Pâte à choux AKA parachute jawn.

When I was growing up, my mom was known for her homemade cream puffs. There was something special about them. My friends and I use to gather around in the kitchen, anxiously waiting for the choux to puff up in the oven. We counted how many we can each eat which subsequently lead into an argument who can have the last standing piece.

The choux was soft and lightly crispy on the outside, but that is nothing special. It was the cream inside that sealed the deal. I remember it being rich and lucsious; smooth and gentle to the palate. Just the right about of sweetness to satisfy my neverending sweettooth.

Few years later, I checked out my mom's personal cook book. The choux reciepe was standard from what I remembered, but cream was different. She made pudding instead of cream, which caught me off guard. I abhor pudding...It's consistency never look appealing to my palate. I have been unknowingly loving this atrocious lumpy paste my whole childhood.

When I made this reciepe, I kept my mom's secret charm to this delightful snack; pudding instead of good old crème pâtissière. By using pudding, the cream puff will taste more "full", due to the higher fat content, than by using crème pâtissière. There is no right way make cream puffs, it is merely a personal preference what you want in your choux.

Here, this is how I make my green tea and earl grey cream puffs.

Ingredients

Pudding

1/3 cup of granulated sugar
2 tbsp of corn starch
1/4 tsp of salt
1 and 1/4 cup of heavy cream
1 cup of whole milk
3 tsbp of Kerry Gold butter
3 large egg yolk
2 tsp of vanilla extract
For green tea flavor: 1 tsp of matcha (green tea)
For earl grey flavor: 3 tbsp of earl grey leaves. (not tea bags)

Choux

1 cup of water
1 cup of bread flour
1 tbsp of granulated sugar
8 tbsp of unsalted butter
1/4 tsp of salt
4 large eggs

Uhh sorry guys, I forgot to weight them out. I made this receipe before I started to weight each ingredients on a scale to be more precise.

Procedures

Disgusting pudding

Combine sugar, salt, cornstarch, and matcha (or earl grey) in a bowl and mix until they are incorporated.
Slowly add 1/4 cup of heavy cream and mix until you have a paste
Add the egg yolk and mix it throughly. You will get a consistency like this below.

Weeeeeeee
Add the remaining cream and milk into the sauce pan then heat it using medium heat. Stir constantly.

Ok, I promise I will clean the stovetop later...
Stir until ribbons can form when drizzled. Remove from heat as soon as possible. *The liquid will thicken while stirring. As soon as you feel it thickening, do not take your eyes off it. Few seconds of over-cooking it will ruin this custard. (Sorry I couldn't get pictures or video for this step. I had to concentrate on this)
Add butter and vanilla extract and stir it in until homogeneous.
Strain it. This will make your pudding smooth.
Cover it up with a plastic wrap like this

Green tea

Earl grey
Keep in fridge

Choux

Melt butter in water in a saucepan
Mix sifted flour, sugar, and salt in a seperate bowl
After butter is melted (do not let it boil), add the flour mixture all at once. Turn off your heat.
Return the saucepan to heat and stir until dough forms

Ok, I promise I will clean the stovetop later...
Transfer the dough into bowl and stir until lukewarm. Steam should stop coming out and it should be warm to the touch
Add the beaten egg slowly, little at a time. I divided it by 4.

Weeee~ who else beats egg with a chopstick?

It will look wet and slimy but do not sweat, keep on stirring

Bam, told ya
Put the mixture in a piping bag or zip lock and pipette on the baking tray with parchment paper or silpat (if you have one). As you can see I am horrible at pipetting... Give me some slack, I am a pharmacist, not a chef.

This is hard...
optional: Glaze the top of the choux with another beaten egg.
Bake for 25 minutes at 400 F
Open the oven door slightly to cool down for about 10 minutes and then close it. Leave it on there for 1 hour. (This is also optional however this will make the crust crispy

Garnish

I used melted sugar. It is simple. Melt granulated sugar on a frying pan and drizzle by using a fork on the pastry. The consistency of the sugar will be threadlike and it will continously drop in a straight line when scooped up. If it drips, the sugar is too hot. It takes about 5 minutes to cool down. When the sugar gets hard, simply heat it up and make it the right consistency.

See how it becomes a thread? This is perfect

Spin it around the choux

I also tried making pai-chu(japanese pie crust) and put this on the choux. I was not fond of it thus I won't explain how I made it. I made it on the spur of the moment...