Purple Sweet Potato Custard Cream Puffs

It's been a while since I made choux pastry and custard. I still remember how I struggled with them in the beginning of my baking days. Now, it's sort of second nature (even though I don't make them too often).

Look how far I've come.

The choux pastry recipe yielded perfectly golden brown and hollowed shells. And the pastry cream base turned out thick and creamy! The custard base was further blended with mashed sweet potato to make them purple sweet potato-y! I left some small chunks of sweet potato to give the custard an extra bite.

Choux Pastry
recipe adapted from Collecting Memories
makes about 30 mini puffs

65ml milk
65ml water
50g unsalted butter*
1/2tsp organic coconut palm sugar
pinch of salt
75g bread flour
2 eggs, beaten

*used salted butter and skipped salt

1. Preheat oven to 356F and line baking trays with parchment paper.
2. In saucepan over high heat, bring milk, water, butter, sugar, and a pinch of salt to a boil.
3. Remove from heat, add flour and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until smooth.
4. Return to a medium heat and stir constantly for 1 minute until the dough comes away from the sides, forms into a ball, and a thin white film forms at the bottom of the pan.
5. Remove from heat and transfer dough to to mixing bowl.
6. Beat and let cool slightly before whisking in eggs one at a time. Whisk eggs until fully incorporated, and the dough is smooth.
7. Transfer to piping bag, and pipe mounds of dough. Smooth out any pointed peaks with a moistened finger.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and puffed.
9. Transfer to a wire rack and cool before filling.

Step 2: bring to a boil.

Step 3&4: stir stir stir!

Step 5: remove from heat to mixing bowl.

Step 6: beat eggs in one at a time.

Step 7: pipe.

Smooth out any peaks with a moistened finger.

Post bake!

Look at that smooth bottoms! Get a Silpat!

Perfectly hollowed shells.

Purple Sweet Potato Pastry Cream/Custard

recipe adapted from A Busy Mom's Blog

makes enough for 30 mini puffs + a little more

3 egg yolks
250ml milk
50g organic coconut palm sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
30g cornstarch
pinch of salt
20g unsalted butter*
150g cooked purple sweet potato, mashed**

*used salted butter and skipped salt
**potato was first baked, peeled then boiled and mashed; probably yielded a drier mash than just simply boiling with skin on. Recommend boiling with skin on to preserve moisture and color.

1.Whisk together egg yolks, 60ml milk , sugar and vanilla extract. Mix in cornflour and salt.
2. In a saucepan, bring remaining 190ml milk to boil. Pour hot milk in small stream into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
3. Once incorporated, strain mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan.
4. Over medium heat, whisk until mixture thickens up. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.
5. Leave to cool. When cooled, blend in mashed purple sweet potato with a hand blender till mixture is smooth.
6. Cover with cling wrap, ensuring that the cling wrap touches the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate till ready to use.

Step 4: after addition of butter.

Step 5: blend in mashed potato.

*Purple sweet potato custard*

Assembly time!

Since the pastry cream turned out a bit thick, it didn't go through my small piping tip. I ended up cutting the tip out and piped straight from the bag to the halved shells. Finally time to eat!

Mini puffs ready for consumption!

Taste: 4 stars out of 5

Distinct sweet potato flavor and perfect sweetness.

Texture: 3.5 stars out of 5

Choux pastry shells softened as they cooled. Pastry cream was on the thick and dense side. Next time, I'd probably try another choux pastry recipe for crisp shells and lighten custard with some soft whipped cream.