Choux Creme aka Cream Puffs. In the culinary arts, the word Choux refers to a type pastry dough used in making items such as éclairs, cream puffs (profiteroles), gougères, beignets and others. The word choux in French means cabbage, and choux pastry gets its name from the fact that the little balls of choux paste used to make cream puffs resemble little cabbages.

Cooking Information

Difficulty: Medium
Time: 1 hour
Number of servings: 8

Ingredients

Batter
100ml Water (3.4 fl oz)
60g Unsalted Butter (2.1 oz)
A pinch of Salt
60g Cake Flour (2.1 oz)
3 Eggs, Beaten

Pastry Cream (net weight 500g/1.1 lb)
400ml Milk (1.69 cups)
⅓ Vanilla Bean Pod
4 Egg Yolks
100g Sugar (3.5oz)
2 tbsp Cake Flour
2 tbsp Corn Starch
100ml Whipping Cream with 36% fat (3.4 fl oz)
½ tbsp Sugar
Powdered Sugar
Rum or Brandy (optional)

Directions

Choux Pastry
1. Add water, butter and sugar into pot. Bring to a boil on medium heat.
2. Once butter is completely melted and reaches boil status, turn off burner.
3. Add sieved cake flour into pot. Quickly stir mixture until it absorbs water and becomes gooey.
4. Turn on burner. Stir it until it creates a thin film foam bottom of pot.
5. Place mixture into a bowl. Flatten with spatula. This helps cool it to avoid cooking raw egg.
6. Add in beaten egg into bowl gradually while you mix with spatula until it gets smooth consistency.
7. Make 12 circles with a small cup with water flour as a guide on parchment paper.
8. Put batter into pastry bag. Squeeze batter into round shape filling each marker.
9. Mist batter with water to avoid drying.
10. Pre-heat oven to 200 Celsius (390 Fahrenheit). Bake for 30 minutes.
11. Cool choux on baking rack completely.

Choux Cream
1. Add vanilla seeds and pod into pot containing milk. Mix and gradually heat on low heat.
2. Turn off burner when it begins to boil.
3. Beat 4 egg yolks into bowl. Add sugar. Mix it with balloon whisk until it lighten in color.
4. Combine cake flour and corn starch. Sieved onto sheet of paper. Add to the egg yolk.
5. Combine mixture using balloon whisk.
6. Add milk with vanilla seed pod to the mixture.
7. Strain mixture using mesh strainer into a pot.
8. Turn on burner. Mix it until it thickens.
9. When it begins to fume off bubble, remove pot from fire.
10. Chill pastry into a tray chilled with ice.
11. Cover tray with plastic wrap. Cool it as soon as possible as it spoils easily.
12. Add sugar into a bowl of whipping cream. Whip cream until stiff peaks form.
13. Add 2/3 whipped cream to the cooled pastry and combine.

Serve
1. Make diagonal cut into choux pastry.
2. Put pastry cream into pipping bag. Give a little squeeze to remove any air inside.
3. Open the pastry and squeeze a generous amount of cream inside.
4. Finally, sprinkle on powdered sugar over the choux pastry. Serve on plate.

Video

[youtube url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYHGO4rvelo]