French Classics Made Easy (48 page)

5.
Twist the pleated area, forcing the filling down in the bag. Tightly grasp the twisted portion of the bag directly above the filling with your thumb and forefinger.

6.
Use your other fingers of that hand to squeeze the mixture out. Use your second hand to guide the tip of the tube. When you no longer can comfortably squeeze the bag, stop and twist the bag again, grasping it lower. Continue squeezing with the same hand.

RUM-FLAVORED BANANA FRITTERS

[BEIGNETS SOUFFLÉS AUX BANANES]

Ordinarily, a
beignet de banane
would be a piece of banana dipped in batter and fried. For a lighter version, I make
beignets soufflés
(luscious fritters made from cream-puff pastry and diced banana and served with a hot apricot sauce). Rum adds a Caribbean touch and complements the banana flavor.

SERVES 6

1 cup apricot jam

3 tablespoons dark rum

2 tablespoons water

1 banana, diced

1 teaspoon (5g) granulated sugar

½ recipe Sweet Cream-Puff Pastry (
page 221
)

2 to 2½ quarts vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

1.
In a small saucepan, bring the apricot jam, 2 tablespoons of the rum, and the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Strain and keep warm.

2.
Place the banana in a bowl, sprinkle with the granulated sugar and the remaining rum, and set aside while you make the cream-puff pastry.

3.
In a deep-fryer, heat the oil to 365°F.

4.
Gently stir the banana-rum mixture into the cream-puff pastry. Drop the batter by tablespoonfuls into the hot oil. The fritters will puff and turn themselves over several times. They are done when they have turned a deep brown color and stopped turning over, about 5 minutes.

5.
To serve: Drain the fritters on paper towels. Place them on a plate or in individual serving bowls. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and serve with the hot apricot sauce.

CHOCOLATE-DIPPED PROFITEROLES

[PROFITEROLES AU CHOCOLAT]

Profiteroles are small dessert cream puffs. They are classically filled with vanilla pastry cream and stacked in a pyramid-shaped mound. A chocolate sauce is poured over the pyramid, making an attractive display.

The presentation I use is simpler and easier to serve. Instead of making a pyramid and then covering it with sauce, I dip each profiterole into a thick chocolate sauce and arrange them on a round platter so that each can be picked up easily.

The profiteroles can be filled 4 to 6 hours in advance and allowed to stand at room temperature. (If you have any left over at the end of the meal, be sure to refrigerate them.)

SERVES 8

Butter and all-purpose flour, for baking sheet (optional)

Sweet Cream-Puff Pastry (
page 221
)

1 egg, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt

Pastry Cream, at room temperature (
page 347
; see Note)

Chocolate Sauce (
page 344
), made with ¼ cup water, cooled to room temperature

I
CE
C
REAM
–F
ILLED
P
ROFITEROLES
:
Profiteroles à la Glace

Restaurants often serve profiteroles filled with ice cream and topped with a hot chocolate sauce. I am not a fan of ice-cold cream-puff pastry, but it is certainly an easy presentation. Let the ice cream get semisoft (or use still-soft homemade ice cream straight from the ice-cream machine) and use a pastry bag to fill the cream puff s. Place the filled puffs in the freezer until ready to serve.

1.
Preheat the oven to 475°F with the oven rack in the middle position. Use a nonstick baking sheet or prepare a regular baking sheet by coating it with butter and flour or lining it with a silicone liner or parchment paper.

2.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch (#6) plain tube with the cream-puff pastry. Form small cream puffs the size of a quarter, about 1 inch in diameter. (You can also form them with a spoon, although they will be rougher looking.) Lightly brush the cream puffs with the beaten egg.

3.
Place the baking sheet in the oven for 5 minutes. Lower the heat to 400°F and bake until the cream puffs are evenly colored and firm to the touch, about 25 minutes. No moisture should be heard escaping from the pastry when the oven door is opened.

4.
Remove the cream puffs from the oven and place on a wire rack. While they are still warm, make a small hole in their bottoms or sides with either the point of the pastry tube or a knife.

5.
Place the pastry cream into a pastry bag fitted with a 3 16-inch (#1) plain tube and fill the cream puffs.

6.
To serve: Dip the filled cream puffs into the cooled chocolate sauce to coat the tops and place on a doilied platter.

NOTE

For an easier version, substitute whipped cream for the pastry cream.

