Wow we’re over half way through the series now and the challenges keep getting more interesting. This week it’s Religieuse, a dessert made up of 2 choux pastry buns filled with crème pâtissière then topped with cream and chocolate, what could go wrong?

Once again with the progression of the series the challenges are definitely getting more complex, not just with the methods but also with the kit involved. Things are certainly stepping up a gear

Old friend, small fears.
As you may have seen from earlier post, I have made choux pastry before.  It started out as one of those skills that that I felt I have to conquer and achieve. I first made them fro a friend at work that wanted them as a birthday cake!  So that weekend I practised until my flat mate and I were so stuffed that we almost felt like the eclairs we have been consuming! Anyway after that I felt pretty confident at my choux pastry abilities, meaning this technical was just another step in enhancing the skill.

I love making this pastry, not just because you get to beat it and develop your arm muscles, but it is amazing to the alchemy of ingredients coming together to make something light and delicious. This alchemy mainly comes into place after the butter and water (sometimes you’ll use a mixture of milk and water) has melted and you add the flour. You have to let the mixture cool a little before adding in the eggs, just so that they don’t cook with the heat.

Let the work out begin!
Next comes the fun bit. Once once the flour, butter and water dough is cooled enough you have to crack in the eggs one at ta time. Once you add the egg you need to beat it into the mix using a wooden spoon.  It makes a very sloppy sounding noise and you’ll be convoked that the mix won’t combine. The eggs mixture will slip and slide between the flour and butter mix, almost as if they are avoiding each other, but bear with it and keep beating. Eventually the two mixtures will combine, then you have to add the next egg and until they are mixed in and thoroughly incorporated into the dough.

Precision is the key
The is the first time that I and to measure out the size of my choux pastry, but if I want these little buns to sit on top of each other and look uniform, it is something that must be precise!  Digging out my compass  set (one I had to by for a previous craft project) I marked out eight circles 5cm/2in wide and another eight circles 2.5cm/1in wide.

Interesting shapes
Armed with the choux mix its time to start piping.  I have to say I was not too sure about this piping method, looks a bit questionable. But for the first half of the batch I decided to go with it. When piping profiteroles you keep the flow of the piping steady and in one spot, to allow the optimum rise from steam created from the moisture content in the dough mix. The piping method described in the BBC recipe and shown by some of the contestants was piping in a round circle, leaving you the the images below in the left.

Sometimes the old ways are the best.
As you can see from the picture on the left, there was not a good even steady rise from the piping in a round method.  There were air pocket created but not consistent ones that would hold the  crème pâtissière, let alone look uniform once they were finished.  So for the final 4 choux buns I used the traditional method I mentioned previously which left me with a much better result.

This was a also another recipe for my newly purchased oven thermometer to be put to the test.  This recipe calls for a hot oven for 10 minutes then ad cooler over for the next 10mins… Oh for a digital oven that cools quickly! When cooking the choux pastry it is important to remember to let the steam escape and the sought to dry out in the oven other wise you get a soggy soft bun, that is not easy to pipe into, or very pleasant to eat.

Yummy Yummy Custard!
Crème pâtissière, crème pât or pastry cream is just another way of saying heavenly vanilla custard in my book!  It uses a similar method with pouring boiling milk over eggs yolks whisked with sugar, flour and cornflour, then returning the saucepan to thicken.  Difference between this and regular custard, as far as I can tell is that crème pât is thicker so that it can be piped (once cooled and set) for use in french tarts and eclairs etc.

Glossy choc
While the crème pât cools and the nun buns dry out its time for the glorious chocolate! Very simple this bit, boil the cream add the broken chocolate and mix till it melts then leave to cool and thicken to a nice classy consistency, while avoiding the temptation eat it all!

Careful with the whipping cream
Opps due to the heat in the kitchen, I was once again foiled by the whipping cream and ended up with what looked like cottage cheese!  Luckily the local Co-op was still open and the boyfriend came to the the rescue!

Fill, Dip, stack and whip!
With one piping bag filled with crème pât, a bowl of glossy chocolate ganache and another piping bag filled with whipped cream it was time to assemble these choux ‘nun’ buns. Armed with everything needed to finish of the buns in a methodical manner, the process was more messy that planned. I defiantly need to spend some time practising my piping methods, but I’ll leave that for another, slightly cooler, day

Check out these little ladies

Not quite as uniform as I would have liked, but definitely very indulgent.  You certainly can’t eat more that one for these with out a little bit gluttonous!