Tuesday, June 17, 2008

TWD: Peppermint Cream Puff Ring


To say that I was nervous about this week's recipe is an understatement. I was terrified! Pate a choux??? I couldn't even pronounce it. However, Caroline of A Consuming Passion chose this recipe with that very thought in mind. Trying something new.


Putting my best foot forward I started this week's recipe. I chose to make 1/4 of the recipe just in case I did manage to pull it off I didn't want dozens of cream puffs around for me to eat. I actually didn't have any trouble with the pastry. It cooked nicely. I followed other recommendations to let it cool a bit before adding the egg and that worked great. I piped out 7 little éclairs and a mini cream puff. I didn't think about the baking time before I put them in so I ended up cooking mine at 425 for 15 minutes and they were done. They did come out slightly lopsided though.


My vanilla pastry cream did not come together quite so easily. I am still not exactly sure what went wrong. I tempered the eggs, I'm pretty sure I brought it to a boil and cooked it a bit longer. It looked like a pastry cream at this point. Then, I let it cool for 5 minutes before adding the butter like Dorie says and that's when it turned into scrambled eggs. It didn't taste bad but the texture was not creamy at all. I think I must have overcooked the cream. I'm not one to be defeated so I will try this again but I ran out of time for this week.

I didn't use Dorie's chocolate glaze recipe. I was going to but tried to take a shortcut by putting it in the microwave and I burned it. I just melted some milk chocolate chips with a little milk and then dipped the éclairs in.

My husband enjoyed the éclairs and I'm glad I attempted this recipe. To see much more fabulous looking cream puffs and the original cream puff ring, please visit our TWD blogroll.

11 comments:

Prudy said...

I did eclairs too. They look so purdy on that blue plate. Glad you enjoyed them!

Engineer Baker said...

Mine were lopsided too - they kept tipping over like drunken sailors! Glad you got over the hump and can now make choux!

Jacque said...

Your little eclairs are so CUTE! I'm glad to hear the pastry worked out for you.

ostwestwind said...

Congrats, you did it! Your puffs looks pretty and now you can make whenever you want

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Jules Someone said...

Glad the choux part worked out for you. The puffs look adorable.

April said...

Your eclairs looks really nice and really yummy!

Anonymous said...

Your little éclairs look great!

Heather B said...

ohh yum! Eclairs! Great job!

Susie Homemaker said...

see, nothing to fear here...just eclairs! you did great - it's okay to take shortcuts!

LyB said...

Your éclairs look perfectly delicious!

Jaime said...

your eclairs look nice. i made eclairs and cream puffs