Bradley's Choux Trifle
Ingredients:
For Crème Diplomat:
250ml Milk
1 Egg
50g sugar
15g Flour
15g Custard Powder
5ml Vanilla Extract
Equal amount of double cream, slightly whipped
For The Choux Pastry:
75ml Water
30g Butter
45g Strong Flour
2 Whole Eggs
1tsp. Sugar
Salt, pinch
For the Trifle Filling:
Crème Diplomat (see recipe below)
Coffee Cream (Whisk Double Cream to form soft peaks, marble in some coffee liquor to taste)
Chocolate Orange Cream (Melt Chocolate, pour in double cream, add juice and a little zest of orange)
Method:
For Crème Diplomat:
1. Whisk the egg and sugar together.
2. Add the flour and custard powder to the egg mixture to form a liaison.
3. Heat the milk.
4. Take milk off the heat and add a little at a time to the liaison and then return to pot and cook.
5. Mix hard so no lumps form and cook for 5 minutes until thickened.
6. If lumps appear strain through sieve.
7. Transfer to a clean bowl and stir occasionally to help mixture cook down quickly.
8. Once the mixture has cooled down completely, add an equal amount of slightly whipped cream and mix together until fully incorporated.
For the Choux Pastry:
1. Pre-heat an oven to 220°C
2. Bring the water, sugar, salt and butter to the boil in a thick-based saucepan.
3. Add all the unsieved flour all at once and mix to incorporate.
4. Turn down heat and cook out for 1 minute to avoid the sandy texture and floury taste.
5. Stir continuously and vigorously until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan clean.
6. Remove from heat and allow to cool in a cold, clean bowl.
7. While the mixture is cooling, beat the eggs together in a separate saucepan and line and grease a baking tray.
8. When the mixture has cooled down but is still warm, add the beaten eggs one at a time. Mix well (the mixture will come apart and look like it won’t work but keep vigorously mixing until it comes together again). Repeat this step until the pastry is the right consistency so that it is thin enough to pipe, but it will still keep its shape.
1. Pipe the choux pastry out using a piping bag without a nozzle. Pipe into small profiterole shapes.
2. Using a little cold water pat down any peaks as they will burn during cooking. Splash a little cold water over the tray to help create more steam while cooking.
3. Choux pastry needs to be cooked at a high temperature, usually around 220°C, this is because choux pastry needs to be cooked quickly to create a shell on the outside and leave it airy on the inside, this is why you need lots of steam. Therefore, do not open the oven doors as this will let excess steam out from the oven and in turn, make your choux pastry go flat.
4. After 15 minutes if choux pastry has risen well, turn the oven temperature down to 180°C to dry the insides out.
There are 3 ways to tell is choux pastry is ready:
ü Tapping the bottom of the buns: if they sound hollow they should be ready.
ü Visual check: if they have risen well and have a nice caramel colour, this is a good sign.
ü Break one open: If the inside is still soggy then return to the oven for a few more minutes; soggy insides mean that the pastry still contains too much moisture which will mean a ‘pancake’ appearance once they have cooled down.
To Serve (This is merely an idea I like to use, be creative!):
1. Find a small glass if you can, start by piping a layer of Crème Diplomat into the bottom of the glass.
2. Next, pipe a layer of the chocolate orange cream (be careful not to smudge the glass at this point)
3. Pipe another layer of the crème diplomat
4. On top of that pipe a very small amount of the chocolate orange cream, get some kitchen towel ( scrunch into a ball) and smudge up the glass, rotating as you go to get an even coat (the last layer of chocolate orange cream should all now be up the glass).
5. Fill the remainder of the glass with your coffee cream and place a suitable pastry shell on top of the glass, I prefer to serve it on a narrow dish with some extra dipping shells.
6. DON’T FORGET TO DIG IN!
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