Tuesday, June 17, 2008

TWD: Chocolate Cream Puffs with Crunchy Hazelnut Topping

Apparently, I’m a simple girl.

I’ve never had a chocolate éclair, a cream puff, or any other fancy dancy pate a choux. (I never even saw this phrase till this week and I’m still utterly clueless to how it’s pronounced).

I’m not a big bread pastry type of gal in general. I’m very picky about my donuts, etc… Basically, it boils down to one thing… Sugar. I like sugar. And lots of it. This totally explains my love of milk chocolate. So, for this reason… the only donuts I’ll even entertain eating are Krispy Kreme… and you know why? Because it’s basically pure sugar.

Mmmm.. sugar.

So, initially I was worried about liking this recipe that was chosen by Caroline of A Consuming Passion for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. But, when the actual dough came together super, super easy, I started to get excited. I halved the recipe and made éclairs and cream puffs.


Instead of making peppermint filling, I made Dorie's Chocolate Pastry Cream...which for me, turned out to be just like a chocolate pudding. (Is that what Pastry Cream is supposed to be?) And out of sheer laziness, instead of making a glaze... I opted to heat up a little crunchy nutella (world market brand) and spread over the top.


These turned out alright. Not my favorite thing, but at least now I've had one. And the recipe was actually super easy, although, I thought my arm was going to fall off whipping the pastry cream.

15 comments:

Jules Someone said...

I'm not a fan of hazelnuts, but the chocolate cream looks delicious. Nice puffs!

Bungalow Barbara said...

Yum! Yes, pastry cream is a pudding. French name vs. English name. (Doesn't pudding have a wonderful, down-home sound to it?)

ostwestwind said...

Hazelnuts reminds me of Nutella ... great looking puffs and eclairs

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Heather B said...

Yum! Chocolate pastry cream! Delicious!

Anonymous said...

Your cream looks great! Pretty puffs!

Engineer Baker said...

Hazelnuts sound wonderful with this. And I agree - give me sugar any day!

Anonymous said...

It really is all about the sugar, isn't it? The pastry cream looks great.

Anonymous said...

Looks great. I did the chocolate pastry cream too.

I think the choux is pronounced as "shoe" but i have no clue how to say it all together. :)

Susie Homemaker said...

I don't know how to say it either! I wonder where we can learn? anyway, yours look yummy - hazelnuts? oh yeah!

LyB said...

That pastry cream sounds divine, I'll definitely have to try it. Hazelnuts must have been great with this too. Looks delicious!

noskos said...

Nice looking puffs!

Jaime said...

wow, hazelnut topping? yum!

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wolfman49er said...

pate a choux is pronounced
pat a shoe

wolfman49er said...

i always thought that pudding usually does not contain egg and is a flavored milk mixture thickened with cornstarch;

whereas pastry cream is a custard which is a flavored milk or cream mixture that is thickened with egg yolk and as is the case with pastry cream, cornstarch.

to say pastry cream is a pudding would not be wrong.