Swan Cream Puffs

It's time for our bake along again and this round we are making cream puffs. I think this is my fourth or fifth time making cream puffs but the first in my blog. The successful ones were made before i started to blog and last year i tried making twice and both times i didnt get nice puffs, they were all flat when taken out from the oven and funny thing is that all along, i was just using the same one recipe. I know it's not the recipe problem, it's my own. They were all rised and puffed up really nice in the oven during baking but once they were out , they just fall flat. After trying a few times, i know my problem lies in the baking time of the puffs. A tip to share is that when the baking time is complete, just check if they are really golden though they may be cooked. If they are not golden and dry enough, from my experience, they will deflate. You may need to extend the baking time for a few more minutes to ensure that they are dry and i also leave them in the oven for about 5-8 mins after turning off the heat.

Actually these cream puffs were made several months back after Quay Po and myself baked some Hokkaido cupcakes in my house. There were some leftover vanilla custard filling from the cupcakes and i told her that i will just use that custard to make some cream puffs later. This vanilla custard is very nice, very natural and you do not need custard powder to make it, you can get the recipe from Quay Po's blog here. Thanks, Veron for sharing. I decided to make something a little fancy this time, swan cream puffs  though baking something fancy is not really in my baking repertoire. I just dont have the hands and fingers that can come up with fancy creations! I tried to do some step by step photos on making the swan and i realised it's not really step bystep, just see if you can understand this...

pardon the colour of the photo..

cut the puff horizontally into 2, top and bottom..

the top piece cut into 2 again, these are the left and right wings ..

the bottom piece is the body, put in the filling 

fill in the some cream or the same filling to above body level, stuck
in the neck and the wings and they are ready to fly!

these are the neck piped and baked separately.

baby swan?? haaiz, part of the neck was broken ..hence a short neck..

still dont understand?  i think you better go and take a look at the video here then!

Recipe for Choux Pastry ( from Aunty Yochana )
Ingredients
85gm water
50gm butter
60gm plain flour
125gm eggs ( about 2 eggs )

For filling  : Vanilla custard cream from Quay Po Cooks and some whipped cream.

Method:
1.Boil butter and water till boiling. Put in all the flour and stir vigorously using a wooden spoon till paste is not sticky and leave the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and let it cool till lukewarm.
2.Stir in eggs and mix till it becomes a smooth paste. Scoop out 4-5 tbsps of paste set aside to make swan necks. Fill the rest into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe onto the baking paper. Bake at 180C for about 20-25 mins, puffed up and golden, turn off heat and leave in the oven for several minutes before removing them out. ( i baked at 200C for 10mins, reduced to 180C for around 15 mins)

For swan necks
Fill them into a piping bag, snip off the end of the piping bag leaving a small hole and pipe out the neck shape. Bake for around 10-13 minutes.

Also check out my buddies, Joyce and Zoe on their cream puffs and also my baking friends who have joined  baking along. Just a little note regarding our bake along recipes ( for specific bake, not theme baking ) do use the recipe that we provided at the link given so that we can review the same bake. If there are enquiries on this, just write to me, joyce or zoe . Thanks!



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