Cream horns: food for good living

August 6, 2006 11:57 AM

PastryFilter: Anyone know where the cream horn originated?

I'm talking about the buttery-flaky pastry usually sold in bakeries (because they only taste good fresh out of the oven) shaped into a horn, open on the large end, and stuffed with a buttercream or whipped-cream filling. And maybe studded with large sugar crystals on the outside. I prefer mine with the heavier buttercream filling.

My best guess would be that the French invented it, because it's so similar to a cream puff, and the pastry is somewhat related to choux, but I was wondering if there was a foodie out there who knows the story.

posted by Pocahontas to food & drink (6 comments total)

Does the American confection come from 'Cornetti alla crema' ('cream horns'), the Italian pastry?
posted by ericb at 1:05 PM on August 6, 2006

a cream horn, as a cream horn is probably of British origin - because it has an English name (unlike eclair, cannoli, apple strudle). Here is one historical mention:

1935-1939 ... On my way home from school I would call on Nain, my grandmother, and she would send me with a penny-ha'penny to buy a cream horn to eat with her before Taid, my grandfather, returned from his carpentry and building business.

I have no idea when 'cream horn' entered English but maybe the OED does.

It may be derived from the eclair or comes from the cannoli and its history.

Nor do I know if the first were made from pancakes, cookies (tuile), or something else. I get the impression that using puff pastry is fairly recent.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 1:23 PM on August 6, 2006

Damn, I've never heard of a cream horn but now I'm, like, totally jonesing for one. That sounds reeeeeally good. Is it a regional thing?
posted by kookoobirdz at 9:03 PM on August 6, 2006

OED's earliest ref is from 1908:

1908 J. KIRKLAND Mod. Baker III. lxii. 349 *Cream Horns. Roll out some puff-paste..and cut up in long strips... Wind each of these pieces of paste round a tin mould shaped like a cornucopia... Fill with..whipped cream. Ibid., (caption) Cream horn or cornucopia tin.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 10:55 PM on August 6, 2006

I'm from Michigan, and Cream Horns (or Creme Horns) have ALWAYS been easy to find here. They were huge in the Thumb area, where I grew up - and now that I'm living in Hamtramck, I see them at every bakery. Both areas have a huge Polish population (and all the Polish bakeries I've been to have cream horns), but it's not a definite connection.
posted by sluggo at 3:52 AM on August 7, 2006

Cream horn or cornucopia tin

Again, I ask --'Cornetti alla crema' ('cream horns'), the Italian pastry?

Cornus derived from the Latin for "horn" (as in 'cornucopia' -- 'Cornu Copiae' -- "horn of plenty").
posted by ericb at 5:15 PM on August 7, 2006