Cream Puffs Two Ways- Green Tea or Vanilla

Ever since the local Japanese cream puff store closed, it's been so hard to get my hands on these cream filled goodies. So, after months of grazing on other food blogs for recipes and video tutorials on cream puffs, I realised the only thing that can satisfy this crave is of course, to have a crack at them myself! I mean, I became so confident I'll be able to enjoy these in no time having seen  Gordon Ramsay's  tutorial where he  whips it up in a matter of seconds! But the downside was, it really needed a much much longer baking time than I expected (and a fail batch) but the results were just pure amazingness! 

Green Tea and Vanilla Cream Puffs with Chocolate Sauce

Makes around 30 3cm sized cream puffs

For the choux pastry:

125ml milk 

200ml water 

150g plain flour 

1 tsp golden caster sugar (I managed with normal caster sugar)

 ½ tsp salt

100g unsalted butter (or if using salted like I did, omit the extra salt)

4 medium eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 190˚C. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and set aside
2. Place the milk, cold water, salt, sugar into a pan and set over a low heat. Once the sugar and salt has dissolved add the butter. Once the butter has melted, bring down to boil
3. Turn off the heat then tip in the flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture starts to come away from the side of the pan, stop beating and tip onto a clean bowl to cool slightly (around 3 minutes is sufficient)
4. Gradually beat in the eggs with a wooden spoon, a little at a time, mixing well between each addition, until you have a smooth paste. 
5. Line a baking tray with 2 layers baking paper (this is crucial as to not burn the bases of the pastry like I did in my first batch!). Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a large plain nozzle (about 1.5cm in diameter). 
6. Pipe to desired size in a swirling motion, spaced well apart. Flatten the peaked tops with the tip of a wet finger 
7. Place into preheated oven for around 10-15 minutes, making sure the bases are not overbrowning and firm to touch.Then, turn the right down to 160˚C and bake for a further 20-25 minutes to dry out the insides and until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. To check if it's ready, take one out and cut it in half and touch the insides. If it is sticky/wet put it back in the oven for a further 10 minutes, if it is only slightly wet, don't worry, you're good to go!
8. Take it out of the oven and let cool before slicing in half (not fully) and dust with some icing sugar

Note: I find that cream puffs are actually quite forgiving... For my first batch, I only placed it in the oven for around 20 minutes and took it out since I realised the bases were burning, and it took only a few seconds for my little mounds to collapse on itself- into flat discs! Of course I panicked and thought what a failure this was going to be. But the same thing happened to me in my second batch when I was taking them out to place another layer of baking paper under, but I put it back into the oven at a high temperature (180-190˚C) and poof it came back to life again! So don't ever panic and think of throwing your drooping undercooked pastries, just pop it back into the oven and see it recover! 

For the green tea chantilly cream:

150ml thickened cream

2 tsp green tea powder (adjust to taste and colour)

1 tbs pure icing sugar


OR

For the vanilla chantilly cream:

150ml thickened cream

1 tsp rum

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs pure icing sugar

1. Place all the listed ingredients in a medium bowl (I like to place the bowl and whisk attachment in the fridge before for around 10 minutes beforehand as this speeds up the beating process)
2. With a hand beater, or  a whisk if you have strong arms and incorporate the ingredients on high speed until stiff and fluffy. You should know when it's ready when it doesn't fall/move even when you turn the bowl upside down. 
3. Spoon into a piping bag and it's ready for piping into your cooled choux pastries!

For extra indulgence, I made some chocolate sauce using milk and dark chocolate and topped it with pistachios to give it a rustic finished look. Voila! Hope you guys also give it a try!