Since I only used about 1 cup of the pastry cream for the espresso pot de crème (combined with a cup of sweetened whipped cream), there's still about a cup and half of pastry cream left. What to do with it?
I leave Wednesday to see Hubby in Port Clinton, OH, where he's currently situated with his team and I won't be back until the following Monday so everything perishable in the fridge must be dealt with quickly. Since eating the pastry cream straight from the bowl with a spoon is inadvisable given my current interest in walking and not waddling, the best way to give it away is to make it irresistible to others. Which means: cream puffs!
Cream puffs are made from choux paste, also known as pâte à choux, which is composed of water, butter, flour and eggs. The water in the recipe is the rising agent: during the baking process, the steam it generates helps to create the distinct “puff” with hollow crevices.
According to Classic Patisserie: An A-Z Handbook, choux paste was originally invented by a chef in the court of Catherine de Medici, who followed her when she moved to France to marry the future Henry II. The recipe for the paste changed over the years, as did its name until the mid-eighteenth century when it became known as pâte à choux because it was only ever used to make Choux Buns. The recipe as we know it today was essentially perfected by Antoine Carême.
The paste serves as the basis of other desserts: profiteroles are essentially small cream puffs. Their invention is credited to Guillaume Tirel, also known as Taillevent. Eclairs are made by piping the paste in long tubes.
My aunt used to make swans, by piping thin little question marks (sans dots) for the necks, ovals for the body, and free form wings. They were actually quite lovely and elegant. She served them at my 17th birthday party. One of the swans, too close to the birthday cake, caught on fire. Watching his little head blaze away, I felt compelled to scream, “Michael Jackson! Michael Jackson!” as the singer had recently suffered a bizarre pyrotechnics accident during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in which his hair caught on fire. Even then I lacked restraint.
At what point a vanilla custard was piped into the hollow interior is not known (or at least, I couldn’t find it) but other fillings include whipped cream and ice cream. I’m a purist and prefer a vanilla pastry cream. Occasionally I'll dunk the cream puff in chocolate but they're really quite good on their own. This is my mom’s recipe for pâte à choux.
Pâte à Choux
12 large puffs or 20 small puffs
- 1 cup water
- 1 stick of butter, cut into pieces
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 4 eggs (extra large)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bring the water and butter to boil in a saucepan. Lower the heat and add the flour and salt. Using a wooden spoon, stir the ingredients until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Remove from heat and let the mixture rest for about 1 minute. Add in the eggs quickly, making sure to incorporate each egg before adding the next.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat (I'm told it's not good to butter the pan since it interferes with the rising process). Using a pastry bag and tip, pipe the paste into little mounds (or tubes for éclairs).
Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the puffs are golden. Turn off the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool. Use a knife to make a hole in the sides to pipe in the vanilla pastry cream. For éclairs, pipe the pastry cream in one end and use an offset spatula to ice the tops with melted chocolate.
Pastry cream:
2 cups milk
1 cup confectioner's sugar
5 yolks
2 T cornstarch
1 oz butter
1 T vanilla extract
Bring the milk, 1/2 the sugar, and vanilla to a boil. Remove from heat.
Whisk the remaining sugar, yolks, and corn starch in a medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in hot milk. Return to saucepan and cook over medium heat until pastry cream thickens and boils, whisking constantly, about 5 minutes. Whisk in butter. Transfer to bowl. Cover the surface of pastry cream with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and chill about 3 hours.
Comments