Before I started enjoying baking these, I enjoyed eating them first. It was just sooooo terribly exciting an experience to have cream oozing out of the pastry that’s in your mouth. It’s definitely not a good idea to be talking with these in your mouth and it’s not only because your mom says you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full! The thing with this pastry is that I have always known them as cream puffs. Only when I started trying to bake these did I find out that they’re called choux pastry and if you, like me, haven’t a clue how to pronounce the French word, share my embarassment. When I finally learnt that it’s pronounced as “shoe” and not “chauks” with the “ch” as in chair, you would probably understand why I would have loved to bury my head in the ground. Tsk…why can’t they just spell the way it’s pronounced. Who cares if it’s a shoe pastry or a choux pastry? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet….right Mr Shakespeare?

Pretty on the outside, empty on the inside…

just wating to be filled with gooey goopy cream

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup unsalted butter - cut into small cubes
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
4 eggs

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 390F.
2. In a bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Stir to mix.
3. In a heavy saucepan, combine water and butter. Bring to the boil making sure the butter is completely melted. Turn off the heat.
4. Immediately add in the flour mixture into the hot butter mixture. Stir the mixture quickly until it becomes a ball of dough and leaves the sides of the pot.



5. Transfer the dough into a large mixing bowl and leave aside to cool to about lukewarm.
6. When the dough is ready, drop in the egg* one at a time beating well after each addition. *(Beat each egg lightly before adding into the dough. )
7. When the batter becomes shiny and soft enough to be squeezed out of a piping bag, it is ready.



8. Place the batter into a piping bag and make spirals on a non-stick baking tray. Leave some space between spirals.

         A little blur but good enough to make out the spirals!

       This is before I put the egg wash on it.

1. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the insides of the puff is dry.
2. Leave to cool before cutting or piping filling into it. You can use any of these - ice-cream, cream filling, durian cream….
3. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

 Egg Wash (Optional):

Beat 1 egg with a pinch of salt. Dip your finger or a brush and spread it on the top of the puffs before baking.

Tips:

• If you’re not using a non-stick tray, remember to either grease it well or use parchment paper to line it.
• Instead of a piping bag, you could use a DIY one using a ziploc bag. Fill the bag with the batter and push the batter to one of the corners. Don’t seal the bag. Cut a very small hole at the tip of the bag where the batter has been pushed to. Lift the bag and you’ve got your very own DIY piping bag.



• Dip your finger in a little water to flatten the tip of the spiral which is sticking up so that it doesn’t burn.
• To give the cream puffs a healthy glow, use the egg wash recipe above.
• To store cream puffs: Freeze the cream puffs in ziploc bags. Leave them out to thaw before serving.

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by the process or you don’t believe that dough can be made in this weird way, watch these. I like this video because it’s as clear as it can get. The second video is the jazzy cool way to make cream puffs. Bon appetit!