The Biscuit round showstopper was a big one! The bakers were asked to make petit fours: meringues, choux pastry and macarons. I was thinking that we needed a cohesive theme and being summer now, citrus seemed a great idea.
So on the petit four party menu we have: Key Lime Cream Puffs with Graham Cracker Craqulin, Earl Grey Macarons with Earl Grey Buttercream, and Lemon Meringues. I will break them into three posts for ease of length but am going to bust them all out like they did in the show... here we go!
Have you every had a cream puff? That is where we start. We are going to make Key Lime cream puffs with a crunchy graham cracker craquelin on top.
The craquelin needs to be frozen before use so that is step one. While I have made cream puffs before, this is the first time I will make one with a craqulin on top. It is usually made with butter, sugar and flour. Since we are going for a key lime pie experience, I traded some of the flour for ground graham crackers.
Ingredients
3 ounces unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
3 ground graham crackers
Cream the butter and sugar, mix in the flour and graham cracker. Roll between two sheets of parchment paper as thin as possible. Cut into circles (we want them to fit the top of the cream puff so the ones I did were 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Then the rolled sheets in the freezer until ready to bake. Do not take all the circles off
Next the cream! We are going to make lime curd and then fold that with whipped cream for a light and tart filling.
Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup key lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
In a saucepan cook the sugar, egg, lime juice, and salt over medium heat. Once blended add the butter. Continue cooking over medium until the mixture is thick and bubbly. Cool in the fridge. I have started calling our fridge the (not) blast chiller for fun, and out of a desire to have a fridge I can actually put a sheet tray into! Pop your whisk attachment and mixing bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes, then pull them out and whip your cream, when it reaches soft peaks, add the powdered sugar. I am a light sugar adder, so feel welcome to add more if you want the end result to be sweeter. Fold the cooled lime curd into the whip cream.
Next the puffs!
Choux is an interesting pastry as it is cooked twice, first on the stovetop and then again the oven. It can take a few rounds to get the feeling of the dough but once you know what texture and density you need, you will be off to the races. You could make eclairs, beignets, Paris-brest, St. Honore, or even a croquembouche!
Ingredients
1 cup water
1/2 cup salted butter, cubed, at room temperature
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
3-4 large eggs
Line two cookie sheets with parchment. If you are unsure of your ability to pipe all the mounds the same size, turn the parchment over and trace circles with pencil on the back to follow as you pipe. Alternatively if you are making LARGE puffs you can do the Martha Stewart suggestion of dipping a round cookie cutter in flour and marking circles on the parchment sheets to follow as she does in her cream puff recipe here. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Bring the water, butter, and sugar to boil in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in all the flour as quickly as possible with a wooden spoon. Return to medium heat, stirring constantly (you can skip arm day!) until the flour is cooked through. You will see the mixture pull away from the sides of the pan and a film will form on the bottom. It can take 3-5 minutes.
Then put the whole mixture in a bowl for your stand mixer or to use a hand mixer. Mix on low, until cooled enough to touch the sides of the bowl comfortably, 1-2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium, adding 1 egg at a time. Each time you add an egg it will look wonky and curdled but it comes together in the end.
Continue until soft peaks form, if needed, add the 4th egg. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a plain 5/8-inch tip. Pipe the dough into uniform mounds on your prepared sheets. Pull the prepared craquelin out of the freezer and top each mound with one of the cut rounds.
Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 and continue baking for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Do not open the oven during baking. The puffs use the stem created inside them to puff up, if you open the oven and release the steam then they will all come out flat and sad. No one wants a sad flat not-puff.
Transfer to a rack to cool, poking each on the underside with a wooden skewer to create a few steam release holes to ensure they are dry inside. Once cool they are ready to fill.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and filling tip, it looks like this. If you don't have a filling tip, then just slice your puffs in half, add a little filling and sandwich them back together. They will be fabulous either way. Fill all your puffs with cream and enjoy!
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