Karaoloi me Sfoliata (Puff Pastry Cream Horns)

Karaolos  (plural karaoloi pron. karaoli) is a Cypriot dessert I remember from my childhood in Cyprus which resemble like Cream Horns.   In the Cypriot dialect Karaolos means snail.    I assume that the Cypriots saw it more like the shell of a snail rather than a horn of an animal, as opposed to the Brits.

Until recently I used to think that this was a Cypriot dessert until, while google searching, I saw cream horns made with puff pastry.   I then realized that this is one of the recipes which were influenced by the British who had colonized Cyprus.

Although I did not have the recipe of how they made them in Cyprus, I made them with puff pastry.  I believe that the original ones were not made with puff pastry but the horns were more like a soft biscuit.

The ones I made are not close to the the ones I remember but they were really very delicious.  I made the usual pastry cream I make and flavoured it with orange, as I had tons of oranges at the time.

My children loved this recipe but the only flaw they found was that the cream was not sweet.  For my taste it was just perfect but if you like your desserts to be sweet, increase the amount of sugar in the cream.

I didn’t have stainless steel horn molds, to shape them but that didn’t stop me.  I improvised and made some myself.  All you need to do is cutaluminium pans and shape them into cones.

Cut rectangular pieces 13 x 17 cm and form the cones.  Cut the base so that each cones is 13 cm high and can stand up, as I baked them standing up.

Karaoloi me sfoliata (Puff pastry cream horns)

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time:  about 50 minutes
Makes:  about 30

Ingredients

1 packet (2 sheets) of puff pastry
4 – 5 orange spoon sweet preserve
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pastry cream
4 cups of fresh milk
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
4 tablespoons corn flour (starch)
6 tablespoons of sugar
2 vanilla ampoules or ½ tsp vanilla essence
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon orange liqueur
1 tsp orange rind
1 teaspoon butter

Whipped cream

500 ml heavy cream
½ tsp vanilla essence
3 – 4 tablespoons icing sugar

 

Directions:

Preheat oven at 180 degrees  C / 350 F.

Cut each sheet of puff pastry into 15 pieces about 2 cm wide and 35 cm long.

Brush each cone with olive oil.

Wind each stripe of pastry around the cone, overlapping one third of the paste to form a coil finishing at the open end of the mould.  Stretch the dough if necessary.

Place the cones into a baking tin and bake until golden and crispy, for about 45 minutes.

Set aside to cool and then unmold them, twisting them a little if necessary.  Fill a pastry bag with the cream and fill each cone.

Meantime prepare the pastry cream

In a sauce pan add the flour, corn flour, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, orange rind, orange liqueur and about ½ cup of cold milk and mix with a whisk until the corn flour is dissolved and set aside.

Heat the milk in another sauce pan and when it is hot pour to mixture stirring constantly until cream is thick. Remove from the heat and add the butter and stir. Set aside and cover with cling film until it is cold.

Meantime whip the heavy cream with sugar and vanilla until peaks form and refrigerate.

When the pastry cream is cold, mix in ¾ of the whipped cream, using a hand mixer.

Use the remaining to decorate the horns.

Use a separate cone to pipe the whipping cream and decorate with a piece of orange spoon sweet.

Tips:  Do not discard egg whites.  Put them in a small container, label them with date and amount and freeze them.  You can use them to make meringue based desserts.

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi,