Cream Puffs!

I had always been under the impression that the pastry part of cream puffs actually had a taste. Having now actually tried the shell, I can say, they taste like...nothing. Well, they have a taste, but it's very bland and chewing on snow is probably more fulfilling. I had also always believed that these would be a lot more difficult to make than they really were. They're not as moody as a lot of other things (yeah, I'm talking about you, macarons!), as long as you know the rules (like you've ruined everything if you open the oven within the first 20 minutes of putting them in).

However, these little babies are absolutely wonderful when filled. I wonder who ever came up with this puffy little creature and decided to use it as a casing for something a little...let's face it...sloppy. Also, I'm not sure I'd eat pastry cream by itself. I'm not sure what my aversion is to dipping a spoon in and licking it clean, but the bland shell gives just the right texture for me to want to pop the whole thing into my mouth...that is, if it can fit!

Anyway, the puff pastry/eclair shell goes by the name Pate a Choux and recipe is below!

Pate a Choux
1/2 pint water
3 oz butter - cut into cubes
1/4 tsp salt
5 oz all purpose flour
5 large eggs

1) Combine water, butter, and salt in a large pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
2) Remove pan from heat, add flour all at once, stirring until smooth (will look like mashed potatoes)
3) Cook flour paste until the paste dries slightly and begins to leave the sides of the pan (looks like sugar cookie dough)
4) Transfer to electric mixer bowl, beating on lowest speed for about 30 seconds to release steam. Add eggs 2 at a time. Hold off on last egg to see if it's even necessary. The batter shouldn't be too wet, nor too dry. To test, run your finger through the batter. If you can see where your finger just passed for a few seconds and before the batter starts to flow back together, then you're set!
6) Pipe into desired shape. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes before starting to check for doneness (this goes back to you not opening the door at all or else they'll fall!). Pastries are done when they feel weightless.

The story behind this not opening the door business...
So the way this thing works is that you put together this little batter and when it goes into the oven the steam inside causes it to rise. If you were to open the oven, the steam gets released and the whole thing comes crashing down. You want to wait until they've not only risen, but have hardened into that shape. Then you need to let it dry out and become...a virtually weightless shell!

Piping options include the traditional eclair shape, Paris-Brest (ring), choux puffs (small cream puff circles!), and choux a la creme (bigger circles). The Paris-Brest is made of an outer circle, an inner circle touching it, and a ring piped on top of the two. They'll somehow rise into a single ring like above.

As for fillings, fill it up with pastry cream. For this one, I stuck to my 1/2 oz of vanilla and it was delicious. If you want praline pastry cream, just add 6 oz of praline paste. For coffee flavor, add 1 tbsp of instant espresso dissolved in 1/2 oz (1 tbsp) of boiling water.

To fill, for larger ones, you can just slice off the top and using a pastry bag, pipe in the cream. For smaller ones, you can poke a hole in the bottom using the tip of a knife and then fill in until full.

To top, I used an easy hard caramel and chocolate glaze as well as some regular old powdered sugar and some fondant.

Hard Caramel Glaze
1/2 lb granulated sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

1) Combine sugar and lemon juice in a clean saucepan, stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand.
2) Place on medium heat, don't stir until sugar starts to melt and center starts to smoke. Stir slowly.
3) Continue until caramel is desired color. Remove from heat immediately.

If you're going to top with this, dip 1/3 of the shell into the caramel. Place a slice of almond if you want on top, and let cool. Do this prior to filling.

Chocolate Glaze

3 oz water
3 oz light corn syrup
8 oz granulated sugar
10 oz semisweet/bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1) Make a syrup from the water, corn syrup and sugar. Combine in saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring often. Wipe sides of pan with a brush dipped in cold water to prevent sugar from sticking to the sides.
2) Remove from heat when the syrup starts to boil and add chocolate. Let stand for r2 minutes and whisk smooth.
3) If glaze thickens, reheat as necessary or add up to 1 tbsp of water.



Final notes: Stick in fruit if you're feeling healthy! I brought these to work and got rave reviews. However, I think anyone will give rave reviews to free food in general. Unless it's so awful you can't bring yourself to lie. And my eclair up there looks like a mummy.