Choux with vanilla cream
Sometimes the things I love the most are the simplest one. And eating french choux are one of them. I love the texture of it and the crispiness when you add craquelin on top of it. Just fill it with your favorite vanilla cream and it’s perfect! For me, no chantilly cream, no pastry cream either, I prefer a lighter vanilla cream, and I’m in heaven! And I’m not the only one who love choux I think… So I really wanted to share this recipe with you here :).
The vanilla cream…
As I said before, you have different choices for the vanilla cream. And it’s not easy to find the perfect one… Today I have chosen a whipped white chocolate ganache with vanilla and it’s working well! Next time I will try with a vanilla diplomat cream. A diplomat cream is a pastry cream with gelatin and in which you add chantilly cream, which makes it really light. To be continued ;)!
…and the choux!
I give you today the classic French recipe for the choux pastry, or pâte à choux. It’s made from water, and I prefer it like that. But you could use half water half milk, which makes the choux softer. Too soft for me, I like when you obtain different textures. But of course you can choose to try with milk if you want, I’m not totally narrow-minded… not totally…! The choux pastry could be scary but, trust me, if you follow each steps carefully, you will end up with good choux!
In addition to the traditional recipe, I’m using craquelin on top of the choux. Craquelin is a mix of flour, butter and brown sugar. Then you have to roll it as finely as possible, cut off circles shape and put it on top of your choux before cooking. And now I will be narrow-minded, and I ask you to make the craquelin. If you don’t want to use it, you can find another recipe! (Of course you can still make the recipe without the craquelin but I don’t want to know about it, thank you.) The craquelin will bring your choux to the next level of tastiness. It adds crispiness to a dessert which can be a bit too soft. So no choice here: add craquelin on top of your choux. For the rest of the recipe, do whatever you like ;)!
Last thing before the recipe (finally you will have the recipe, I promise!), I didn’t put any fondant icing on top of the choux like the one you find on top of eclairs. But again if you like fondant icing, please use it. Just be careful to heat it above 37°C or it won’t be shiny anymore. I’m not a fan of fondant, the craquelin is enough for me. And a simple sprinkle of icing sugar for the look and voilà!
You want the recipe maybe?!
And if you are still here (thank you :D), here is the first recipe of choux pastry on the blog. They may be some other else in the future, trust me (I’m a huge fan of Philippe Conticini’s Paris Brest) :D.
Choux with vanilla cream
Ingredients
Chou pastry
- 25 cl water
- 100 g butter
- 150 g flour
- 4-5 eggs (200g)
Craquelin
- 40 g butter
- 50 g brown sugar
- 50 g flour
Vanilla whipped white chocolate ganache
- 180 g white chocolate
- 100+140 g double cream
- 1 vanilla pod (or 1 tsp vanilla paste)
Instructions
Vanilla whipped white chocolate ganache (to make a day ahead)
- Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie.
- In a small saucepan, heat 100g of double cream with the vanilla. No need to boil it.
- Pour the cream over the white chocolate in three times. Mix well between stages with a spatula.
- Once you have an homogeneous mix, add the 140g of double cream. Put cling film upper contact with the ganache. Put it in the fridge over night or at least 3h. The ganache needs to be really cold before you whisk it.
Craquelin
- Mix together the flour, butter and brown sugar until you obtain a ball.
- Roll out this mix as finely as possible between two sheets of baking paper.
- Put it in the fridge while you are making the choux pastry.
Choux pastry
- In a saucepan, put the water, salt and butter in small pieces. Heat slowly.
- When it's slightly boiling, take it off of the heat and add the flour at once, mix with a spatula until you obtain a thick mix called "panade".
- Put it back on the heat to dry it for 1 or 2 minutes, mixing constantly. The "panade should detach from the side of the saucepan.
- Put this mix/"panade" in the bowl of your stand mixer or in a bowl if you don't use a stand mixer. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
- Preheat the oven at 200°C. Be careful with the temperature of the oven, this can depend of your oven, if your choux are colouring too quickly, put it at 180°C.
- Then, and read well the instructions now ;). Add the eggs one by one, mixing well between each. The previous egg has to be well incorporated before you add the next one! Mix with a spatula or a wooden spoon. If you are using a stand mixer, use the paddle.
- When you have added the fourth egg, slightly mix the fifth one and add it slowly to the mix, you may not need to add the whole egg nut only half of it. The chou pastry needs to be smooth, sticky and not liquid.
- Put the choux pastry in a piping bag with a pastry nozzle n°10. Pipe the choux on a baking tray line with baking parchment. You can make them small or medium size, but don't forget to adjust the time of the cooking.
- Take the craquelin out of the fridge and cut small circles of the size of the choux. Put them on top of the choux. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes or more if you have bigger ones.
- Don't open the oven's door during the cooking. You will know that the choux are cooked if their color is uniform.
- Take them out of the oven and leave them cool down on a rack.
- Once the choux are cold, whisk the vanilla ganache until you have a chantilly texture. Put it in a piping bag and fill the choux with it. You can either cut the choux in half (as I did) and fill up with the ganache, or make a little hole on the bottom of the choux and fill up through this hole.
- Either way you will love it!
Please try it. If you follow each steps you will succeed! And don’t forget that I will be happy to help you if necessary, don’t hesitate to send me a message ;)!
