while the choux bakes and help them rise well in the oven (professional kitchens use a ‘damper’ for this, but I find a drizzle of water to be a very affordable alternative!)

Place in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Until risen and golden.

Leave to cool on a wire rack, before popping in the fridge to firm up.

Finishing your crème pat

Once the choux is cool, grab your crème pat from the fridge. Give it a good whisk so it’s nice and smooth.

Whip your double cream. If using a stand mixer, watch it like a hawk!! You want it to be a firm consistency but still glossy.

Whisk up your crème pat mixture until smooth, and then gently, gently, gently fold in your double cream until well combined and smooth.

The vanilla cream collar

This is a very simple vanilla cream - just whisk up your double cream with sugar and vanilla paste until smooth, thick and pipeable.

Assembly

Get everything ready in a little assembly line;

• Crème pat in a piping bag with a Wilton 6 nozzle,

• Fresh raspberries to hand,

• Raspberry glaze set and in a bowl,

• Desiccated coconut poured onto a plate,

• Vanilla cream in a piping bag with a Wilton 2D nozzle.

• You will also need a bread knife and a Wilton 4 nozzle.

Step 1: Fill your big buns

Gently cut a small top off one of your big buns - just big enough to pop a raspberry inside.

Grab your crème pat and fill the bun, before popping a raspberry inside.

Use some crème pat to stick the top back on.

Step 2: Fill your little buns

Using your Wilton 4 nozzle, place a small hole in the underside of the bun.

Grab your crème pat and gently fill the bun, swirling it around to ensure you hit all sides.

Step 3: Glaze your buns

Dip each of your buns into the glaze, and smooth with your finger.

Gently roll in the desiccated coconut.

Step 4: Fix together

Using your vanilla cream, pipe a small flower onto the top of your big bun. This will form your collar.

Pop your little bun on top. Et voila! The cutest of cute little nuns in red. Or should we call them Cardinals?

Pop them back in the fridge for an hour or two to fully set.

These are even better the next day after being in the fridge, let them come to room temperature before eating. They will last up to three days once filled.

You will have egg whites leftover from this recipe, so, may I recommend

As part of my Cooking the Stacks project, I am baking from Sophia’s stack throughout this week. With dangerously addictive miso, nori and sesame rice krispie treats, indulgent rose and raspberry brunch Bostocks, and silky smooth burnt honey crème pots with pine nut brittle, Sophia is well worth checking out.

Read more of my adventures Cooking the Stacks this Sunday.

Until next time…