I finally made Choux pastry again and this time, it's Pusheen as a unicorn wannabe!
The horn is made out of choux pastry too!
I must admit that I was quite apprehensive about getting the pastry to retain it's shape well enough while not browning too much during baking. I am glad I managed both! The key to this is good temperature control and a perforated mat. Do note that each oven is different so use the baking temperature and time as a gauge only.
I have written a detailed recipe for Choux au Craquelin so you may refer to
this post. The only difference is I used charcoal powder to colour the cookie dough and pastry batter. I added a little white gel food colouring for the cookie dough and to colour the batter for the horn.
Just to share some pictures of the process ...
Piping pastry batter for the horns
Piping batter for the main body and topping it off with cookie dough. I make my own templates. Baking the main pastry case on perforated mat helps the pastry to retain it's shape better
Freshly baked case with choux pastry horn!
I added on the fine features using
royal icing and the tail using candy melts. I coloured the candy melts before shaping it. As Singapore is rather warm, I had to work in an air-conditioned room when shaping the candy melts. I reshaped the pastry case base so that Pusheen is able to "stand up" instead of lie flat. I made a
video tutorial for making such cases for the penguin Choux entry in my
Deco Choux Pastries book. Store baked and assembled choux pastry cases in airtight condition at cool room temperature.
My friend requested for lychee filling so I made lychee pastry cream with chunks of chopped lychee, and lightened with some whipped cream. I have made
lychee pastry cream before but without whipping cream added so I will type out the updated recipe here.
Recipe for lychee pastry cream with added whipping cream
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
20g cornflour, sifted
25g castor sugar
A pinch of salt
1.5 tsp freeze dried lychee powder*
200g fresh milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
12g unsalted butter, slightly softened
150g chopped canned lychee, woody part removed
100g whipping cream (I used non-dairy for better stability)
* If you are unable to get this, you may replace 50-80g of milk with strained lychee puree.
Steps:
1. Place milk, vanilla extract, lychee powder (or lychee puree) in small saucepan and heat on medium-low heat until bubbles just start to appear around the edges.
2. In the mean time, whisk together cornflour, sugar and salt in a heavy mixing bowl. Add egg yolks and whisk until a smooth paste forms.
3. Once the milk is sufficiently heated up, remove from heat and pour in the slow thin stream into egg yolk mixture while whisking continuously. Pour the egg mixture back into saucepan.
4. Cook the custard by whisking continuously and heating over medium-low heat. Once the mixture appears to thicken, remove from heat and continue whisking vigorously until smooth. Return back to heat and continue whisking and cooking until your preferred consistency, removing from heat to whisk whenever necessary. Do not use high heat or you may end up with scrambled eggs.
5. Remove from heat and mix in unsalted butter until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean bowl if there are any lumps formed. Press a cling wrap onto the surface and refrigerate until cool, at least half an hour. You may prepare this a day in advance.
6. Remove pastry cream from fridge and beat it briefly with spatula to loosen it up. Fold in chopped lychee a tablespoon at a time.
7. Whip up the cold whipping cream until firm peaks form. Fold into pastry cream in a few additions until smooth.
Folding whipping cream into pastry cream
Store covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Remember to fill your pastry just before consuming in order to enjoy the crisp pastry case with cold and refreshing lychee pastry cream! I always don't recommend filling the cases way in advance as it will turn the cases soggy.
Please click on
this link for more unicorn Pusheen bakes in other forms!
With love,
Phay Shing
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