Durian Cream Puff

 
This so call  "easy " pastry - cream puff has actually take up lots of our effort and few painful attempt.Why is it painful? When the puff is not puffy and is not what you expect , all the effort go in drain..

I have not done this before. The last time when we have a home made cream puff was done by my love . After he has done the best cream puff ( according to his own judgement) , he told me this is an easy pastry that he could handle it. My oh my , when your memory play you out and you thought you are right , it turn out that is a lesson for us to learn .

So one fine day , we have some friends over for dinner . Run out of time , we want to make some desserts that is "easy" and in a short period of time, we decided to make cream puff. Little do we know , we totally forget about how the texture should be like and what the dough should be right for the whole cream puff thingie.

The pain started when incorporate the egg into the dough , without mixing in well , we put in more flour. As we knew the dough should not be so watery. Doh ! mistakes no 1. Then we cant pipe it and is like a cookies on the baking sheet. So we make another batch, the other pain started , when mix in the flour to the butter , how the texture should be? ( At the point we have not learn the problem is the egg did not incorporate well , we thought the mistakes was in the mixing of flour into the butter) . Doh ! another mistakes no 2. All in all we make 3 batches and only the last one seem to be right. Well we are not happy with the result but our guest is happily eating all the small parthtic puff. Arghhh.

Ok failure will only make us strike to get this right. Finally , after all the search and understand and realised where are mistakes was. Here is the cream puff that we both knew was RIGHT !

I am submitting this post to -> Aspiring Bakers #34: Choux Party (August 2013) hosted by Jasline of Foodie Baker .

Recipe from ->NasiLemakLover

Ingredients :

100g butter
250ml water
150g flour (all purpose) + a pinch of salt
1/2tsp vanilla essence
1/4tsp baking powder
1tbsp sugar
2-3 eggs (I have the egg incorporate one after one. On the last egg I have it beaten in a bowl and slowly add in to test the consistency and adjust accordingly , this seem a better way to have the better batter of the dough)
reminding egg can be used as egg wash to brush on the puff before baking

Durian cream

Blend Durian meat 300g
Whipping cream 200g ( beat the pouring cream till soft peak)
* mix both together and chill in the fridge
Method :

1. Mix flour, baking powder,salt and sugar in a bowl and  set aside.
2. Melt butter in a pot with medium heat, when butter start melting add in water and  mix well.
3. Add in flour mixture quickly and vanilla essence mix well till a soft dough form and  turn off the heat. The dough should be soft and shinning.
4. Set the dough aside let it cool down but not completely cool.
5. Mix in the egg one at a time and whisk the dough till the egg incorporate well.
6.Mix in another egg and continue the process. The amount of egg added in can be adjusted , the consistency we are looking for is a soft but not watery dough.
The test to use here is when you put some dough between 2 finger you can stretch it to a line and it will not break and still soft.
 7. Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a tip. Pipe quarter-sized puffs about 1 inch apart on a baking pan line with baking paper.( I put the dough in a ziplock bag and cut a small hole at a corner , I find this a lot easy to work with )
8. Brush some egg wash on your cream puff .
9. Bake at pre-heat oven at 180C for 25mins or until golden brown.

Once the puff is done , take it out from the oven cold it and pipe in your durian cream . ENJOY !

Yes finally we got this right and the puff is yum , only good puff deserve the durian cream . ( As I told my husband , I do not want to waste my durian on lousy puff)

Hope this is a good guide for you to try out the cream puff making.