Cream horns (kremrole)

Flaky pastry tubes filled with glossy Italian meringue. About 35–40 pieces; you will need metal cream-horn tubes.

Ingredients

• Dough: 350 g flour
• 250 g cold butter (or Hera shortening), grated or cubed
• 125 ml whipping cream
• optional, for extra flakiness: swap 25 g of the cream for sour cream
• Italian meringue: 80 g egg whites (about 2 eggs)
• 160 g sugar
• 40 ml water
• icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. Work the flour, butter and cream into a smooth dough — don’t overwork it. Wrap and chill at least 1 hour (overnight is fine).
2. Roll into a thin sheet, cut into 2 cm × 20 cm strips, and wind each strip around a greased metal tube, overlapping the edges slightly.
3. Bake at 180–200 °C until golden, about 12–15 minutes. Cool slightly before easing off the tubes.
4. Heat the sugar and water to 115–120 °C without stirring (a sugar thermometer helps). Meanwhile whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.
5. With the mixer running, drizzle in the hot syrup in a thin stream, then keep beating until the meringue is glossy and only slightly warm. Chill briefly, then pipe into the cooled shells from both ends. Dust with icing sugar.

Simplest version: whip the egg whites with the sugar directly over a pot of simmering water (bain-marie) until glossy and thick — no thermometer needed, slightly less stable but reliably good.

You can improvise tubes from foil if you have no metal cream-horn moulds.