Custard Filled Pastry Horns Recipe (Funnels/Funiiki)

Custard Filled Pastry Horns Recipe (Funnels/Funiiki)

Hi everyone and Happy Mother's Day!
Today I'm sharing with you a very special recipe from my childhood. This sweet treat is a favorite of mine, popular in Europe called "Funnels", horn shaped pastry filled with custard or whipped cream. They are similar to horn puff pastry, although the dough I'm using is not a puff pastry dough. It takes some time to prepare them, but once assembled and after they absorb the custard they are very soft and delicious.
For this recipe you need metal cream horn molds. You can buy them here .



Makes 24-30 pastries

Prep time:10 minutes
Cook time:4 hours

Ingredients:

Shells:

2 eggs
6 cups flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz butter, melted and at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk (room temperature)
1-2 tbsp melted butter for brushing
optional - egg white for brushing before baking

Custard:

4 egg yolks
4 cups milk
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz soft butter


Directions:

Custard:

I recommend starting with the custard, since we need it to cool down before using it.
In a deep pan combine milk and half of the sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. In a large bowl, using a mixer beat egg yolks and remaining sugar until pale. Add flour and mix well. Add 1 cup hot milk and carefully mix. Gradually add mixture to the remaining hot milk , constantly mixing, until it thickens (for about 5 minutes). Add butter and vanilla extract, mix well, remove from heat and set a side to cool down.


Horns:

In a bowl of a stand mixer beat eggs with sugar, then add milk and butter. Sift flour with baking powder and salt and combine with liquid ingredients. Knead on low speed for 5 minutes. You can of course mix dough by hand, using a mixer is just a little easier.
Divide dough in two parts. Using a rolling pin roll both parts into rectangles 5 mm thick. (Approximate size of each rectangle should be 20 inches long and 12 inches wide. Cut 3/4" stripes of dough lengthwise, using a pastry or pizza knife. Grease metal horn molds and roll each stripe beginning at the tip of the mold, overlapping the layers slightly to almost cover the mold. 
Line baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350F. Brush horns with lightly beaten egg whites (optional). 
Bake in batches until golden or about 30 minutes. Let them cool for 5 minutes and remove horns from molds. Place on a cooling rack and let them cool completely.

To assemble the custard horns:

Fill a piping bag with custard and pipe it into each pastry horn. You can use round, star or no tip.
Pastry horns need to absorb moisture from the custard and get soft, so I recommend, that they are consumed after 24 hours. Pretty difficult!

I hope you like the recipe! I'll be sharing similar recipe for puff pastry horns in the future.