Recently after making Cheese Puffs, my next step naturally will be doing the sweet Cream Puffs for my kids. I made cream puffs in the past without the Pai-Shuu Crust, this round, I decided to follow the recipe from LittleJapanMama to make my own version of “Papa-Beard”…… This time the cream puffs are meant for my kids who loves sweet things…..
The recipe seems very long, and a bit intimidating at first. But as I follow step by step, it is really quite easy. One particular important step to me, is in making the Cream Puff Pastry (Choux), how to prevent the batter from being too runny (than it will be difficult to hold the shape and give you a nice tall puff-up Cream Puff (you wouldn’t want a flat Cream Puff). The trick is when adding the last egg (or half-egg), use the fork to mix the egg yoke with the egg white, then pour a bit at a time, and mix the batter. If the consistency is soft, thick but still able to hold its shape (it needs to be form a triangle shape when dropping). You also need to leave space in between pipping the batter as it will expand during the baking process. And your oven needs to be pre-heated and be very hot when you put in your cream puffs pastry, as it is the heat that will puff up the pastry.
Finally when the cream puffs are baked and cooled down, when I am piping in the Custard Cream, many hands started appearing at my kitchen table. Within seconds, half of my Cream Puffs are gone …. they cannot wait until the Cream Puffs are refrigerated. I managed to salvage a few for photo-taking ….
Bon Appetite!
Japanese Choux Cream Puffs with Custard Cream (Pai-Shuu) Recipe
Recipe adapted from LittleJapanMama
Total Preparation Time: 1 hour. Make approx. 16 to 18 cream puffs.
Prepare in below sequence:
Step 1 – Prepare Custard Cream
Preparation time: 15 mins
Ingredients
1/4 cup Plain Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
2 egg yokes (mid-size)
1 1/2 cup Milk (I used Low Fat Milk)
15 grams un-salted Butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup Whipping cream (or fresh cream)
Method
- Use a hand whisk to combine flour, sugar together. Then add in the egg yokes and add in a bit of milk (about 20 mls) to the flour mixture and whisk well to combine.
- Add in the remaining milk and vanilla extract and combine well.
- Pour everything to a saucepan, over medium heat, use a wooden spoon to keep stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. When you see the bubbles on the custard, and it is thick enough consistency, off the heat.
- Stir in the butter and mixed together.
- Let the custard set aside and cool down. Use a cling wrap to cover the top of the custard so that you don’t get a thick yellow layer forming on top of the custard. Put it into the fridge after cooling down for at least 1 -2 hours.
- Beat the whipping cream or fresh cream until it thickens to firm peaks. Then add in the cold custard and mix well with a spatula. Put back to the fridge to be kept cool.
Pic: The custard cream prior to adding in the whipping cream.
Step 2 – Prepare Pai-Shuu Crust
Preparation time: 10 mins
Ingredients
15 grams un-salted Butter
1/6 cup icing sugar
1/6 cup Plain Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Green Tea Powder (Optional)
Method
- Mixed flour, baking powder, icing sugar and green tea powder together.
- Add butter to the above mixture, use fork to break up the butter to mix with the flour mixture, then use your fingers to gently knead into a dough.
- Rough the small dough into a round cylinder shape, use cling wrap to wrap the dough and put into freezer for about 15 – 30 mins. (Later, you just need to slice the dough and put on top of the cream puff pastry. The freezing will harden the dough and make it easier for you to slice).
Step 3 – Prepare Cream Puff Pastry (Choux)
Preparation time: 20 mins
Ingredients
60 grams un-salted Butter
3/8 cup water
80 grams Flour
2.5 mid size eggs
1/8 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Sugar
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 210 oC.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, add in water, butter, salt and sugar. Use a wooden spoon to stir until butter melts and bring to a boil.
- Off the heat, immediately add in all the flour at once. (I did not sift the flour). Use the wooden spoon to mix into a dough.
- This is the most important step next. Slowly add in the eggs one by one, and mixed well with the dough. After adding in 2 eggs, for the third egg, use a fork to mix the yolk with the whites. Slowly pour in little by little to test the consistency of the batter. If the batter gets too watery, you cannot get a tall puff. The batter should be able to hold the shape a bit when you squeeze out from the piping bag.
- Use piping bag to squeeze the batter onto a baking tray lined with grease proof paper. (Alternatively, if your batter is a bit runny and unable to hold shape, you can use a muffin tray lined with muffin cups).
- Cut the Pai-Shuu (in step 2) into thin disc and put on top of the batter for each puff-to-be.
- Make sure your oven is pre-heated and at a high temperature when you put in the tray. Do not open the oven in the intermittent.
- Bake at 210 oC for 25 – 30 mins until the cream puff has puffed up and turn golden brown. Then reduce the temperature to 100 oC and continue to bake for another 40 mins to dry up the puff. (The timing may differ from oven to oven, after baking at 210 oC for 25 mins, the puffs have turned golden brown, actually baking at 100 oC for another 30 – 35 mins is sufficient for my puffs).
- Cool down the cream puff before you pipe in the cold custard cream.
- To pipe the custard cream into the cooled Cream Puffs, use a chop stick to poke a hole at the bottom of the puff, and insert the piping bag filled with Custard Cream into the hallow hole inside the Cream Puff. Squeezed until you have filled the inside with Custard Cream. Put the Cream Puffs back to the fridge for another 3-4 hours before serving. Enjoy!
Pic: This is the dough being formed (before adding eggs).
Pic: This is before putting into oven and after it is baked.