Chocolate and Amaretto-Cream Horns

     I was very fortunate to have my favorite aunt live right next door when I was growing up.  Aunt Lillie was the person who taught me how to knit and crochet, and was also the one who instilled in me my love of baking.  My aunt was always creating something beautiful in her kitchen.  Our home phone would often ring, with Aunt Lillie on the other end telling me I needed to come over ("right now!").  She would be waiting for me in the breezeway, an enclosed porch that joined the main house with a "wash house".  There, placed on a shelf under the window, would be a cake, a pie, or maybe sweet rolls on a beautiful china plate or pressed-glass cake stand.  It was mutually understood that I was only there, at that time, to view the baked goods.  Actual eating would happen later.

     Aunt Lillie also insisted I come along when she ran errands in the Studebaker.  That either meant driving in the country to buy farm-fresh eggs, going to the High Amana Store to visit relatives, or possibly going "to town" to purchase necessities... like crochet cotton (who knew when you'd need to make another doily?).  If we were indeed going to town, Aunt Lillie  always made sure we stopped by the bakery.  There, she ordered me a cream-filled horn, a favorite of mine. 

< A recent Sunday brunch for family ended with Chocolate and Amaretto Cream-filled Horns.

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     So with thoughts of Aunt Lillie, I made "horns" this past weekend, adding grated, semi-sweet chocolate and a little amaretto to the mix.  I think she would approve.

INGREDIENTS:
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (preferably all-butter Dufour), thawed
• Canola oil for greasing molds
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup cold, heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons amaretto
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
• 1/8 cup grated semi-sweet chocolate
• additional confectioners' sugar in a shaker
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
• 10 Cream Horn Molds (or Cannoli Molds)
• Baking sheet lined with parchment paper
• Pastry bag with star tip

1.  Rub canola oil over the horn molds.
2.  Unfold the sheet of puff pastry.  Using a pizza wheel, cut the pastry into 10 equal strips.  Take a strip of pastry and starting at the pointed end of the mold, wind the strip around to cover the mold in pastry, overlapping slightly while wrapping.  Place mold on parchment-lined baking sheet.  When all of the molds have been wrapped in pastry, transfer to refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.
3.  Preheat oven to 400˚F.
4.  When ready to bake, whisk together the egg and 1 tablespoon water.  Brush pastry lightly with the egg wash.  Place baking sheet on the middle rack of preheated oven and bake horns for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden.  Remove from oven; when cooled, gently slip pastry from the molds.
5.  In a medium bowl, whip the heavy cream until slightly thickened.  Add the amaretto and confectioners' sugar and whip until stiff.  Fold in the grated chocoate; chill.
6.  Once the pastry horns have cooled, fill pastry bag with the whipped cream and pipe cream into the horns.  Dust horns with confectioners' sugar before serving.  Filled horns are best eaten the day they are made.

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