bigné alla panna/cream puff

I am not sure why, for years, I have been weary of pâte à choux, the light pastry dough used to make cream puffs, eclairs, profiteroles, & croquembouches. I never made pâte à choux by myself, other than in my pastry classes, until recently that is.  In fact, I even skirted the whole cream puff thing at work when the Sugar Coma Tour came through.  Since I make a Sublime Donut Ice Cream as one of the desserts for dinner service, I suggested Donut Profiteroles for the event.  Ha!  Ha! Luckily, Kamal humored our plight with some special donut holes (little bites he doesn’t really make).

Thanks for the pic, Mark!

Even with my cream puff avoidance a couple of weeks back, I was faced with pâte à choux again when designing a dessert tray at work for a catering order.  No one to blame but myself really.  I am the one who talked myself into it, since Chef gave me carte blanche on the tray. Needing  something easy with which to present a rich pudding I made from the scraps of the flourless chocolate cake, I decided to go with pâte à choux puffs to balance the chocolatey goodness.  While there might have been a moment or two that the pâte à choux caused me an expletive here or there, I am happy to say I successful passed my pâte à choux wall of determent….after two attempts.  Hee hee hee…

Despite making a full batch, I only needed 12 for the order.  So, I brought the rest home to play with.  I decided to dabble in a profiterole or two. Now, I know what you may be thinking.  “That’s a really large scoop of ice cream!” Actually, the pâte à choux puffs I made were really small and, even with my tiny scoop, the ice cream seemed like a mountain.

Here is what I learned during my baking.  First, work quickly, from start to finish.  Leave distractions in the other room.  Your attention to the process with will help the pâte à choux keep its airiness and puffiness. Second, eggs might vary slightly with the various sizes, even within the same batch.  So, although the recipe calls for 4 eggs, I paused after the first 3 before continuing, to make sure the batter didn’t become too liquidy.  If that happened, my puffs wouldn’t hold the shape during the baking process. Lastly, I bake the pastries until they are golden and dry. Undercooked pâte à choux will collapse once out of the oven.

While I enjoyed conquering my pâte à choux apprehension, I have also enjoyed getting back to what I love.  Cakes. May has been good to me, as I have had several cake orders, two of which are coming up in the coming weeks.  Most recently, the president of CCAE (and a great friend), asked me to prepare desserts for the end of the year recognition ceremony, a dinner that honored retiring members and the new board.The theme was “Old Hollywood”, and while Bren rocked the food, I attempted to put the desserts on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I also had some baby cookies to make.

This week? House cake for a new home owner’s closing day.  Next week?  An Elmo Cake for a 1 year old’s big day.  Fun stuff!

Profiteroles

Pâte à choux
1 cup (230 cc) water
4 tablespoons (55 gr) unsalted butter
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140 gr) flour
4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 375 F. Melt butter, water, sugar and salt in a saucepan.  Add all the flour, cook and stir until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and is a little dry. Transfer dough into the mixing bowl of a mixer. Beat (with the paddle attachment) at medium-low speed to cool. Increase mixer speed and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough/paste has absorbed all the eggs and smooth, it is ready to be piped and will hld its shape.

Using a pastry bag fitted with a round tip (I use a 1A), pipe  quarter-sized rounds onto a lined baking sheet. Flatten any peaks with a wet finger.

Bake until dry, firm and golden brown, about 30 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet, on a wire rack.

Vanilla Ice Cream
4 egg yolks
8 oz. milk
8 oz. heavy cream
100g sugar
1tsp vanilla paste (or extract)

Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring the pan slowly up to boiling point. Add paste, remove from heat, and leave to infuse for about 30 minutes.

In a bowl, beat and mix together the egg yolks and sugar until thick. Combine milk and egg mixture and whisk until blended. Slowly heat, stirring until the custard thickens. Do not boil!!  When you can see a film form over the back of your spoon it’s time to remove the saucepan from the heat*. Set aside to cool. Once the custard base is cold, stir in the cream. Transfer the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

* (proper doneness is when a thin film adheres to a metal spoon – called “coat a spoon” – Test the custard by drawing a line with your finger across the coating on the back of the spoon. If it doesn’t run, and leaves a clear path, you’re good to go. If it doesn’t coat spoon, your custard will not set up properly.)