Cream-Filled Pastry Cones

A Bulgarian dessert that looks like far more work than it is — strips of dough wound around metal cone moulds, baked crisp, and filled with a raspberry pastry cream.

The cone moulds are sold in kitchen supply shops and online, usually as cream horn or lady lock moulds.

Makes about 12
Cooling time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For the pastry

2 eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
About 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

For the cream

4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
Raspberry flavoring, or 1/2 cup raspberry purée

For the top

1 cup walnuts, finely crushed

Method

Make the pastry

Whisk the eggs, sugar, yogurt, vanilla and baking powder together.

Add the flour gradually and knead until you have a soft, smooth dough that no longer sticks to your hands. Add only as much flour as it takes — too much and the pastry bakes hard.

Wrap and rest for 30 minutes. Rested dough rolls thin without springing back.

Make the cream

Whisk the cornstarch into the 1/2 cup of water until completely smooth, with no lumps.

Add the sugar and whisk again.

Pour in the milk and whisk together.

Transfer to a pot and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and comes to a boil. Let it bubble for a full minute.

This has to be cooked, not just mixed. Cornstarch does not thicken until it boils, and one minute at a boil is what cooks out the raw starch flavor and sets the cream properly.

Stir in the raspberry flavoring or purée off the heat.

Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface — contact with the cream, not stretched across the bowl — and chill completely.

Shape and bake

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Grease the cone moulds well with butter or oil. Every part of the surface. Unwaxed moulds will hold onto the pastry and you will break every cone getting them off.

Roll the dough out thin and cut it into strips about 3/4 inch wide.

Starting at the tip of each mould, wind a strip around it in a spiral, overlapping each turn slightly. Work up to the open end and press the final edge down to seal.

Make sure the tip is properly closed — that is where the cream leaks out later.

Arrange the moulds on a baking tray and bake until lightly golden, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove from the moulds while still warm, twisting gently. Wait until they are cold and they will stick.

Set the empty cones aside to cool completely.

Fill and serve

Whisk the chilled cream smooth — it stiffens in the refrigerator.

Pipe it into the cooled cones using a piping bag. A spoon will work but it is slow and messy.

Dip the open end of each filled cone into the crushed walnuts.

Serve within a few hours. The pastry softens once the cream is in it, so fill them close to serving time.

Chef’s notes

Raspberry-flavored starch is a Bulgarian product and hard to find elsewhere. Plain cornstarch with raspberry purée or a few drops of raspberry extract gets you the same result — add the purée at the end so the color stays bright.

The cones can be baked a day ahead and stored in an airtight container. Fill on the day.