UBE, PASSIONFRUIT & COFFEE MINI CHOUX CRAQUELIN – Recipe

CRAQUELIN PASTRY Ingredients:

• 112g (1/2 Cup) Unsalted Butter, Room Temp.
• 134g (2/3 Cup) Dark Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed
• 126g (1 Cup) Plain/All Purpose Flour

METHOD:

1. Whisk together butter, sugar & flour till combined.
2. Once texture resembles coarse crumbs, transfer to work surface, pour it out and use palm of hands to smooth out the dough.
3. Due to the sugar, it will feel grainy but it’s normal.
4. Once a uniform dough is formed,  optionally divide into two and flatten and cling wrap before freezing till firm but not rock hard. It needs to have some give so it can be rolled out without getting too soft too quickly.
5. You can do it in one go as one big sheet but you may not be quick enough to remove all the discs of craquelin before it gets too soft, if so just briefly place in freezer to firm up before moving again.
6. Sandwich the dough between two large pieces of cling wrap and roll it out till it is 0.5cm thick.
7. Cut out with cookie cutter the size you want your choux to be. Place on cling wrapped dish and keep chilled till choux batter is done.

 

UBE CHOUX PASTRY Ingredients:

• 63g (1/2 Cup) Plain/All Purpose Flour
• 33g (2 + 1/2 Tablespoons) Unsalted Butter
• 83ml (1/3 Cup) Water / Milk
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ube Essence
• Pinch of Caster Sugar
• Pinch of Salt
• 2-3 Eggs, Lightly Beaten
• Milk, As Needed

 

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 230C (450F).
2. Bring water, butter, salt & sugar to a boil (butter should be liquid).
3. Add flour & stir vigorously to combine to make panada – off heat.
4. Turn heat back on & stir to mix and press down cooking the flour until the base of the pot has a layer of film. The dough should look glossy.
5. Stir in the ube essence & allow to cool to room temperature.
6. Beat in beaten eggs gradually, combining completely before adding more.
7. Adjust consistency with milk if need. The consistency you are looking for is when you lift batter up on spoon it should form an upside down triangle before dropping off (or an upside down tear drop).
8. The choux should not be too loose like a cake batter ribbon stage, it should be before that stage with some firm hold when piled on itself so it can puff high.
9. Fit piping bag with small 1 cm open tip nozzle & fill with choux.
10. Pipe small 3-4cm wide choux about 2cm high. Keep them 1 inch apart as they puff a lot. Try to let go towards end of piping and swirl the tail into the pastry so you have smooth round surface of piping.
11. Place the craquelin on top.
12. Bake for 20 minutes until well puffed (otherwise keep baking), then drop temperature down to 180C (350F) & bake for 20 more minutes to dry out. Cover with baking paper at this point if it seems to be getting close to burning. But avoid opening oven at all if possible.
13. Slice horizontally once cooled & fill with dual cream piping.

 

 

TRI-FLAVOUR FRAICHE WHIPPED CREAM Ingredients:

• 160g (2/3 Cup) Crème Fraiche
• 4 Tablespoons Caster Sugar
• 500ml (2 Cups) Thickened/Heavy Cream
• 3 Tablespoons Passionfruit Pulp
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ube Essence
• 1 Tablespoons Iced Coffee Concentrate (Optional)
• 1 Sachet Strong Instant Coffee Powder

 

METHOD:

1. Combine crème fraiche and sugar in a bowl.
2. Split into two bowls & combine ube/coffee and passionfruit one in each respectively.
3. Iced coffee concentrate is optional, but offers more depth of flavour.
4. Whip the cream till very stiff, so that when the whisk is removed there is a groove or cavity left. Cream should still be white and smooth.
5. Fold half of the cream into one bowl of fraiche crème each.
6. Chill for 20 minutes.
7. On a sheet of cling wrap the length of piping bag used, spread a thin layer of one of the cream. Roll up and twist the two ends to seal.
8. Repeat with other. Snip off excess on one end to have 1 cm excess from the cream inside.
9. Place the two creams side by side and slide into piping bag fitted with choice of star tip nozzle.
10. On a test plate, pipe until both colours are visible.
11. Pipe 3-4 swirls of filling onto lower half of each choux, then place lid on top, show casing the two-tone filling as much as you can.
12. Keep chilled till serving.
13. To preserve crisp of craquelin, best served on day it’s made, and try not to fill the pastry too early as moisture makes it soft.
14. Store airtight.

NOTE: Do not add your essence when cooking the panada, add it after it is cooked as that caused all my puffs to play up and they only puffed up properly when I did it after rather than before.

 

***When I was researching this page came in very handy for referencing my dough cooking and consistency. Thought you guys might like a read 🙂

http://www.southernfatty.com/halloween-croquembouche/