Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!
I wasn't even sure if I was going to participate this month, but two days before reveal day, I dragged my ass into the kitchen and made Choux Swans filled with vanilla pastry cream. I had to make the choux twice - luckily, the first time, I only made a half batch, as the choux did not rise. Not wanting to leave anything to chance the second time around, I abandoned Kat's Good Housekeeping recipe and turned to Australian kitchen legend, Margaret Fulton, instead. That recipe requires the flour to be added while the butter mixture is boiling on the stove top, and for the oven to be 200 degrees Celsius (gas mark 6) - slightly hotter than Kat's recipe. To add that extra chance of success, I borrowed Delia's tip of wetting the greased trays slightly to make a "steamier" environment in the oven.
Hooray - second time around, I had success:
The pastry cream recipe from the challenge notes gave me no such issues - it worked just right first time around.
Thanks to our host Kat for taking us with her on living a childhood memory. To see what everyone else did with their choux pastry and filling, visit the slide show at The Daring Kitchen once it is loaded on 27 August, US East Coast time.
13 comments:
Better late then not doing it,looks good love the shape. I only rememberd it today and hurried up doing them too.
Oh, Gaye, they look so pretty. I would love to have one of these presented...you always make such special things. This was a good challenge, it was interesting to read your success and your not-success...I always learn from that. Beautiful job on these (despite having to "haul your arse into the kitchen"!).
Ha, I just made mine tonight.... (It was one of those insufferably hot weekends up here).
I like your swans :-)
Your swans look fantastic. Great post!
They look fantastic! I didn't do it this month because I already had a swan recipe going up and thought that that might be bird overkill (I'm not sure why now that I say that out loud though :P).
I love them! They even look like they are swimming on the blue plate! Good old margaret fulton is so reliable - glad it worked for you!
Your swans are absolutely fantastic :D
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Oh my goodness. I would be speechless if that wasn't a redundant phrase via the internet! These are incredible - well done!
These are the cutest swans I have seen. Amazing!
NICE!!!!! I think I would never be able to do that!!
Nicely done. I am sorry to hear that your first attempt with the choux produced a non-successful choux, but glad to hear that the second was a success. I did not see the suggestion for steamier oven, hmm, may need to give that a try. Nice job!
Beautiful swans! They came out lovely! I made these years ago and they were a challenge but such a hit!
Well done - they look fabulous! I'm currently battling the macaron challenge, I'm definitely not up to choux yet but one day I will try!
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