Choux Cream Puffs (French Hollow Pastry with Vanilla Custard)
Choux cream puffs begin with a cooked paste of water, butter, and flour - the pate a choux - into which eggs are beaten one at a time until the dough is smooth and glossy. Piped into mounds and baked at high heat, the moisture in the dough converts to steam, inflating each puff into a hollow shell with a crisp, golden exterior. Once cooled, the shells are filled with vanilla pastry cream through a hole in the bottom or side. The contrast is immediate upon biting: the thin, shattering crust gives way to cool, smooth custard that floods the palate. The pastry cream is made from milk, egg yolks, sugar, and starch, cooked until thick and then chilled. A vanilla bean split and scraped into the milk elevates the cream from ordinary to fragrant. The shells must be completely cool before filling, and filled puffs should be eaten within a few hours, before the moisture from the cream softens the pastry and erases the textural contrast that makes them compelling.
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Instructions
- 1
Bring water, butter, salt to a boil.
- 2
Add flour at once and stir vigorously until dough comes together.
- 3
Cool slightly then add eggs one at a time, mixing well.
- 4
Pipe rounds onto baking sheet, bake at 200C for 30 minutes.
- 5
Fill cooled puffs with pastry cream made from milk, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla.
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