Choux with pastry cream, vanilla sablage

Ingredients for 15 to 20 choux

Vanilla pastry cream

50 cl whole milk

1 vanilla bean (use 30 g unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the bean to make chocolate pastry cream. Mix it with the cornstarch)

120 g egg yolk

120 g granulated sugar

50 g cornstarch

50 g butter

Vanilla sablage (optional)

50 g butter, room temperature

62 g brown sugar

62 g plain flour

5 g vanilla sugar

Choux paste

75 g whole milk

75 g mineral water

6 g salt

12 g granulated sugar

135 g butter

165 g plain flour

300 g eggs

Fondant glaze

250 g fondant patissier

40 g syrup at 80 B or 5 cl mineral water

A few pieces of 68% chocolate to make chocolate fondant

Method

Vanilla pastry cream

- Split the vanilla bean in two and scrape the seeds into the milk. Bring to a boil and let it infuse 20 min or more.
- Meanwhile, beat together the yolks, the sugar and the cornstarch without whitening or frothing.
- Boil the milk again and pour 1/3 into the eggs, blend, add in the rest and blend.
- Put it back into the pan by pouring it through a strainer and beat over high heat until it thickens.
- Remove the pan and add the butter.
- Wrap the cream in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

- Once cold, beat the cream the soften it.

Vanilla sablage (optional)

- Mix all the ingredients together with working it too much.

- Spread it between two sheets of wax paper, 2 to 3 mm thick.

- Put it in the freezer.
- Cut 4x4 cm squares of sablage and put one over each ball of dough.

Choux paste

- Bring water, milk, salt, sugar and butter to a boil.

- When it starts boiling, remove from the heat and add the sifted flour and stir.

- Put the pan back over the heat and keep stirring with the spatula until the dough doesn’t stick to the side of the pan anymore (2 or 3 min).

- Put the dough in a mixing bowl and add the eggs one at a time, stirring between each addition until the dough makes a nice ribbon, not too firm, not too soft.

- If the dough is too firm, add a little bit of warm milk.

- Put the dough in a pastry bag with an 8mm soft decorating tip.

- Make balls of dough, 4 cm wide. Be careful not to make them too close to each other.

Technique for baking your choux
- Preheat the deck oven to 356°F and bake for 20 to 25 min.

- Use a convection oven preheated to 482°F. Turn it off and put your dough immediatly in the oven for 20 to 25 min. Turn it back on to 356°F and bake for 15 min. Never open the oven. (Technique of Christophe Michalak, winner of the World Baking Championship in 2005).

Fondant

- Melt all the ingredients in a bain-marie.

- Use the fondant between 86° and 95°F.