Cream Puffs

I was NOT planning to bake tonight, just to let you know. But my housemate Citra found me while I was watching the newest episode of 'White Collar'-- "Aren't we suppose to make cream puffs today?" she asked. Uhm... actually I did promise to show her how to make cream puffs last night. Long story short, Citra had made some vanilla custard, er... more like vanilla pudding (she found the recipe from the internet, so don't ask me how she ended up with the custard). She was planning on eating the custard with some white bread. Okay, let's imagine that: custard sandwiched between 2 pieces of white bread...... nahhhh!! I'd like to believe that I have saved her (and the custard) by stopping her from doing just that. Then I promised her that I would show her how to make cream puffs, so she can make better use of the poor custard. There you go, my excuse of baking tonight! And no, I do not bake every day.




The custard she made turned out a bit eggy, so I whipped some heavy cream, folded the custard in, and (okay, here comes the magic) some of my precious stash of aged Puerto Rican rum, turning them into my rendition of light pastry cream. Citra and I then made pâte à choux (recipe below), but couldn't decide whether to make it into choux cream or eclair shape- we made one choux cream and the rest were eclairs. After the shells were baked and cooled, we filled them with custard cream, and dipped them in melted chocolate (because I'm turning into chocolate snob, I only have 60% cocoa Ghirardelli baking discs on my stash).


Basic pâte à choux:

200 ml H2O
100 gr butter
110 gr flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

• Preheat oven to 375F.
  
• Put water, butter, and salt into saucepan. Heat until boiled and butter melted. Remove from heat and immediately stir in flour and mix vigorously using wooden spoon (it will resemble mashed potatoes). Set aside until mixture is cool to touch. Beat eggs in, one at a time, mix vigorously again (you can utilize the electric mixer here) until dough turns smooth and shiny.
  
• Pipe dough into tall round shape (to make choux cream), or lengthwise (to make eclairs). Bake in preheated oven for 35-minutes until puffed up and golden brown. Note: I recall when my mom taught me to make cream puffs long time ago. She told me not to attempt peeking into the oven until the puffs turn golden brown or they will deflate. So make sure not to peek or take them out until your 35-minutes is up, otherwise you'll end up with deflated shells that cannot be filled!
• You know the drill, cut open the shell and fill them with the filling. Dip into melted chocolate, or if you're too lazy, dust them with powdered sugar.