A Cream Puff Success Story
On a recent visit to pastry chef Sue McCown’s new Capitol Hill dessert venue, Coco La Ti Da, we had the pleasure of tucking into Sue’s signature (and namesake) dessert, a multi-layered marriage of coconut and dark chocolate. Ever since, we’ve pondered more ways to showcase the ambrosial coconut/chocolate combination.
This last weekend, we finally found the answer when we held a party to celebrate the debut of a friend’s fledgling karaoke project (Large Walter--he’s excellent by the way). We had polled the partygoers as to what types of nibbles they’d like, and they answered with a resounding “cream puffs!” We love cream puffs not only because they so closely resemble our favorite dessert of all time, the éclair, but also because their bite size makes them a particularly enticing party food. We were going to make regular cream puffs, but then we got to thinking about the coconut milk, leftover coconut flake and untouched bar of El Rey chocolate that were all sitting in our cupboard, crying out to be used! Thus the coconut cream-filled, chocolate-glazed cream puff was born. The party was an enormous success: karaoke was sung, cream puffs were devoured and even the handsome neighbor stopped by.
The moral of the story is this: if you want people to like you, you can trouble yourself with being nice to them, complimenting them and remembering their birthday, or you can just make these cream puffs. We won’t lie, the recipe that's after the break is more than a bit labor intensive, but if you are baking-inclined, well worth the effort. You’ll also have more friends (and possibly suitors) than you could possibly know what to do with. Enjoy.
Rachael’s Pride and Joy: Coconut, Chocolate Cream Puffs
First you’ll want to make this:
Coconut Pastry Cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 ounces cornstarch
14 oz. can of coconut milk (not low fat, please)
splash of whole milk
1/2 of a vanilla bean, split open and seeds scraped out
2/3 cup sweetened flake coconut
Pour the coconut milk into a measuring cup and add whole milk until the milks measure 2 cups. Add liquid to a saucepan along with the split and scraped vanilla bean. Bring the liquid to a boil.
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar vigorously; then whisk in cornstarch.
When the liquid has come to a boil, pour it little by little into the yolks while whisking the yolk mixture at the same time. Return everything to your saucepan and place over high heat and whisk constantly until it comes to a boil. When the mixture boils, keep whisking vigorously for, count ‘em, 2 minutes, that’s 120 seconds. The mixture should be boiling the entire time and you should be whisking vigilantly the entire time. Pastry cream is serious business, if you aren’t sweating by the end of this, you are doing it wrong.
Now pour the whole thing into a clean container and cover it with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly to the surface of the pastry cream to prevent it from forming a skin. Store in the fridge.
Then you’ll want to make these:
Cream Puff Shells, a.k.a. Pate a Choux
4 oz. unsalted butter
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
6 oz. all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
Combine the water, butter, salt, and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat off, add the flour all at once and whisk vigorously to prevent lumps. Switch to a wooden spoon, turn the heat back on to medium, and stir the dough over heat for five minutes or until the dough forms a film on the bottom of the pan. Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low to allow the dough to cool. When it is just warm to the touch, add the eggs one at a time until emulsified. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe into 1 inch balls onto a sheet tray, leaving plenty of room for the cream puff shells to expand. Brush with egg wash. Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated 400˚F oven, then rotate and turn the oven temperature down to 350 and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until crisp and golden.
Let your shells cool completely and then whip up 1 cup of heavy cream to soft peak.
Pull out your coconut pastry cream and beat with the paddle attachment until smooth; fold in whipped cream. With a pastry bag fitted with a tip, pipe the coconut cream into each shell by making a small hole in the side.
Now you’ll want to make your glaze:
Chocolate Glaze
4 oz. dark chocolate
1 T butter
splash of heavy cream
Melt all three ingredients together over a double boiler; add more cream as necessary to make the glaze a dip-able but not runny consistency.
Dip the top half of the cream puffs in the chocolate glaze. Eat! Or refrigerate if you are not going to eat them immediately.
