Animal Choux Pastry Truck

It has been a while since I tackled a challenging choux pastry creation. Presenting my version of animal choux pastry truck where everything except the sand is made out of choux pastry! 

And because it was for a birthday boy, the name was included in choux pastry as well! 

The various animals were made out of mini choux au craquelin where the piped batter is around 2cm and the craquelin is around 2.5cm in diameter. 

Before baking

After baking. I was testing out a blue powder colouring and didn't use it for creating any animals. 

You may refer to this post for the basic choux batter and craquelin recipe. As these are small choux buns, they were baked at high temperature for a shorter time to prevent excess browning. The small animal parts were made with choux batter as far as possible, and the fine details were added on using royal icing. 

Looking at the squad of them makes me smile 😊. 

The truck was made using a similar technique that I used to make the choo choo choux train last year. You may refer to this post to see how I baked thin, flat choux pieces, box-shaped pieces and the wheels. 

Assembled choux truck! 

I prepared some chocolate diplomat cream to fill the truck and animals when it is time to serve. Feel free to adjust the amount of cocoa powder and chocolate couverture according to taste. What I suggested in the reference recipe is rather rich as I use valrhona cocoa powder so I actually reduced the amount of cocoa powder and couverture for this animal truck request. 

I hope this creation puts a smile on your face during this trying period! We are facing a lockdown of sorts in Singapore with schools closed and no dining out allowed. Stay safe everyone! 

With love,

Phay Shing