Not so guilty treats – Crème Puff (profiteroles) with cookie topping

I think I break my record of baking lately. I’ve been baking literally every single day for a week which makes me have a lot to share with you guys too. So I had made a crème puff with cookie topping the other just to finish off my custard left over from making my Napoleon Cake the other day.

This is a very romantic story between me and Crème puff. I made my first Crème puff in Paris (already sound romantic enough) which is a birthday present for me from my dearest friends. At first I thought puff is really hard to make but it actually easier than I thought and it one of what I call not as fatty dessert. The only problem is you won’t be satisfied by just one, you always want more. Crème puff and Custard are like marriage, it is such a perfect match, but it also go well with ice cream. It is probably one of the few desserts that my family can finish within a day.

This is a basic choux pastry ball recipe with a cookie topping which I adopted from a Japanese recipe. You can also use the same recipe to make croquembouche, a crème puff tower to impress your friend or family.

Tips

You can use any flour to make crème puff; the matter is the higher in protein, the better the ability to hold the shape and at the same time it won’t be as soft. So in this recipe I use half plain flour and half bread flour and try to get a balance between firmness and softness.

Remember to get your ingredient prepare as there are not much waiting time for the choux pastry Dough.

Ingredient

Choux Dough                                                     Cookie Topping

30g Plain Flour                                                   25g Plain flour

30g Bread Flour                                                 25g Butter softened

40g Butter                                                           20g Sugar

100ml Water

1 Teaspoon sugar

1 pint of salt

2-3 eggs, lightly beaten

Custard

Please refer to my other recipe Napoleon Cake, you may half the quantity.

1) Lightly beat 25g butter until it becomes pale colour. Mix in the flour and sugar until it forms dough. Roll it into roll shape, cover in cling wrap paper and put into fridge to firm the dough for a bit.

2) Put the butter, water, sugar and salt in a pot. Heat until all the butter melted. Leave it aside.

3) Sift all the flour together. Pour into the pot and stir until it forms dough.

4) Put the pot back into stove and heat in medium heat until the dough forms a thin layer at the bottom. Leave it aside to cool down a bit. (This step is really important for Puff whether it can be successfully rises when baking. It may take about 1-2 minutes)

5) Pour in 1/3 of the egg with the dough and mix until it combined. (The dough and egg may not seem mix well at the beginning but keep mixing them.)

6) Repeat and mix in the egg with the dough until the dough can form a triangle shape when it slides down from the spatula.

7) Transfer the dough into pipping bag, pipe on a baking paper with about 2 cm apart.

8) Take out the cookie dough from fridge. Slice the dough and place on top of the puff. (If you don’t want to make cookie topping, simply just spray some water on top to prevent the surface dry out before it rise.)

9) Bake it at 200C Fan forced for 18-20 minutes for it to raise. Then reduce the heat to 150C for another 15 minutes.

10) Use Chopstick to poke a hole on the side of the puff and pipe in custard filling. Or Put it half open and fill with ice cream.

Bon Appetite.