Rainbow Choux Pastry

By Sofia Gallo

Ingredients:

For the Choux Pastry: 60ml of milk 60ml of water 50g of unsalted butter 1/4 tsp of salt 2 large eggs 75g of plain flour For the Craquelin: 50g of butter 50g of demerara/cane/granulated sugar 50g of plain flour Favourite food colouring

For the Filling: Double cream - quantities will vary Vanilla paste to taste

This recipe will make about 10 to 15 choux buns depending on the size. Method: Prepare your craquelin first. Cream the butter and sugar together, add the flour, your favourite food colouring and create a soft dough ball. Place this between two pieces of parchment paper and roll out to a thin layer. Place in the fridge until later.

For the choux pastry, in a saucepan place your water, milk and butter and let simmer on a medium heat without allowing the butter to boil. Once the butter is melted add your salt and your flour in one go. Combine with a spatula, until the flour is all incorporated and a patina is created at the bottom of your saucepan.

Turn the heat off and place the mixture in a different bowl and allow to cool down before adding your eggs. This process can be done in a stand mixer, and you can cool down the mixture by whisking the dough with the beater.

Whisk your eggs together and add these to the dough a little at a time. You might not need all the eggs. Start first by incorporating the eggs using a wooden spoon, and then a hand whisk. You will know that the pastry is ready when this drops from the spoon and creates a V shape.

Preheat your oven to 190°C or gas mark 5-1/2. On a baking tray place some parchment paper: put your dough into a piping bag fitted with a round tip, and pipe your choux straight on the tray, allowing gravity to push the piping bag. Feel free to adjust the size according to your taste.

Once the pastry has been all been piped, take your craquelin from the fridge. With a cookie cutter, cut out some circles of a similar size to or slightly larger than the choux pastry, and place one piece on the top of each of your choux.

Bake for about 15 minutes first, then lower the temperature by 10°C and bake for an additional 20 minutes or until the choux are a golden-brown colour. The buns should feel a little firmer on the outside, but light in weight and hollow in the middle.

Let the choux buns cool off completely: prepare your filling by whisking the cream and the vanilla paste to soft peaks. You can turn the cream to a Chantilly cream by adding some icing sugar. The quantities will vary depending on the size of the buns, but I would begin by whisking 200g of cream to start with.

Enjoy straight away or even better the day after when these have had time to mature in flavour.