Pastry: Cream Puff

Pastries, is the most challenging to bake due to its wide variety of baked products. It ranges from crumbly short crust to flaky puff pastries to light choux pastry to paper thin & flaky strudel. 

Pies have been classified on a separate section. This is used as pie crusts as well as in the preparation of tarts & pastry turnovers such as Empanadas.

Watch out baking those choux pastry because it tends to drop & sag because of the wrong oven temperature. It's usually baked until it puffs, then you lower the temperature to continue baking till golden brown, and cooled in wire rack. 

Pastry Shells

Choux pastry, Profiterole, Croquembuche or Cream Puff... It doesn't matter what it is called. This is my favorite pastry. I love the choux pastry glazed with sugar caramel and the not so sweet soft custard inside. When you bite into the crunchy puff it spells heavenly. The sugar glaze makes it perfect for the crunchy bite and they blend with the custard melodiously. A perfect rhythm to your dessert, truly a pleasant experience.

 Pastries are fun to make because once you've mastered making the different dough you can come up with your own variations using sweet or savory filling.

Prepare ingredients and baking equipment

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and heat through until butter melts. Turn off fire.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Scoop dough inside pastry bag & pipe out onto pan.

Into the oven and bake till puffed and brown.

Let it cool and prepare cream filling.

When filling is cooled, scoop it inside pastries and set aside.

Prepare caramel glaze, while still hot, pour over pastries & refrigerate. 

Cream Puff

I got this recipe from http://www.steamykitchen.com

Happy Cooking/Eating!!!  ツ

ingredients:

1 cup water1 stick butter (1/2 cup)1 cup all purpose flour1 good pinch of salt1 cup eggs (4 large eggs)

directions:

Preheat oven 425F.

1. In a medium pot, bring the water and butter to a simmer on medium heat. Add the flour and with a wooden spoon or spatula, stir very quickly in one direction. Carefully watch and you'll see that the flour starts absorbing the liquid -- and a dough will form. Keep stirring to continue cooking the flour and cook off some of the water, another minute or two.

2. You can do the next step one of two ways:

• Transfer the paste to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or to a bowl if you're using a hand mixer.
• If you want to mix the eggs directly into the dough in the pot, let it cool slightly, 4 or 5 minutes, or cool off the pan itself by running cold water over its base if you will be mixing the eggs in that pot. You don’t want to cook the eggs too quickly.

3. Add the salt and the eggs one at a time mixing rapidly until each is combined into the paste. The paste will go from shiny to slippery to sticky as the egg is incorporated. The pâte a choux can be cooked immediately at this point or refrigerated for up to a day until ready to use.

4. Spoon the dough into a large gallon-sized plastic bag (or piping bag.) Use your hands to squeeze dough towards the bottom corner. With kitchen shears, snip off just the tippy tip of the bag, about 1/4" of the tip. Pipe onto a baking sheet into little puffs, keeping the puffs 2-inches apart. With your finger, press down the peaks (as they can burn.) Bake at 425F for 10 minutes, then 350F for 18-30 minutes, depending on the size of your puffs.

Cream Puff with sugar glaze