Choux Trio

Ingredients
Choux Pastry : - 100ml Water - 50g Butter, unsalted - 1tsp Sugar - 1/4tsp Salt - 60g Plain Flour - 2 Eggs - 1/2 Egg Vanilla Custard Cream Filling : - 4 Egg Yolk - 80g Sugar - 60g Plain Flour - 400ml Milk - 200ml Fresh cream - 1/2tsp Vanilla Bean Paste (or 1/2 Vanilla Pod) - 1/4tsp Vanilla Extract - 1tbs Cointreau (Rum is great as well) - 1tbs Butter , unsalted To make the other flavour variation, use the Vanilla cream as the base, omit the Vanilla Extract, and replace with the following : - 1tbs Green Tea powder + 1tbs hot water (mix to form paste) or - 2tbs Instant Coffee powder + 1tbs hot water (mix together)
Instructions
There are many cream filling variations that you can do, chocolate, raspberry, caramel, etc... I choose the green tea, coffee and vanilla for the colour contrast *_^ Choux Pastry 1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C 2. In a pan, combine water, butter, sugar and salt, and heat until all the butter has melted and the mixture starts to boil. 3. Dump in the flour, and stir vigorously ! Do not leave the pan or the mixture will burn. 4. When the mixture comes together into a lump (paste) continue cooking it for about a minute (just to ensure that the flour is all cooked out). 5. Remove from heat 6. Beat the 2 eggs lightly, then pour a little bit into the flour paste. Mix in well to combine. 7. Continue adding the remainder of the egg, bit by bit and make sure you mix well after each addition. 8. Towards the end, the mixture will become quite sticky, then add the extra 1/2 egg, mix well again. 9. Continue mixing until the gluten has formed. It's ready when the paste becomes stringy, sticky and smooth. 10. Place in a piping bag, and pipe out mounds of the pastry (you can make huge ones, or tiny bite size, just remember it will expand during baking, so leave enough space in between) 11. Wet your finger tip with water, and press down the peaks on your choux mounds. By doing this, you'll definetly get perfectly rounded surface instead of a peak *_^ 12. Before putting them into the oven, sprinkle/spray some water all over them. The water vapour will help them rise. 13. Do not open the oven when it's not ready, or they will collapse. You know it's ready when it's golden brown all over and you can't see any more water bubbling on the surface of the choux. 14. Take out and let cool before filling them. Custard Cream Filling : 1. In a large bowl, place the egg yolk and half of the sugar. Whisk until slightly thick. Set aside. 2. In a pan, combine milk, cream and sugar. Warm the mixture over low heat, when it start to bubble on the side, take it off the heat. 3. Into the whisked egg yolk + sugar mix, add in the flour, and mix to combine. 4. While whisking with one hand, pour in a little bit of the warm milk mixture. Mix quickly or you'll ended up with scrambled egg :) 5. Add in the remainder of the warm milk slowly and continue whisking while pouring. 8. Return the mixture into the pan and place on low heat. 9. Add in the Vanilla Bean Paste or Vanilla Bean 10. Again, do not stop stirring ! Keep stirring until the mixture thickens to a custard consistency. 11. Remove from heat, add in the Vanilla extract (or Green Tea paste or Coffee mixture), Cointreau and butter. Mix well 12. Place a cling film on the surface of the custard before putting it into the fridge to completely cool. The film will prevent skin formation when it's cooled.