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.