This week with Dorie we’re making pâte à choux, a magical pastry that’s cooked twice (once on the stove and once in the oven), puffs, and tastes so light that you think it could be good for you! Ever since I saw a picture of choux swans, I’ve wanted to make them. And this week I had my chance.Pâte à choux (pronounced “shoe”), also called choux paste, dates back to 1540 and comes from the word “choux”, which means cabbage in French— that’s what pâte à choux looks like when baked as traditional cream puffs, supposedly.
Traditional choux paste contains four simple ingredients: butter, water, flour, and eggs. Dorie’s recipe includes some milk, sugar and salt for extra flavor. I ended up adding a bit of extra flour (about ¼ cup) so that the batter would come together in the pot. This meant that I had to add an extra egg as well, but everything worked out fine in the end.
Pâte à choux is such a versatile recipe, and can be used for both sweet and savory dishes, such as Gougères or chouquettes, Pommes dauphine, Croquembouche, Paris-Brest, and Gnocchi à la Parisienne.
Swans
To make the swans, you can pipe teardrop shapes, which become the wings when cut in half. I used a cream puff bottom for the base of the swan. The other half of the cream puff can be cut to make wings if you don't want to pipe out tear drop shapes.
To make the neck, pipe the number "2" on parchment paper. Make sure you watch the oven when you bake these since they burn really fast. (I only had one that was photo-worthy!)
To make the eyes, use a toothpick and dot some melted chocolate at the end of the number "2".
Links
Here’s a great article about choux pastry.
Here’s a video of making choux paste swans.
Recipe
You can find the recipe for Peppermint Cream Puff Ring in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or at Bon Appetit. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Caroline of A Consuming Passion who chose the recipe for this week (and has also posted the recipe).
Tasting NotesThe minty, fresh taste of the cream with the lightness and slightly chewy texture of the choux and the richness of the chocolate was a perfect combination of flavors. I absolutely loved it! It was worth all the pastry bags I went through to make this dessert!
My kids enjoyed some of the cream puffs filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce since their palate is not refined enough to like mint! Another favorite was the peppermint cream over raspberries. Mmm, delicious.
I also used the peppermint cream on top of lemon bars! Mint and lemon are a winning combination, and this cream is so versatile.
You can store the cream puffs in an airtight container for a week or in the freezer. This is so dangerous to have on the counter that I think I’ll have to find room in the freezer! Another winning recipe from Dorie!
Note: I just read several great posts about choux paste over at Joe Pastry. Check it out!
Recipe for Next Week (June 24)
Mixed Berry Cobbler on pages 416-417 chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life.
39 comments:
Umm... wow. Overachieve much? The swan looks fabulous, and ice cream is always a winner.
I can't even believe this!
Cream Puff Art!
Wonderful!!!
Whoa lady, mint and lemon? Bold. The swans are just wonderful, glad you got to try it out.
Swans? Now you're just showing off. ;-) Beautiful all around!
Great minds think alike, I guess... I wanted soooo to do swans and didn't for fear it might have been seen as to 70-ish (then again, I couldn't care less what people think or what is in fashion) but since it was only my second attempt for "pâte à choux" (and you should have seen the first attempt!) you'd understand why I stuck to the plain and simple! LOL
Everything looks amazing, Shari!
Great job... AGAIN!!! LOL
My blog is giving me fits today...yikes. Am posted, but people can't get on, or so I have been told...hope tomorrow goes better for Whisk Wednesday!
Gorgeous...all of them. When I was looking at my book the other day, I thought, "Shari is going to do these swans, I just know it!" I was so right...see how well I know you already???? They turned out just beautifully elegant...so much fun to see them. Your other ideas were great...thanks for sharing them all.
look at that swan!! fabulous!
I love that swam! That is simply gorgeous! :)
I love the swan--too cute! Everything else looks great, too.
Mint and lemon? I never would have put those together. Great job with all of variations (again).
swans--we did those in cooking school. yours are so pretty! i love the delicate neck!
Simply beautiful!
awwww! I love your choux swans! Great job!
a SWAN?? Jesus! Too cool...I am so sheltered I had never even heard of that! (yes,a swan, I know what THAT is, just not a pastry swan! :) )
Beautiful, beautiful job!
My, my, this swan looks adorable! too cute to eat! you did really great. I should try making this too. gorgeous!
How ridiculously cool is that swan? Soooo cool! Fantastic job on all your variations!
Everything looks just beautiful. I love the idea of the cream with the raspberries, sounds delicious!
Wow, swan, ring, puffs!? Those are BEAUTIFUL! Great job Shari! I'm glad you liked the mint, I thought it was delicious too-
hi,
im always interested in the technicalities with recipes, and just wondering why you added an extra egg after the extra flour?
wouldnt it make the batter "wet" again?
thanks ( :
whaaa??? swans??
love it!! love... it. adorable. love your photos too, of course :)
Thanks everyone for stopping by. Yes, I'm re-living the 70s, but I still think they're cute!
tytty - Thanks for asking about the choux paste. I made the choux paste twice. The first time I didn't notice how wet the cooked batter was, and plowed ahead with the recipe. The cream puffs didn't rise at all. Flat as pancakes. The next time, I checked some pictures of how the dough is supposed to look after cooking, and it looks like one big ball. The second time, I kept cooking mine hoping it would clump together, and after awhile I thought adding some extra flour would bring it together, and it did.
Then, when I added the eggs in the stand mixer, it was clumpy and dry and not at all something that could be piped. One more egg made it wet enough to pipe. The pictures in the article I link to really helped me get the batter right. Hope that helps!
Shari
What a fantastic job you did! Great post and great photos!
Those pics are gorgeous! Love a swan.
I made swans too! Choux paste is so much fun.
Shari, you are so talented, sweetie! This is absolutely beautiful - I'd hesitate for a couple of seconds before eating it. ;)
Very creative and beautiful!
Your swan is so beautiful - what an elegant end to a meal that would make.
How totally adorable! Lurve the swan and I might have to attempt it someday when I am feeling more bold. Great job!
Clara @ I♥food4thought
That looks so good!
I made creampuff swans a little while ago but I have a heavy hand when piping and their necks were enormous! Not delicate and pretty at all...
i'm speechless. stupendous job! love your photos.
Amazing job! So creative!
Love the swan, you're always pushing the envelope of creativity and it's fabulous!
Your swans are absolutely elegant... I love the creativity you consistently bring to our weekly assignments!
Thanks to everyone for dropping by! I'm going to have to make them again because only one swan's neck actually looked good! The rest were burnt, brittle, and ugly. You only need one for a picture!! My secret's out. :)
WOW! swans? puffs? and a ring?! you put me to shame! everything looks lovely, esp the first pic!
Shari, this is perfect. Well done! Your photos are gorgeous.
That looks amazing! I've recently just started my own food blog as well, and I'd love some comments on what you think! So far only one recipe up, but here's to hoping!
Maybe culinary school isn't such a bad idea...
That looks fantastic!
Also, it looks very difficult.
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