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.

Tofu Chocolate Mousse Puffs

These tofu chocolate mousse puffs are best consumed when fresh.

Crispy shells with a rich tofu chocolate mousse. Nom!

Tofu Chocolate Mousse

recipe adapted from Wildwood

28 oz firm tofu
11oz dark chocolate
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
5oz chocolate soy milk

1. Drain water from tofu and blend until smooth.
2. Add vanilla extract and soy milk, blend briefly.
3. Melt chocolate in double boiler.
4. Combine melted chocolate and tofu in blender.
*check consistency; add more soy milk if needed
5. Chill in fridge until use.

Blend tofu until smooth.

Melt chocolate over double boiler.

Keep an eye on this to avoid burning.

Combine melted chocolate with tofu.

This recipe is literally just combining all the ingredients together. Instead of melting chocolate in double boiler, simplify it by melting it in the microwave on intervals! A good mousse has to be smooth, light and fluffy, so I would also suggest sieving the tofu mixture before the addition of the melted chocolate.

I decided to serve them in a puff. Alternatively, serve them atop crushed graham crackers in a cup or in a pie crust. The crispy hard texture of the crackers/crust will complement well with the mousse. 

Cream Puff Shells

1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1 cup AP flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
4 or 5 eggs, room temperature 

1. Place milk and butter in pan and bring to a boil.
2. Add flour mixture in one swoop and stir quickly with a wooden spoon.
3. Remove from heat when paste becomes dry and does not cling to the spoon or sides of pan.
4. Cool for about 2 mins.
5. Add eggs one at a time and beat vigorously after each addition until smooth.
*check consistency; batter should be smooth and gently falls back on itself when piped.
6. Pipe or spoon golf ball sized rounds onto parchment lined baking sheet.
7. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes and lower to 350F for 20 more minutes or until puffs are golden and thoroughly cooked.
8. Remove from oven and pierce with a pairing knife to release steam.
9. Let cool and fill with mousse!

Bring milk and butter to a boil.

Add eggs one at a time and beat vigorously.

Texture should be smooth.

Looking back, I probably should've added 5 eggs. The batter was on the thick side making it hard to spoon. They still puffed up nicely though.

Pipe them 1-1.5" apart.

Remove from oven and cut a slit on the side/bottom to release the steam.

The puffs were lovely bite size indulgence. The tofu/soymilk replacing the usual heavy cream resulted in a denser less fluffy mousse. The tofu flavor was subtle and hardly detectable. The puffs served as the perfect vehicle to carry the mousse- crispy/flaky shell hollowed to fit just the right amount of mousse!

Taste: 3.5 stars out of 5

Texture: 4 stars out of 5

Choux Pastry

Choux Pastry
recipe halved from Table for 2
- makes around 55 minis

125ml water
45g salted butter
75g flour
5g sugar
2 large eggs

1. Sift flour and mix with sugar, set aside.
2. Bring water and butter to a boil on low heat.
3. When butter has fully melted, dump (1) in at one go. Stir immediately with a wooden spoon, and continue to stir until a dough is formed, and it leaves the sides of the pot.
4. Remove pot from heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
5. Beat in eggs one by one, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Beat mixture until it is smooth and glossy.
6. Pipe or spoon mixture onto baking trays 2 inches apart from each other. Bake in a preheated oven of 374F/190C for 10 mins and 338F/170C for another 15 mins.
7. Cut a small slit immediately upon removal from oven to release steam from inside the puff. (I skipped this step)
8. Leave to cool down totally before piping in the filling.

Note: For larger puffs, extend the 2nd baking time.

what a sight 8)

The feeling of making a large batch of anything makes me feel powerful! I feel as if I am working as a pastry chef in some kind of fancy hotels. Yeah yeah.. keep dreaming and one day it will be true (;

Anyways, baking the choux pastry was a really spontaneous thought. I just wanted to rekindle my love for making them. The simple ingredients and process always amaze me. How the ingredients interact and create that nice little puff.. Ahh.

I decided to test another recipe I came across. These choux pastry puffed up with no problem. The problem I realize though is I need bigger pipping tips! And also how I was too lazy to make any kind of cream/ filling to go inside. I ate them plain. I didn't mind too much though, but it would've been nice if I added a bit more sugar and maybe some flavoring in them to give them a twist.

oddly spiraly shaped puffs

Taste: 3.5 stars out of 5 (lack of flavor with no cream added)
Texture: 3.5 stars out of 5 (nice puff, dry inside, soft outside) I prefer.. the beard papa's crunchy outside more :p

Pop!

This would be my third attempt at making cream puffs. At the very last minute today, I decided to alter the recipe from the one Ive been using.. since the last two times, my cream puffs turned out a bit soggy and salty. Not to mention, they also collapsed as soon as I turned off the heat. I wanted to see if I can improve them and essentially find out why they collapsed. So, I did some research overtime and jotted down a few tips here and there. Turns out the choux pastry is one of the hardest recipe to grasp (excuse me for the lack of a better word).

Some have said substituting the all-purpose flour to bread/gluten flour makes the cream puff crunchier. Some said adding less milk and water otherwise. Some mentioned about turning down or up the heat after the first ten minutes into baking. Some said letting them cool down slowly prevents the puffs from collapsing. I also noticed that the recipes varied a lot. Some requires 100g of butter while some only needs 45g..

After digesting in all those information, I wanted to give cream puffs a third try. I want to perfect them! And to my surprise, they were close to perfection this time<3 The one mistakes I made was baking them on foil instead of parchment paper.. The bottoms of some cream puffs got stuck and it was extremely hard to take them out without destroying their puffness. Good thing it was my first batch! Luckily, I baked in two batches today (I decided to use the small oven). The second batches came off with no problem. Here's the recipe and pictures. Enjoy! Feel free to serve with custards or whipped cream or anything your heart desires. I popped 5 of them plain before they even cool. Deliciousssssssssssssssss!

CREAM PUFF
Adapted from my buttery fingers
-makes about 30 puffs
For the choux pastry:
40g all purpose flour, sifted
20g bread flour, sifted (I used the left over bread flour I had)
40g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
100ml water
5g sugar
1g salt (I put around 3g; don't know if that made any diff)
2 eggs (I used 1.5 eggs; too much eggs will make the dough too liquid-y)

1. Place water, butter, sugar and salt into a small saucepan and heat over medium flame until butter is all melted and water is at a rolling boil.
2. Remove from heat, and dump in the flour. Mix thoroughly until dough forms.
3. Back on the heat, stir the dough continuously for a minute or two.
4. Transfer dough into a large bowl. Slowly add in one egg at a time. Mix and incorporate well until a shiny dough forms. (Cut down the number of eggs if the dough is at the right consistency)
5. Pipe the dough onto parchment paper. Each around 4cm in diameter.
6. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes until golden brown. (Open the oven door a little at the last 2 minutes into baking)
7. Leave in oven for additional 5 minutes to cool completely.
**Make sure the dough is just warm when adding in the eggs

For the custard, I recommended the recipe from 3yen.


This was the biggest pipping tip I had. The tips I have are normally used for cake decorations.. Oh wells, they still did the job and came up with these cute spaghetti looking dough.


Mm, they don't look the best but at least they are not collapsing and taste good! Whoohoo!


The bottoms were so nice<3 Thin and crispy!


&last but not least, my little disaster..

Till next time`