Cream Puffs to make your day

[cookingupadream]

I always thought that these were also known as profiteroles and would love to call them profiteroles because it sounds so unique and cool.. It's got a nicer ring to it than "cream puffs". But I found out that profiteroles, a french classic, are actually served not with whipped cream or pastry cream in the middle, but with ice cream, then drizzled with warm chocolate sauce. Now who wouldn't love that?

I had an excess of egg yolks in my fridge and the best way to use up egg yolks is to whip up some creamy vanilla bean custard! So Cream Puffs or Choux Puffs it was, filled with vanilla bean pastry cream - you CANNOT skip the VANILLA BEAN. It's a crime if you do. Or well, if you're somewhere where it is almost impossible to get a bean and you have to pay an arm and a leg for it (like in Singapore), you are forgiven and allowed to substitute it with vanilla extract/essence.

I used a Martha Stewart Recipe for this and it turned out to be quite a hit with my family and friends in school. These are nice and bite-sized, rather suitable for tea in the afternoon.



Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Pinch of salt

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F or 180 degrees C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside. Combine butter, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan, and place over medium heat. Cook until butter is melted and the water just comes to a boil.
2. Remove from heat, add flour, and stir rapidly. Return the pan to the heat, and cook mixture, stirring constantly, until it comes together and pulls away from the sides of the saucepan, about 5 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat, and let cool for 5 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating until they are completely incorporated and the pastry is smooth. Transfer the pastry to a bag fitted with a small coupler. Pipe about 1/2 tablespoon of the pastry into a mound on the prepared baking sheet; continue piping until all the pastry is used, spacing pastry about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until the puffs are golden brown all over, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.

For Custard Filling/Pastry Cream:
Ingredients

1/2  vanilla bean
2 cups milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
6 egg yolks
2 tablespoons flour (preferably rice flour for lightness)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream, softly whipped

Directions:

1. Scrape seeds from the vanilla bean. In a heavy saucepan, combine milk, vanilla bean and seeds, and 1/2 cup sugar. Scald the mixture and immediately remove from heat.
2. Beat egg yolks with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar until thick. Sprinkle in flour and cornstarch and continue beating until mixed.
3. Beat half of the hot milk into yolk mixture. Return this to the remaining hot milk and bring to a boil quickly, whisking very fast to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and strain into a bowl to cool. Stir in butter. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly on the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill completely. Immediately before using, gently fold in softly whipped cream with a spatula.
4. Transfer pastry cream to a piping bag fitted with an 1/8-inch plain tip. Insert the tip into the opening of each pastry, and pipe to fill with pastry cream.

To finish, melt some chocolate in a double boiler and drizzle over cream puffs as desired.