baby totoro durian custard cream puffs ~ Aspiring Bakers #33

i really like this recipe from Table for 2… Wendy always give very clear and detailed instructions in her recipes. The durian custard is yummy-licious and easy to prepare (｡・//ε//・｡)

Recipe adapted from here 

Ingredients

Choux Pastry
250ml water
90gm butter (salted)
150gm flour
10gm sugar
4 large eggs

Durian Custard Cream
500ml milk
100gm sweet durian flesh (Wendy’s notes ~ I don’t think D24 works well here, due to the bitterness, unless u like it that way)
1 large egg
80gm sugar or more
2 level Tbsp custard powder
2 level Tbsp all purpose flour

Directions

Choux Pastry
– Sift flour to remove clumps and mix with sugar, set aside
– Bring water and butter to a boil on low heat
– When butter has fully melted, dump (1) in at one go. Stir immediately with a wooden spoon, and continue to stir until a dough is formed, and it leaves the sides of the pot
– Remove pot from heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes
– Beat in eggs one by one, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Beat mixture until it is smooth and glossy
– Pipe or spoon mixture onto baking trays, about the size of a small lime/calamansi 2 inches apart from each other. Bake in a preheated oven of 190C for 10 mins and 170C for another 15 mins
– DO NOT OPEN OVEN WHEN BAKING
– Cut a small slit immediately upon removal from oven to release steam from inside the puff
– Leave to cool down totally before piping in the filling.

Wendy’s note: If u’re not using a fan-forced oven, u may need to jack up the temperature by 10C each time. And if u want to make larger puffs, extend the 2nd level’s baking time

Durian Custard Cream
– Bring milk and durian flesh to boil on low heat
– While the milk is coming to a boil, whisk egg with sugar until mixture turns pale. Put in custard powder and flour, stir to combine, make sure there are no lumps.Set aside
– Stir milk in pot, making sure the durian flesh looks dissolved. Bring to a boil. Prepare a strainer. Strain ¼ of the hot milk into the beaten egg, and stir well
– Strain the rest of the hot milk into the egg mixture. Press the durian pulp to get all the milk mixture out. You’ll see the membranes and whatever insoluble fibres of the durian left in the strainer
– Return egg mixture to the pot and cook(stirring all the while) on low heat until custard is thick and no longer taste floury(at this point, if u think it’s not sweet enough add more sugar by the teaspoons, as the sweetness of the durian flesh may vary)
– Cool custard and chill until ready to use
– To fill: either cut a large slit in puff and spoon the custard in or put custard in piping bag fitted with a small(3mm diameter) round tip and pipe in through the slit that was cut earlier.

Adapted from: The Golden Book of Desserts (Publisher: Page One)

How to make totoro cream puffs

– prepare choux pastry and place it inside a piping bag. I used a 1/2 inch round tip for this purpose. You can also use a ziplock bag and cut a hole at the corner but do secure/strengthen the hole by sticking scotch tape at the corner of the bag before snipping the hole
– prepare parchment paper and draw circles with 3.5cm in diameter (p.s. i was too lazy and used my macaron baking mat. it worked perfect!)
– hold pastry bag about 1/4 inch away from mat/paper, and pipe pastry. This will make totoro’s bloated belly (so please ensure you give it enough pastry). Without stopping, drag your piping bag to the right and continue piping ~ this forms the head. I stopped when the pastry reaches the next macaron circle (i found this to be a right size for baby totoro  (☆^ー^☆)) and then drag the bag back towards the body and lift piping bag away (this sounds confusing but if you do the action as you read this, you will get the picture)
– give totoro long ears. As this is my first attempt, i gave it ears that i thought looked long… but after it puffed up, the ears looked too short. So do not hesitate to pipe “bunny” ears .. totoro has long ears afterall
– smoothen the choux pastry with slightly dampened finger tips and place them to bake
– for eyes, i placed mini white chocolate chips into microwave for 30 seconds, took it out, then flatten them slightly (with another piece of parchment paper on top). Place these back into the freezer so that it can harden
– pipe melted chocolate onto the white chips and fix eyes onto totoro using melted white chocolate
– paint expressions on totoro with melted chocolate
– chill and serve

i had just enough pastry to make one more mini cream puff…. and piped the very original shape…

I am submitting my post to Aspiring Bakers #33 (July 2013) – Tropical Spiky Month hosted by Charmaine of MiMi Bakery House.

ヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノ

Pollution index: 163 (unhealthy)