Religieuse

A small choux, representing a head, sits on top of a large choux. The religieuse is a French pastry in which large and small glazed choux are joined by a collar of buttercream. The cream piped at the join between the large and small choux both supports the upper choux and serves as a collar-like decoration. The hollows of both the upper and lower choux are filled, and the small choux representing the head also contains cream.

Cooking the Panade and Adjusting the Dough’s Moisture

Choux pastry is made by bringing water or milk, butter, salt and so on to the boil, taking the pan off the heat, and adding the flour all at once. The mixture is stirred with a wooden spatula or similar and returned to the heat to drive off moisture. The dough at this stage, when it comes away from the pan and forms a single mass, is called the panade.

It is transferred to another bowl to let some of the heat escape, and the eggs are added in stages. Right after eggs are added, the dough may look as if it is breaking apart, but it comes together as it is mixed. Each addition of egg is mixed in thoroughly before the next is added, bringing the dough to a pipeable consistency.

Some recettes (ingredient proportions and methods) for professionals weigh the dough after drying it out, make up the evaporated amount with water, and then add the eggs. In methods that use both milk and water, the balance of liquid, flour, fat and eggs is aligned in this way to adjust the firmness before baking.

Baking Large and Small Choux and Filling Each with Cream

As a guide for one set, one method pipes a large choux about 5 centimeters in diameter and a small choux about 3 centimeters in diameter. During baking, the moisture in the dough turns to steam and the dough, which contains egg and flour, puffs up, creating a hollow inside to hold the cream. The choux are baked until well colored and until a light tap reveals the hollow inside.

Once cooled, a small hole is made in the base, a piping tip is inserted, and custard is filled in. For a chocolate cream filling, one method adds chocolate to the hot cooked custard to melt it, then mixes in softened butter after the custard has cooled. To avoid bursting the shell by piping too forcefully, the cream is spread slowly throughout the space inside. After both the large and small choux have been filled the same way, the glaze is applied.

Finishing the Glaze and the Cream Collar That Supports the Choux

Fondant is a glaze made by crystallizing sugar into fine crystals. It is warmed over a water bath or similar to make it flow more easily, and flavored and colored with cocoa or coffee. One method works with it at around 37–40 degrees as a guide; if it is overheated, the finish tends to lose its sheen.

The tops of the choux are dipped into the glaze, the excess is allowed to drip off, and the edges are tidied. The glaze is stirred even between coating one choux and the next, so that a skin does not form on its surface and cause uneven coating. Once the large choux has cooled and its surface has set, buttercream is piped on it in a ring and the small choux is placed on top. The cream piped like a collar bonds the upper and lower choux together.

There are also variations in how the glaze is applied. In one method, glucose and cocoa butter are combined with fondant, spread thin and frozen, then cut into large and small discs that are placed on the cream-filled choux. Decorating with shaved white chocolate as a collar changes both the look and the mouthfeel compared with a buttercream collar. There are also versions covered in ganache with a base of sweet tart pastry and almond cream added.

The blackcurrant religieuse that Lenôtre introduced in 2026 fills large and small choux with blackcurrant cream and confit and adds decorations made of almond dough. Beyond coffee or chocolate glazes, there are also versions whose flavor is built around fruit.

At Pâtisserie Religieuse in Setagaya, versions are also made in which the large and small choux are filled with creams of different flavors. The buntan flavor featured in a 2023 interview has the fruit worked into the custard. Chef Mori, the owner, explains that for other flavors, confiture, purée or fresh fruit and custard are sometimes arranged in two layers. The two choux not only create the shape but also serve as vessels that hold different flavors in a single set.

Large Religieuses Stacking Éclairs and Sablé Discs

The “religieuse à l’ancienne,” made for banquets, is a format that builds height by assembling many éclairs. Stick-shaped choux are filled with creams such as coffee and chocolate and then glazed. Their sides are bonded with caramel to form a ring, which is stood on a baked sablé disc, and the next disc and ring of éclairs are stacked on top.

The rings become smaller toward the top, and a single round choux decorates the summit. Piped buttercream covers the spaces between the éclairs and the joins. It is not simply a single-serving pastry scaled up, but a large confection assembled by bonding éclairs and base discs with cooked sugar.

From a Square Choux to a Two-Tiered Form Evoking a Nun

Frascati, in 19th-century Paris, was the name of a café and pastry shop. After the first establishment closed, a new one was built in 1833, and the religieuse is said to have been born at this shop. The City of Paris and the Fondation Napoléon give the year 1856, but who invented it is not clear.

The old form that has been handed down is a square choux filled with custard and topped with whipped cream. Today, large and small round choux are stacked one on top of the other and the join is decorated with cream. The small choux looks like a head, the large choux like a body, and the cream at the join like a collar. In French, religieuse means “nun.” Uncertainties still remain about when the shape changed and when the pastry acquired its name.

From the same choux pastry and cream come both a single-serving pastry evoking a nun and a large confection of stacked éclairs. The process of baking the dough, filling the hollows with cream, glazing, and then joining the pieces with cream or cooked sugar is common to both.

Glossary