Won't choux be my baby?

It's been awhile, Sugar High Friday, but I'm back! Sugar High Friday is a monthly event, started by Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess and is being hosted this month at Seven Spoons. This month's theme particularly intrigued me, because it's not a flavor, it's not an ingredient, it's a color. White at that. When I think of white foods, many things come to mind: rice, marshmallows, milk, but none of them were inspiring me. At first, I was going to do a black and white cookie, but that idea wasn't sticking. I thought about it a bit more, and I came up with a fabulous idea...what is it, you say? Cream puffs. Japanese cream puffs to be exact. Why do I specify Japanese cream puffs? Easy, no other cream puffs compare! If you've tried Beard Papa, you know what I mean. But for the record, I like Beard Papa's custard, but the actual choux is still not up to par for me..it's too crunchy. I like the choux when it basically melts in your mouth and you can't distinguish the pastry dough from the custard cream. I ate a bunch of cream puffs in Osaka - and those are still my favorite.

Anyhow, if you've never had a cream puff - they are usually small (sometimes gargantuan) pouffy pastries filled with a custard cream. Sometimes, they're filled with whipped cream (but I personally think those are kind of gross). Anyhow, the custard is usually white-ish and the choux is also lighter in color, so I thought this would be perfect.

To try to find an authentic Japanese recipe, I figured I had to go straight to the source, a Japanese recipe. I tried this one. It looked simple enough - the one ingredient I lacked was the Japanese flour, called Hakuriki-ko. I went by a Japanese market and bought some, but I'm guessing pastry flour or cake flour would be just fine.


Surprisingly, these are pretty simple to make. It's just a bit time consuming as there are two parts - and you have to wait for the custard to cool down - but otherwise they're pretty simple! The recipe isn't perfect by any means - but I'm pretty happy with it. The custard was not bad! A bit eggier than I'd like, but still pretty darn good. Not too sweet, which is how I like it.

So the custard isn't white-white - let's just say it's more of an off-white, let's call it a "nonchalant white". (p.s. yes, that color does exist - courtesy of Sherwin-Williams)

My adaptation of the Choux Cream recipe:
Ingredients
Custard:
3 Egg yolks
80g Sugar
40g Hakuriki-Ko (Pastry Flour/Cake flour) - Sifted
300ml Milk
20g Unsalted butter
1/2 vanilla bean - scrape to remove seeds (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)

Choux Pastry:
100 ml water
40g Unsalted butter
60g Hakuriki-Ko (Pastry Flour/Cake flour) - Sifted
2 Eggs
1 Egg white

Make the custard approximately 1.5-2 hours before serving
1. Mix the egg yolks, sugar and about 1/4 of the milk in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Once mixed, add the flour, remaining milk and vanilla bean seeds.
3. Stir frequently until mixture thickens. (make sure you stir frequently or the mixture will burn)
4. Once custard thickens, remove from heat and add butter.
5. Put custard through sieve.
6. Put plastic wrap directly on the surface of custard and put into fridge to cool.

About 30 minutes before serving, begin preparing choux pastry
1. Mix water and butter in saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add all flour at once, mix over low heat. Stir for 1-2 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and add one egg at a time to the mixture. Make sure you fully integrate each egg into the dough before adding the next egg. It'll seem impossible for awhile - but it will happen!
4. Prepare cookie sheet covered with greased parchment paper.
5. Boil some water
6. Use either a spoon or pastry bag to prepare 10-12 balls.
7. Put a roasting pan on the bottom of the oven and pour boiling water in.
8. Put in cookie sheet and bake for 20 mintues.
9. Once 20 minutes pass, turn-off oven and leave choux's inside.
10. Remove choux's from the oven and poke a hole in the side with a knife.
11. Put custard into a pastry bag. Insert a good amount of custard into each choux.
12. Stuff mouth with choux creams.

Categories: SHF, SugarHighFriday, ChouxCream