Tuesdays With Dorie - Not Your Traditional Cream Puff

I don’t remember where I first heard of churros. Maybe it was from the Food Network or from one of the many blogs I read everyday, but these fried delicacies intrigued me. While searching for recipes, I noticed that making churros was a lot like making pâte à choux.

So when I saw that Caroline, of A Consuming Passion, had chosen the Peppermint Cream Puff Ring for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie, I knew what my cream puff would become. Pâte à choux is quite simple to make and what makes them churros is their shape and the fact that they’re usually dipped in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Since I wanted to keep the mint aspect of the recipe, I omitted the cinnamon and added a little vanilla to the dough, for added flavor.

We all loved these, they were a real treat with the Chocolate Sauce and the Mint Scented Whipped Cream. If you’d like the recipe for Dorie’s Peppermint Cream Puff Ring, you can find it on pages 290-292 of Baking From My Home To Yours and on Epicurious. You'll also want to check out the Tuesdays With Dorie Blogroll to see what the other members came up with. If you want something less traditional, give these churros a try, I’m sure you won’t regret it!

Untraditional Churros
1 cup whole milk
4 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
2 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar, for dipping

3 cups canola oil, for frying

In a medium saucepan, mix milk, butter, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add vanilla. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough forms a ball. It will take about one minute. Transfer the dough to a large bowl and let it cool about 5 minutes. Using your wooden spoon, beat in the eggs one at a time until they are incorporated in the dough. It will look lumpy at first, but the dough will come together.

In a large, heavy skillet, heat oil to 350F. Spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Once the oil is hot, pipe in the batter into 3 to 3-1/2 inch long strips, cutting the strip with a knife or kitchen shears. Fry the churros until golden, about 4 minutes total, turning them once or twice. Remove them from the oil onto a paper towel lined baking sheet and let them cool enough to touch. Dip the churros in the granulated sugar to coat.

Chocolate Sauce
2 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate
1 cup milk
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp sugar (or to taste)

In a small saucepan, over low heat, place 1/2 cup milk with the chocolate and stir constantly until the chocolate is melted. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with the remaining 1/2 cup milk and stir it into the chocolate. Add the sugar and stirring with a whisk, cook the mixture until it has thickened. It will take about 5 minutes. If the chocolate sauce is lumpy, whisk it vigorously until it is smooth. Pour into cups or small bowls and top with Mint Scented Whipped Cream.

Mint Scented Whipped Cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 to 3 tbsp sugar (to taste)
1/8 to 1/4 tsp peppermint extract (to taste)

Pour the heavy cream in your mixer bowl of choice and whip at medium speed until it starts to thicken. Add the sugar and the peppermint extract and whip until the cream holds its peaks. Spoon onto the chocolate sauce and, if you wish, decorate with some fresh mint leaves.

Time For More Doughnuts

Ever since it was Time to Make the Doughnuts I’ve been wanting to make these French Cruller Doughnuts. I saw them at Creampuffs in Venice and at The Biscuit Pusher, and both looked mouth wateringly good.

So I printed out the recipe and it’s been in my “to try” list for more than a few weeks. Along with, oh, let’s say dozens of other recipes, just so we don’t get our heads spinning, ok? Well, last Friday, I finally decided to try these. I made 4 huge doughnuts and 8 small éclairs. I was making choux paste after all, my better half would not have forgiven me if I hadn’t made any éclairs!

The choux paste came together surprisingly well, and baking these was much less stressful that frying! Also, I halved the recipe so I didn’t have too many batches waiting to go into the oven.

I’ll have to work on my pastry bag wielding skills though as I seemed to have the inability to make my doughnuts any smaller or to make my éclairs all the same length! But once we tasted them, we forgot all about their looks. Anyway, we didn’t look at them very long before devouring the whole lot!

French Cruller Doughnuts
Adapted from Marcy Goldman’s A Passion For Baking

Choux Paste Doughnut Base :
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsps pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs

Maple Glaze:
I cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp milk Preheat oven to 400. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.

For Choux Paste Doughnut base: In a large saucepan, stir milk, water, sugar, and salt together over medium heat. Stir in butter and allow it to melt. Increase heat and bring mixture to a rolling boil. Stir in flour all at once. Blend well with a wooden spoon, adding vanilla and beating briskly until mixture forms a ball that leaves the sides of pan. Beat vigorously 1 to 2 minutes before removing from burner and turning out into a mixer bowl. Allow mixture to cool 5 minutes.

Using a wide whisk or wooden spoon, add eggs, 1 at a time, until mixture is smooth and glossy. Spoon choux paste into a large pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch star tip. On prepared baking sheets, leaving some space between each pastry, make a 4-inch circle of batter with another circle on top -- concentric circles. If you don't have a pastry bag, use a soup spoon to spread out a ring of batter as best you can. It will be fine once it puffs.

Bake pastry 15 minutes; then reduce oven temp to 375 and bake another 15 to 20 minutes or until doughnuts are light in texture and medium brown all over. Cool slightly.

To make glaze, whisk everything together in a medium bowl to a thick glaze consistency. Dip each doughnut once, let excess drip off back into bowl, let set, and then glaze again. Let doughnuts set on a wire rack.

Note : With this recipe I made 4 doughnuts and 8 small éclairs. For the éclairs I used the same pastry tip as for the doughnuts and made them about 4 inches long. The baking times were about the same but start checking at around 15 minutes for the second baking time. Once they’re baked let them cool a bit and fill them with the pastry cream. You can do this either by cutting the éclairs in half and spreading the pastry cream on one half or keep them whole and fill the éclairs with a pastry bag fitted with a round tip. Then dip the top of the éclairs in the chocolate glaze.

Pastry Cream
Adapted from Ricardo Volume 3 Number 5
1 cup milk
1/3 cup of sugar
2 1/2 tbsp flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan heat milk until it’s steaming. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, mix together sugar and flour. Whisk in the egg. Add a little warm milk to the egg mixture, then while whisking add the rest of the milk. Cook

over medium heat, whisking constantly. Once it starts to boil let it cook for a minute or two, to desired consistency. Add the vanilla extract, transfer to a bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream. Let cool in the refrigerator for about 3 hours.

Chocolate Glaze
1 tbsp butter
1 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a double boiler, melt butter with chocolate. Remove from heat, add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until blended.