It's a bird...It's a plane...it's....a creampuff. Actually it's an Almond Cream Puff Ring with Chocolate glaze. So there. Actually the moral of this, my third Tuesdays With Dorie baking foray, is that cream puff are almost nonsensically easy to throw together, as well as incredibly good. Next to pie, I love custard and eggy things. It occurs to me after perusing all the other entries that what I've really put together here is a Boston Creme. Go Celtics.
The original recipe in the book was made with peppermint flavored whipped cream, but making allowances for taste and the ingredients on hand, I made the switch to almond pastry cream, and was very satisfied with the results.
My discovery: cream puffs are really just popovers. One has a stiff shiny batter and the other a liquid one, one is piped and the other raised in muffin tins, but the ingredients are nearly identical, and the result is similar. Next time I would work on piping a more imposing ring, but the puffs were so perfect I might just go with those. The whole exercise, which took less than an hour to prepare, reminded me of Nigella Lawson's philosophy from her book
How to be a Domestic Goddess. She points out (and I'm paraphrasing here) that making a cake is minimal effort compared to the enthusiastic, sometime wildly emotional response it generates in your audience. Again and again as a baker I have found this to be true. For most things that I make, the excitement they generate is seriously out of proportion to the time and effort expended to make them. I like it that way. Everything tastes good, and I get my little share of being fawned on. Everyone wins.
It's a bird...It's a plane...it's....a creampuff. Actually it's an Almond Cream Puff Ring with Chocolate glaze. So there. Actually the moral of this, my third Tuesdays With Dorie baking foray, is that cream puff are almost nonsensically easy to throw together, as well as incredibly good. Next to pie, I love custard and eggy things. It occurs to me after perusing all the other entries that what I've really put together here is a Boston Creme. Go Celtics.
The original recipe in the book was made with peppermint flavored whipped cream, but making allowances for taste and the ingredients on hand, I made the switch to almond pastry cream, and was very satisfied with the results.
My discovery: cream puffs are really just popovers. One has a stiff shiny batter and the other a liquid one, one is piped and the other raised in muffin tins, but the ingredients are nearly identical, and the result is similar. Next time I would work on piping a more imposing ring, but the puffs were so perfect I might just go with those. The whole exercise, which took less than an hour to prepare, reminded me of Nigella Lawson's philosophy from her book How to be a Domestic Goddess. She points out (and I'm paraphrasing here) that making a cake is minimal effort compared to the enthusiastic, sometime wildly emotional response it generates in your audience. Again and again as a baker I have found this to be true. For most things that I make, the excitement they generate is seriously out of proportion to the time and effort expended to make them. I like it that way. Everything tastes good, and I get my little share of being fawned on. Everyone wins. 
10 comments:
Almond pastry cream sounds devine and your ring looks gorgeous!
Ulrike from Küchenlatein
I've found that the easiest recipes get the most enthusiastic responses while the complicated ones - not so much. Funny how that works! Almond pastry cream sounds delicious though.
Don't thee look so much more omplicated then they are?? I am actually making some more dough right now! great job you did!
I like the almond idea. Your ring an puffs look great!
Almond, chocolate. Mmmmm.
So puffy! I am totally envious. The humidity sat on mine. ;)
Rebecca
http://www.ezrapoundcake.com
I like the puff's shape better than the ring too. I love the idea of almond pastry cream, sounds delicious!
The response to homemade and not-your-typical desserts is always great, isn't it?
Your puffs look terrific!... lots of character to your ring too.
Cream puffs are fun, aren't they? Glad you enjoyed this recipe -- the results look delicious.
great job! i agree that this one takes much less work than what it looks like it does!
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