E
GG
S
IZES

USDA Grade A Large eggs weigh 60 to 65 grams, or about 2 ounces each. Although egg size is supposed to be the same throughout the country, I have bought boxes of “Large” eggs containing eggs weighing as little as 50 grams and as much as 75 grams. I recall this happening to me while teaching in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was making cream-puff pastry on two consecutive days, and noticed that on the second day my raw pastry was considerably softer than on the first. I asked my assistant to show me the cartons from the eggs, thinking that she might have accidentally purchased Extra Large, but on examining the cartons, I found that the eggs used on the first day had come from a farm in North Carolina, while on the second day we had used eggs from South Carolina. This is not to say that all South Carolina eggs are larger than those produced in North Carolina, but it is possible for you to buy larger or smaller eggs than you intended.

VARIATION

C
HOCOLATE
-D
IPPED
P
ROFITEROLES WITH
G
RAND
M
ARNIER

[PROFITEROLES AU CHOCOLAT GRAND MARNIER]

Add 2 tablespoons (or more to taste) Grand Marnier to the chocolate sauce and/or pastry cream.

CREAM PUFFS FILLED
WITH CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE

[CHOUX SOUFFLÉS AU CHOCOLAT]

You can use a cream puff as a container in which to bake any soufflé. In this recipe, I use my basic chocolate mousse recipe and treat it like a soufflé (which is also how I make my Chocolate Soufflé with Grand Marnier on
page 266
). Once the cream puffs are filled with the mousse mixture, they can be frozen and baked several days later. Since the puffs are small, they do not need to be thawed first. The filled
choux soufflés
can be eaten hot or cold—unbaked with a mousse filling or baked with a hot soufflé filling.

SERVES 8

Butter and all-purpose flour, for baking sheet (optional)

Sweet Cream-Puff Pastry (
page 221
)

1 egg, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt

½ cup (50g) sliced almonds

Chocolate Mousse (
page 275
)

Confectioners’ sugar

Crème Anglaise (
page 346
)

F
RENCH
W
OODEN
S
PATULA

A French wooden spatula is basically a flat wooden spoon. It has a rounded but flat blade and a flat handle. (American wooden spatulas are square-bladed.) It is ideal for mixing and stirring batters, as well as for general kitchen use. Anytime I call for a wooden spoon in my recipes, I use my French wooden spatula instead.

1.
Preheat the oven to 475°F with the oven rack in the middle position. Use a nonstick baking sheet or prepare a regular baking sheet by coating it with butter and flour or lining it with a silicone liner or parchment paper.

2.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch (#6) plain tube with the cream-puff pastry. Form cream puffs 1½ inches in diameter on the baking sheet. (You can use a spoon, but the cream puffs will be rougher looking.) Brush lightly with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the sliced almonds.

3.
Place the baking sheet in the oven for 5 minutes. Lower the temperature to 400°F and bake until the cream puffs have colored evenly and are firm to the touch, 25 minutes. No moisture should be heard escaping from the pastry when the oven door is opened.

4.
Cool the cream puffs on a wire rack. When cool, use a serrated knife to cut off the tops one-third of the way down. Set the tops aside.

5.
Increase the oven temperature to 475°F.

6.
Use a spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch (#6) plain tip to fill the puffs with the chocolate mousse. Replace the tops of the cream puffs. (The cream puffs can be made ahead to this point and frozen. Bake without defrosting.)

7.
Bake the cream puffs until the soufflé begins to rise, lifting the cream-puff tops by about ¼ inch, 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and serve each cream puff on a plate surrounded by crème anglaise, or pass the sauce separately.

IN ADDITION

Any problems that people have making creampuff pastry are due to inaccurate measurements, so a scale is very helpful. Also, if there is not enough egg, the pastry will not puff; if too much is added, it may be too runny to bake or may puff with a concave rather than a flat bottom. It is important to measure carefully and to have the correct-size eggs.

C
REAM
P
UFFS:
Variations on the Theme

The various desserts that use cream-puff pastry are many, and as with much of French cooking, each variation has its own prescribed size, shape, and name.

PROFITEROLES:
The smallest member of the cream-puff family is the profiterole. They are small and round, usually about 1 to 1½ inches in diameter, and filled with a vanilla pastry cream, ice cream, or whipped cream. They are most often served with a chocolate sauce.

CHOUX GRILLES:
These are the same size as profiteroles, or larger, and are coated with chopped almonds before baking. They are filled with coffee pastry cream and dusted with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

CROQUEMBOUCHE:
This spectacular dessert is made from profiteroles that have been stuck together with hot caramel to form a hollow pyramid (constructed around a special cone-shaped mold). The pyramid is self-supporting and will not collapse if a puff is plucked from the center.

SALAMBOS:
Salambôs are oval cream puffs, traditionally filled with a kirsch-flavored pastry cream. The filled cream puffs are dipped into hot caramel and then into chopped pistachios.