Light Choux Pastry With Sweet Custard Filling And Fresh Strawber Recipes

SWEET CHOUX PASTRY

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F/190 degrees C.
• Put 1 1/2 cups/375 ml water, the butter, sugar and salt in a roomy saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once, beating until it forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Return the pan to the heat for a minute or two and beat to dry it out a little. (Removing moisture will allow the paste to absorb more egg, which will ultimately make the puffs lighter.)
• Remove the pan from the heat. Beat in the eggs, the equivalent of one at a time, until fully incorporated. (Do not try to add them at once because they can't be incorporated quickly enough, it makes a total mess, and furthermore you may not need all of them.) After the third addition of egg, add only enough to make dough that will fall, glossy and heavy, from the spoon. Beat in the vanilla. Spoon the dough into a piping bag.
• Mix a bit of milk into any remaining egg (if no egg left, use only milk). Have at the ready with a pastry brush for glazing. Pipe the dough into evenly-sized (about 1 inch/2.5 cm) balls on a nonstick baking sheet, leaving a good 2 inches/5 cm between them so they have room to expand. Brush the tops with the glaze and press the snouts down with a fingertip. Bake until puffed up, light, dry and golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, so they can breathe all around and will keep their shape and not go soggy.

LIGHT CHOUX PASTRY WITH SWEET CUSTARD FILLING AND FRESH STRAWBER

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the water and butter in a large pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Add in the flour and salt, stirring until the mix takes on the shape of a ball. Move the dough ball into a bowl, and rapidly beat in the eggs, taking care to mix quickly as to not cook the eggs. Use two spoon to roughly mold and transfer the dough to an ungreased baking sheet. Be sure not to use an ice cream scooper, because it will cause your pastries to be too dense and take on a doughnut-hole texture. Bake the pastries for 22-25 minutes until puffy and golden. While still in the oven, use a toothpick or chopstick to poke a whole in each of the pastries. This will allow the hot air to escape, and keep the cream puff from collapsing. Allow to cool completely.
• To make the egg yolk custard, combine the flour and cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside. On medium heat, combine the milk, vanilla, and butter, allowing it to simmer, but stirring constantly to keep from burning the milk and creating lumps. Beat the eggs and sugar together until frothy. Stir in the mixture, whisking constantly. When combined, add in the flour and cornstarch. Stir constantly until thickened. Add more sugar and vanilla to taste, you want the custard to be sweet.
• Allow the custard to cool completely. When cool, cut the pastry almost in half. Use a piping bag to pipe the desired amount of custard into the pastry. Add in cut strawberry halves, then pipe just a little more custard to the top to hold the pastry together. Garnish by drizzling melted bakers chocolate over the top with a fork and a dusting of powdered sugar.
• Best served slightly chilled!

STRAWBERRY & WHITE CHOCOLATE CHOUX BUNS

Steps:

• Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Heat oven to 200C, 180C fan gas 6. Heat the butter in a nonstick pan with 125ml water until melted. Increase the heat until boiling then remove from the heat and quickly beat in the flour until the mixture comes together as a ball. Cool 5 mins then beat the eggs with 1 tbsp water then beat into the pastry a little as a time to make a thick glossy mix.
• Spoon onto the baking tray in 8 equal size blobs then add the almonds if using poking them into the mixture. Bake for 25-30 mins until well risen and golden. Take from the oven make a slash in the sides and return to the oven for 5 mins more to dry out.
• While baking make the filling. Mix the custard powder with a little of the milk then, with the remaining milk and vanilla put in a non stick pan and cook, stirring over the heat until thickened. Stand for 5 mins then beat in the yogurt and set aside to cool, stirring frequently to make sure a skin doesn't form. When cold, stir in the grated chocolate.
• Reserve 1 tbsp of the custard mix then use the rest to fill the buns. Distribute all but 8 halves of strawberries between the buns, then blob a little of the remaining custard filling on top and add the reserved strawberries. Lightly dust with the icing sugar before serving if you like.