Kue Sus Isi Vla (Choux Pastry Cream Puffs)

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 25

Resting time: 10

Total Time: 55

Servings: cream puffs (medium size)

Calories: 95kcal

Author: Marvellina

Light and airy French choux pastry cream puffs are filled with smooth and soft custard cream.

Beat the egg yolks with a fork. Add flour and add in 1/2 of the whole milk and continue to whisk until smooth
In a medium-size saucepan, add sugar, vanilla extract and the rest of the milk and heavy cream. Cook on medium to low heat until the sugar started to melt. Slowly add in the egg mixture while the other hand continue to stir. You will know when the mixture started to thicken, it will get heavy and smooth. Continue to stir until the custard is thickened. It took me about 15 minutes to get to the custard consistency. Remove from the heat and let the custard cool down completely. Cover with a plastic wrap touching the custard (to prevent skin from forming) and keep in refrigerator until ready to use

30 minutes before you plan to bake, preheat oven to 425 F (220 C). I have a conventional bottom heat oven no fan. If yours are convection , you may want to lower the temperature by about 15-20 degrees.
Line one 12 x 15-inch cookie sheet or an inverted half-sheet pan ( 17 1/4 x 12 1/4 inch) with parchment. We invert the pan because the rim of the pan won't block the air flow during baking they bake evenly.
If you don't have large pan I mentioned above, you can use 2-3 smaller pans
Beat the eggs in a bowl with a whisk. It is very important that the eggs are not cold from the fridge. They need to be at room temperature
In a medium saucepan, add water and butter. Bring to a boil to melt the butter and then lower the heat to the lowest and add flour and salt all at once and continue to stir vigorously until the mixture is well blended. Keep stirring for another 2-3 minutes to cook the flour. The dough should be smooth and shiny and you can see a layer that coat the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and let it cool down for about 3 minutes
Add 1/4 of the egg and keep whisking. They will appear separate and look like big blob of mess. Just keep stirring and add another 1/4 and continue to gradually add as you stir until you get a paste consistency. You may not need all of the eggs or you may

The dough should be smooth and shiny. If you lift the dough with a spatula, it should be too soft to hold peaks. If it is too stiff, add a tiny bit of water and mix again and check the consistency again.

You can use 3/4-inch (#7) round pastry tube or use two spoons to drop the dough on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I recommend using a piping bag for better shape.
Transfer the dough to the bag and pipe about 1 1/2 -2-inch in diameter, about 1-inch apart. Hold the bag straight and pipe upward. The tip should stay in touch with the dough paste. Make sure you pipe it "tall", not wide to the side. If you use spoons, just gently drop the dough on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drop them "tall". Dip your finger in water and smooth out the top of the dough so the top won't burn during baking
If you are not ready to bake the next batch within one hour, coat them lightly with a non-stick cooking spray and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Keep them in the refrigerator

Bake for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 325 F (160 C) for conventional oven. Lower temperature by 20 F/15 C for convection oven, and continue baking for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Quickly open the oven door and use a small knife to poke the side of each of the eclair to release steam. This is very important to prevent the choux from deflating

Close the oven door and and lower the oven temperature and bake at 275 F (135 C) for conventional oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
Turn off the oven, use a wooden spatula to crack the oven door slightly to release pressure and let the pastry dry in the oven for at least 30 minutes or 1 hour if you want them to be really dry and stay crispy longer
All these steps are necessary to prevent the choux from deflating and to make sure the inside is really dry and the choux stays crispy. If they are wet, they tend to deflate. You can see here that the choux pastries did not deflate at all because they were bake long enough and the inside were dry

Slice the choux pastry in half horizontally and top with 1-2 Tbsp of custard cream and then top with the other half. You can also pipe the filling for some aesthetic if you choose to by poking the bottom with the piping tip and squeeze the filling in there. Sprinkle with some confectioners sugar if you going to serve it immediately. I recommend not to sprinkle with the sugar and keep them in the refrigerator as they will become "wet". You can drizzle or dip the choux pastry with melted chocolate if you choose to

I only assemble as many as we want to eat and refrigerate the choux pastry and filling separately. Read the "frequently asked questions" in this post up there for more detail