Photo: Stu Spivack · CC BY-SA 2.0
About this photo & recipe
Cream puff Spivack.jpg. Resized and converted to WebP; no AI alteration of the photograph. Photo used as decorating inspiration; the original photographer did not make or endorse this AI-assisted recipe. Recipe in development, not kitchen-tested.
Sculpted Vanilla Cream Puff Stack195 min · 8 · Recipe card
Ingredients
- For the choux: 125 g water
- For the choux: 125 g whole milk
- For the choux: 100 g unsalted butter, cubed
- For the choux: 5 g granulated sugar
- For the choux: 3 g fine salt
- For the choux: 150 g all-purpose flour
- For the choux: 200 g beaten egg, about 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- For the cream: 500 g whole milk
- For the cream: 100 g granulated sugar
- For the cream: 40 g cornstarch
- For the cream: 100 g egg yolks, about 5 large yolks
- For the cream: 40 g unsalted butter
- For the cream: 8 g vanilla extract
Let’s make it
- Make the cream first: whisk sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks in a bowl until smooth. Warm the milk in a saucepan until steaming, then gradually whisk it into the yolk mixture. Return everything to the pan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick and bubbling for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and whisk in butter and vanilla. Scrape into a shallow dish, press wrap onto the surface, and chill until cold, at least 1 hour.
- Heat the oven to 200°C conventional (180°C fan). Line two baking sheets with parchment. For the choux, bring water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil in a saucepan. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously over medium heat until the dough forms a smooth ball and leaves a film on the pan, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cool for 5 minutes.
- Beat in the eggs a little at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition, until the dough is glossy and falls from a spatula in a thick V shape. You may not need every gram of egg; stop when the dough reaches this consistency.
- Fit a piping bag with a large open-star tip. Pipe two 14 cm ridged rounds on one sheet, leaving space between them. On the second sheet, pipe 8 small ridged mounds about 4 cm wide. Smooth any sharp peaks with a damp fingertip.
- Bake the rounds for 15 minutes at 200°C, then lower the oven to 180°C conventional (160°C fan) without opening the door and bake 20–25 minutes more. Bake the small mounds at the same temperatures for 15 minutes, then 10–15 minutes at the lower temperature. They should be deeply golden and feel light and dry; turn off the oven, crack the door, and leave them inside for 10 minutes. Cool completely on a rack.
- Beat the chilled pastry cream briefly until smooth, then transfer it to a clean piping bag fitted with a star tip. Set one choux round on a serving plate and pipe a thick, even cream band across it. Place the second round on top, then arrange the small choux mounds over the top in an irregular sculpted stack. Serve promptly, or chill briefly before serving.
Kitchen notes
AI-assisted recipe in development; it has not been kitchen-tested. The photo is decorating inspiration rather than the tested result. Keep assembled pastry refrigerated and serve within 24 hours; the shells are crispest on the day they are baked. Contains wheat, milk, and eggs.
Recipe in development · not kitchen-tested.
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