Raise your hand if you like Wes Anderson! If you don't know what I am on about, run to your nearest cinema and go and watch 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'…. Ok, now you have done that I am sure you are just as in awe of Mr Anderson's wondrous brain as I was. If you liked this film be sure to check out his other films too, they are all awesome.
One of the most magical things in Grand Budapest Hotel is a delicious looking pastry, the 'Courtesan Au Chocolat'. When I discovered that Anderson's team had made a tutorial video on how to make it, I decided we had to give it a go ourselves. Especially since I had a special Wes Anderson fan in mind that this would make the perfect surprise gift for!
It was a fairly detailed recipe, and there were several points where I and my sous-chef Jess thought things were going terribly wrong! But in the end they turned out pretty darn well, even if I do say so myself! And yes, they were delicious, and they disappeared just as quickly as they did in the film!
I also found an Etsy shop that sells downloadable printouts of the boxes, which was the icing on the cake, (as it were) so we were able to present them very authentically indeed!
If you want to have a go at making a Courtesan Au Chocolat yourself you can watch the tutorial below, and it is super cute! If you do I'd love to see how it turns out!
The exact recipe for the Courtesan au chocolat has never been published or publicly disclosed as per the conditions of Herr Mendl’s will. However, the following has been collated and adapted from a several “pirate” sources in the Nebelsbad archives (including a 1963 recipe from the kitchen of the Grand Budapest Hotel using powdered eggs that was printed in the Lutz Daily Fact).
Laura xXx