besides homemade sourdough and croissants, this has been my latest project.
following Claire Saffitz off of VICE’s page, I was able to produce more consistent results after a few batches.
here are a few essential details that will save you time if you are too impatient to read through an extensive instruction (ideally twice) like me all in one go.
- make the pastry cream first as it requires time to set in the fridge
- sneaky addition of 1/2 cup / 125ml water to pâte à choux
- with the exception of the door opening at 20 minutes for rotation and switch, maintaining temperature is vital… after 30 minutes total, puffs MUST cool slowly i.e. open the oven door for 15 minutes and wait, otherwise they will deflate and become flat
- watch puffs closely and pull based on visual cues and not time, as even tray to tray there may be temperature differences
- only the craquelin needs room temperature butter; leave this for last!
- the only special equipment needed is a metal piping tip to fill the baked puffs. If you can’t be bothered, slice each puff in half and pipe with a makeshift ziploc bag corner snipped, resembling a sandwich (in this case, no tower, as the puffs will slide apart into a mess)