Tuesday, June 17, 2008

TWD - Peppermint Cream Puff Ring



I hate to be beaten by anything so I had to make this week’s TWD recipe twice! The recipe was chosen by Caroline of A Consuming Passion and is peppermint cream puff ring. The dessert is a choux ring, filled with mint flavoured whipped cream and topped with a chocolate glaze and flaked almonds.

I knew that I could make choux pastry as I had made it the week before for the Hay Hay It’s Donna Day challenge. Dorie’s recipe instruction was to pipe the dough into a large ring before baking. I duly followed the instructions, but my choux ring looked more like a choux pancake. It rose but not as much as I had hoped and then when it came out of the oven it completely collapsed.



So, not to be defeated, on Saturday I had my second attempt. This time I halved the choux mixture. There were a few things that I think I did wrong the first time, so I made sure to remedy them – one was I don’t think that the oven first time round was hot enough to start with. Secondly I don’t think I beat the eggs in for long enough and thirdly, I opened the oven door while the ring was cooking – apparently that is a real No No when making choux. Second time round, I also didn’t pipe the dough – I spooned dollops of the mixture into a ring. And my choux turned out perfectly! I was so excited.



Next was the filling - cream, heated and infused with mint leaves, then cooled, beaten with some sugar and mixed with some crème fraiche. I actually left out the crème fraiche and just had mint flavoured whipped cream. It was so yummy! I would definitely flavour cream with mint again, as you get this amazing freshness against the richness of the cream. The choux ring was split, filled with the cream and then topped with a glaze made from chocolate, cream and corn syrup – I left out the corn syrup simply because I didn’t have any.

This was such a yummy dessert, once I finally got the hang of it! It was quite different to the kind of thing I normally make and I had forgotten how much I enjoy chocolate éclairs. I will definitely make this again. See the other Peppermint cream puff rings here.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you got it right! It looks delicious. I really like eclairs too and this was a great treat!

Bumblebutton said...

Good for you! It DOES look perfect!

Dolores said...

Great job. I love it when after a frustrating first run, the second try works the kinks out. :) I'm making mine tomorrow (under the wire) and looking forward to the minty cream!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

looks like you got it to be perfect the second time 'round--delicious!!

Anonymous said...

I love the dallopy ring, great job.

Engineer Baker said...

Wow, that looks amazing! Congrats on conquering it the second time around!

kimberly salem said...

i'm glad you were able to try it again, it looks great!

Linda said...

I'm so glad you didn't give up after the first attempt. I love the fact that you didn't pipe the ring...and it looks terrific and delicious!

Anonymous said...

What a pretty dessert! It looks delicious!

Jules Someone said...

That is a beautiful pastry. Hard work really paid off for you!

CB said...

Your "puff" ring looks so yummy. Love your perseverance. Great job!
Clara @ I♥food4thought

Di said...

Your ring looks delicious. I'm glad the second attempt worked out for you.

Anonymous said...

Wow...Excellent.It seems delicious.it is so good...you are an Artist Lawyer.

Anonymous said...

Looks gorgeous. Good on you for being so persistent! Hx

Prudy said...

5 stars for perseverance and for a lovely ring. Yours is fabulous. Those shortbread buttons are adorable, too.

ostwestwind said...

Congratulations that you are more satisfied with the second attempt.

It looks gorgeous

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Susie Homemaker said...

way to stick with it! I think your ring looks great - i wouldn't have thought to not use the pastry bag - spooing it looks really cool!

Anonymous said...

It looks gorgeous!

Heather B said...

Great job! It looks delicious!

Annemarie said...

Good to know that the dollups worked! It looks fabulous!

Lisa T. said...

This looks amazing. I love the ring of "puffs". Its always a learning experience...

Cakelaw said...

This looks great - good on you for trying again when it didn't work, as I would have probably binned it and not bothered again.

Jaime said...

great job! glad you persisted and gave it another try!