White Chocolate Berry Cream Puffs

Pastry Chef Sumi Saito,
Prairie Ink Cafe

Just in time for spring, these light and airy cream puffs are smooth in texture and delicately flavoured. If you want to make them in advance, keep the pastries, uncut, in an air-tight container and the berry cream in the fridge. Then assemble just before serving.

Ingredients
Choux Pastry
1/4 cup butter, cut in 1 cm pieces
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup and 2 Tbsp flour
1/2 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs

Berry Cream
3/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup raspberry purée
2 Tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup whipping cream

Assembly
1 cup white chocolate, melted
2/3 cup fresh mixed berries

Method
Choux Pastry

1. Heat oven to 425˚F.
2. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, heat butter with water until it reaches a boil.
3. Immediately add flour and sugar, stirring with a wooden spoon until it forms a dough and comes away from the sides of the pot.
4. Mix in mixer or beat with beaters on low speed for 1 1/2 min.
5. Mix in eggs, one at a time, on low speed. Increase to medium speed and beat until paste is smooth. Mix an additional 10 sec on medium speed.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
7. Fill piping bag fitted with a large round tip with paste.
8. With tip 1″ above the pan, pipe paste into 1 1/4″ rounds. Dip fingers in cold water and smooth tops of rounds.
9. Bake 10 min. Lower heat to 375˚F and bake 10 min until golden brown and raised. Continue baking until you can no longer see any small bubbles in the cracks of the rounds. Let cool completely.

Berry Cream

1. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm cream and purée until almost boiling.
2. Mix sugar, yolk, cornstarch and vanilla until smooth.
3. Temper yolk mixture with 1/4 cup of cream mixture while stirring. Keep whisking cream into yolk mixture until fully incorporated.
4. Return mixture to saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking quickly and constantly until thickened. Cook an additional 10 sec while whisking. Remove from heat.
5. Fill a medium bowl with mixture. Cover with plastic wrap. Let cool completely in fridge.
6. In a medium bowl, whip remaining cream to soft peaks. Mix in cooled berry cream and whip 30 sec. Let set in fridge at least two hours or overnight.

Assembly

1. Cut cooled pastry balls in half.
2. In each bottom half, spread 1 Tbsp white chocolate.
3. Fill a piping bag with berry cream. Pipe each bottom half full of berry cream.
4. Top with fresh berries, then top of pastry ball.
5. Drizzle with white chocolate.

Yield 10-12 cream puffs