Puff Piece: Cream Puffs

Shall I re-introduce myself perhaps? Unfortunately, I have yet to proclaim "I have a reader comment that isn't from a family member/friend!!" like the wonderful Julie - so I'll go straight into it.

Jess bought me a beautiful cookbook for Christmas - Baking At Home with The Culinary Institute of America and flipping through it, I just completely consumed! Kinda like the Brioches grew legs and walked into my kitchen, took off their little top hats...let the buttery steam out...mmm..

There aren't as many photos as I wish there were, but it's really elegantly done. Tons of tips and techniques as well! I'm considering one day applying to the wonderful school...would the accept a vegetarian? I think they have a pastries and baking program (yes, I've already looking into it. I'm searching for sponsors...anyone? really) which probably wouldn't involve too much non-vegetarian things. So anyway, I decided to try out the Cream Puffs! As usual, I also did some research off other blogs and I found someone that tried to replicate the Beard Papa Chocolate-topped cream puffs, and omigosh - its so simple!!! I'm tempted to not share this...but alas, I'm a giving person. Ha!

SO, Pāte á Choux and Pastry Cream from the CIA cookbook, Chocolate topping from the uber cute Wendy at mybutteryfingers. There are quite a few components to this, at least for me - but I'll do it step by step here...

Pāte á Choux - you can actually make these ahead of time if you're living in a pretty dry area. The idea here is to get some volume in the center of the puff (err...hence the name) so the CIA recommends starting at a high temperature (to get the rise) and then lowering the temperature to dry the puffs out. Look at all these things I'm learning already! They better accept me when I apply. Here's what you need

1 c. whole or low-fat milk. come on - whole!!!

8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 c. bread flour, sifted

3 large eggs

1 large egg white

Preheat to 190C/375F, baking sheet lined with parchment or Silpat ♡ Also, you'll need a pastry bag with a round tip - or, like the macarons, just cut a corner off of a zip lock bag.

1. Combine the milk, butter, sugar and salt into a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and add the sifted flour all at once
3. Stir well
4. Gross right?
5. Cook the grossness while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Before you know it, the grossness will pull away from the sides of the pan, takes around 5 minutes.
6. Transfer to your standing mixer (paddle attachment) and beat on medium speed until it's cooled to body temperature.
7. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula after each egg.
8. Beat in the egg white. It should be the consistency of cake-batter right now...if I did it correctly!
9. Transfer the dough into a pastry bag.
10. Pipe the dough into golf-ball sized balls onto the baking sheet.
11. If you want, see below on how to Beard-Papa-ize these guys. If you want these puffs beard free, keep going...
12. Brush the unbaked puffs lightly with egg wash (1 large egg whisked with 2 tbsp cold milk).
13. Bake until the pastries are puffy and lightly browned (around 20 minutes)
14. Lower the oven temperature to 162C/325F until they're a rich golden brown (another 20-25 minutes). SO MUCH WAITING.
15. Remove from the oven and puncture a small hole in the side of each of the puffs. I learned this from another blog...you need a little hole on the side of the puff to help the steam release from the center. It's a big no-no to have moist-centered puffs, and that happens when the steam is trapped.

Chocolate Topping

40g cake flour

10g cocoa powder

50g unsalted butter

50g granulated sugar

1. Cream together the butter and sugar. I know...we're always creaming.
2. Fold in the flour and cocoa powder.
3. Put the dough on a piece of plastic wrap and press together to form a log - kind of like the icebox cookies that we made before...
4. Chill the logs for at least 30 minutes or until the dough is stiff.
5. Slice into around 20 portions, or however many puffs you are planning on baking.
6. Place one chocolate slice on each of the (unbaked) puffs.

Pastry Cream - an OH MAN is this good. If you have any left over, you will most likely feel the urge to use it to dip, spread, baste, marinate....yes - that good. I made this more than a month ago and I can still smell the creamy vanilla.

1/4c. cornstarch

3/4c. sugar (divided use)

2c. while milk (divided use)

4 large egg yolks, lightly beaten (use the egg-whites for you macarons, dolls! PS. I made some Matcha and Red Bean Paste macarons yesterday)

1 pinch salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Combine the cornstarch with 1/4 cup sugar in a mixing bowl, then stir in 1/2 cup of the milk.
2. Blend the yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
3. Stir with a wooden spoon until completely smooth
4. Prepare an ice bath (dishes that are rich in eggs need ice bathes because it helps speed the cooling process to prevent scrambled eggs from happening). Use a large bowl, but make sure it can fit the mixing bowl your mixture is in. Add ice and then enough cold water to come halfway up the side of the mixing bowl that you'll want to cool down.
5. Combine the remaining 1 1/2 cups milk with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the salt in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil.
6. Temper the egg mixture by gradually adding about one third of the hot milk mixture, whisking constantly.
7. Add the remaining milk mixture into the eggs.
8. Return the mixture to the saucepan (is this confusing? time to get organized!!!)
9. Continue cooking over medium heat while stirring vigorously with a whisk until it comes to a boil and the whisk leaves a trail in the pastry cream (5-7 minutes).
10. When you get to that point, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and the butter
11. Transfer to the ice bath
12. Stir occasionally until the cream is cool
13. Spoon into a piping bag and fill the puffs!!

Blogging is a full time job isn't it...