CHOUX PASTRY - CREAM PUFF

Attempted this pastry a few times many, many years (about a decade?) ago when I had zero knowledge in baking. What I had at that time were dense, hard puffs. I asked my teacher, who held baking classes at her house, how to adjust for softer puffs, she had no idea. At first I thought something was not right about her recipe, so I tried others. They all did not turn out well. I therefore concluded it was my terrible skills and perhaps soft puffs could not be created at home; otherwise how could people sell so well in their shops?! There must be something they added to their pastries to create such softness. There must be some trade secrets..... So I gave up. When cravings kicked in, we only bought durian puffs from our favourite store. No more making them in my own kitchen.

I chanced upon this recipe from Eugenie Kitchen. Her puffs looked so inviting! At first, I interpreted the amount of flour wrongly. Made a test batch, and it turned out hard. You could imagine how disappointed I was. My logical husband suspected the amount of flour was incorrect, so I looked up again. And YES! There was an error in recording the amount of flour on my part. So hopeful I was, I attempted one more time as I still had some durian puree and whipped cream left.

pure durian!

Praise God! Hahahaha! I got it right this time! The cream puff of my so-loved texture is finally here, in my own kitchen! So soft and light.......ahhhhhhh......... (^0^) (^0^) (^0^)

puffed up and very light , THE ONE I've been searching for!

CHOUX PASTRY - CREAM PUFF

Ingredients

114g unsalted butter (I used salted)

240ml water

1 tsp salt (I used 1/2 tsp)

2 tsp granulated sugar

150g plain flour (I used 60g plain flour and 90g cake flour for this batch)

4 eggs

Method

1. Place the first four ingredients into a heavy based pot. Over medium heat, stir and melt butter. Allow mixture to boil lightly. Meanwhile, sift the flour.

2.While the mixture is boiling, quickly pour ALL flour into the pot. (Flour is in cooking process now.) After pouring in flour, immediately remove pot from fire. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to make into a ball.

3.Put pot back onto stove. Over low fire, continue stirring until you see a very thin film at the base of pot. Remove pot from fire. Cease fire.

4. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes. Then let pastry cool for about 5 minutes.

5. Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl for about one minute.

6. When the pastry is cooled (it is alright if pastry is slightly warm), add a little beaten egg and stir to combine well. Keep adding a little egg and combining well until all the eggs are used up.

7. You should get a smooth, soft pastry and when you scoop with the spoon and shake the spoon, the pastry should drop.

8. Pipe into a piping bag and pipe out the puffs onto a lined baking tray. Space them apart, they puff up by almost three times.

9. Bake at 200C for about 20 minutes. 

10. Allow puffs to cool completely. Pipe in your preferred chill fillings.

NOTE: You can replace plain flour with all cake flour for a more delicate texture. I used a mix of plain and cake flour as I am piping in thick durian pureed cream. The next time I fill in with mousseline cream or my favourite chantilly cream, I will use cake flour only.

I pressed the cute puffs a little too hard upon filling. CHEERS!