Pate a Choux Exam

Well I just had my second exam. I didn't make any stupid mistakes like I did last time, and I finished on time, so good on both those counts. However, the presentation of all my items was slightly off. The eclairs were slightly wonky shaped (though the chef did say overall they were good) and the coffee glaze was too hot when I used it and the chocolate was too cool. At least he said they were well filled and the cream filling was perfectly lightened. The Paris-Brest wasn't filled high enough and the filling came out the inside too much. He did say the filling's taste and texture was right on. And my choux was well made and well cooked, also good.

Overall, not a stunning success, but nothing too bad either. I'm happy.

Croquembouche

My finished croquembouche.

Well this was very hard, but kind of fun and bordering on pretty darn amazing. A croquembouche, for those of you who don't know, is a traditional French wedding cake made of cream puffs stacked to form a conical tower. Since we were just practicing technique we didn't fill the cream puffs, which saved time so that we could finish it in one class.

Decorated choux puffs waiting to be stacked.

To make a croquembouche make small choux puffs (as it turns out mine were a little too big) and fill with cream (if you are going to). Then dip the choux in caramel and (if desired) in nuts, cocoa nibs, pearl sugar, coconut, etc. Using caramel as glue, stick the puffs in a ring on a base (we used pâte brisée). Then stack a ring on top, but slightly off set so (at least in theory) you use one fewer puff to complete it. That makes the cone eventually come to a point. Continue to do that all the way up. Decorate with choux that you pipe into different shapes (if desired) and that's it, an impressive showpiece.

My croquembouche before I added the choux decorations.
I think I actually like it plain more.

Unfortunately it's easier said than done, and mine came out ever so slightly lopsided and with large gaps between the choux (I assume that's because my puffs were too big, so it was harder to fit them together.) Still, I'm proud of mine. It looked pretty and relatively like it was supposed to, so I'm happy!

Gateau Saint-Honore

My unfinished Gateau Saint-Honore

Yikes this was hard to make! Unfortunately much of the class didn't even finish theirs (and I was among that bunch.) Basically it's a cake made of choux piped onto a tart dough base topped with a ring choux puffs that are filled with crème chiboust (a pastry cream mixed with gelatin and Italian meringue) and decorated with caramel. In the middle of the ring is a decoratively piped layer of more chiboust. Honestly, I'm sure it would have been good and very pretty had I finished, but I'm not terribly enthralled with it, so I'm not too upset that I didn't finish. At least I finished the grougeres. They were excellent!

Grougeres

The photo does not do these justice.

Basically a cheese puff, these savory choux puffs are amazing. They're simple to make and absolutely delicious. All you do is make a batch of pâte à choux and, while it's still slightly warm, mix in finely grated gruyere and (if you want) salt, black pepper, ground chili pepper, and/or dried mustard. They are light and crispy and just amazing!

Paris-Brest

Named for a bicycle race from Paris to Brest, this choux paste cake is meant to look like a bicycle wheel. I don't think that it is terribly wheel-like, but it is really pretty. And it tastes really good too. Basically it's a ring of choux (eclair or cream puff dough) covered in almonds, filled with praline crème mousseline (pastry cream with butter and praline paste), and dusted with powdered sugar. It's not the easiest thing to make and it's definitely hard to make it look perfect. I don't mind though, it was excellent and relatively fun to make, even if it wasn't easy. The only problem with mine was I ran out of cream for the filling because the ring spread a little too much (probably because I didn't do a great job piping it, so it was slightly flat and wide.) Still, as I mentioned, it tasted very good!

Profiteroles

Yum! The were little choux puffs filled with fresh vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce (both the ice cream and the sauce were made by the chef and were excellent). Since the ice cream wasn't transportable, I had to eat them in class. That wasn't a problem; they were delicious. Basically they were the same choux we've been using, made into nice small rounds. Cut the top off (just a small amount, not the whole top half), put a scoop of ice cream on the bottom and top with the top and chocolate sauce. So good!

Cygnes (Swans)

Yes, I made swan shaped cream puffs. They are really very fun to make, and surprisingly not hard. First you pipe a tear drop shaped choux puff and some almost "s" shaped choux decorations (for the neck and head). Then, after baking, cut the top third (or so) off the tear drop and cut the top part in half length wise. Now there's a body to fill and two wings. We filled the body with pastry cream and then piped whipped cream on top to make it swan-like and full. If I do these again, I'd probably leave out the pastry cream, it's kind of overkill and I like whipped cream so much. Then we stuck the neck/heads in the whipped cream, dusted the wings with powdered sugar and stuck them in, and voila, swans!

Eclairs

This was not an easy lesson! It was our first attempt at pâte à choux. For me at least, the choux wasn't too terrible to make, mine took the right amount of eggs at least, so that was a good start to the day. Unfortunately after that the wheels came off the wagon. It not easy to pipe one even eclair shape, let alone a whole half sheet pan of consistently sized and shaped eclairs.  It could have been worse though. Then we made the three flavors of pastry cream (vanilla, coffee, and chocolate). That was fine, a different recipe, but still the same principle as the pastry cream I've already gotten used to making. The problems came when we piped the cream into the eclairs. It was messy and sticky and I ran out of time and cream. Then we had to dip them in pate à glacé (chocolate glaze) and vanilla or coffee fondant. They were hard to melt without over heating them and then they were messy and we were running out of time. I didn't end up doing the vanilla fondant, instead I did chocolate on the vanilla cream filled ones (and obviously on the chocolate) and coffee fondant on the coffee). I actually like the chocolate glaze more than the fondant, but I know that wasn't quite right. Ah well, it saved time so I was actually able to finish glazing them.

I have to say for all the effort, they were really good. I'm not sure they were worth all those hours (yes, they took hours) of work. Ah well, I did really enjoy eating them, so that's something!

Coffee eclair

Strawberries and Cream Puffs

   

I found these lovely wild strawberries at a local farmer’s market and I wanted to come up with a recipe to use them. My first thought was strawberries and cream, but I wanted to do something more complex than whipping some cream with vanilla extract. Then it hit me, cream puffs! I made a batch of choux puffs (choux paste is the pastry that is used to make cream puffs, eclairs, etc). Cut them in half and filled them with vanilla whipped cream. In the center of of the plate is a mound of whipped cream topped with the slightly tart strawberries. The combination of the lightness of choux puffs, the sweetness of the whipped cream and the tartness of the strawberries was just wonderful, if I do say so myself!