More of my Pai-Shu Cream Puffs; and Why Beard Papa's is Better in Japan

(This is what I made today:)

 And here is the link to my Recipe:
♡　 Pai-Shu (Cream Puffs with Cookie Crust) 　♡

Why do Beard Papa's cream puffs taste better in Japan than in Australia?  I know the answer!

I was just walking past the local Beard Papa's store here in Brisbane, when I noticed that the store looked different to the stores I saw in Japan two weeks ago.  Where are those big oven-looking things where they keep all the cream puffs?  In Australia the cream puffs were sitting cold in a display window, not an oven.

So the secret to (Japan's) Beard Papa's is:

Leave the cream puffs in the oven at low temperature until you're just about to serve them!

I generally leave them in the oven after they're done for 40 min at 100 degrees C (as I wrote in the recipe)

Maybe if you wanted to serve them 2 hours later you could leave them at 75 degrees C for longer?
I haven't tried that yet so I can't say exactly.

Anyway, I made cream puffs (again) today, this time as a special treat for my class of 12-13y.o. girls that I teach at church.

And I wanted to share them with you too, but these photos are all that are left to share now...♡

 
Making Custard Cream in Australia, I noticed today that it didn't turn out as yellow as when I made it in Japan.  The colour depends on the colour of the egg-yolks.  In Japan they're bright yellow but in Australia they're a slightly dull orange-colour, and the custard colour was a bit dull.  I put in a few drops of yellow food colouring to get the custard cream colour you see here:

 

Japanese Cream Puffs Recipe ☆ Australian measures

2011/09/30 UPDATE: Click Here for my Pai-Shuu Crispy Cream Puff Recipe (Similar to Beard Papa's)

All cup measurements here are for Australian metric 250mL! 

I also made a US recipe for American cups and ounces.

Little Japan Mama Cream Puffs (20-24)

120 g butter

3/4 cup water

1 1/3 cup plain flour, sifted

5 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Custard creme

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

3 cups milk
40g real butter

1/2 or 1 vanilla bean (I got excellent quality vanilla beans from India on ebay, sooo cheap!) Vanilla extract will do if you can't wait for your bean order.

+/- a cup of whipped fresh cream

1. Place butter, salt, sugar and water in a large saucepan over high heat.  When butter is melted and it starts to boil, remove from heat and...

2. Immediately tip in flour all at once, and beat into a firm dough with wooden spoon.

3. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk 5 eggs.  Add approximately one egg to the dough at a time, beating well in between with a wooden spoon.

4. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe directly downward onto paper-lined tray.  If you like, use chopsticks or fingers to pull pastry upwards on the sides, to make them taller and rough-surfaced.
5.  Place discs of Pai-Shuu Crust Dough on top.

6.  Immediately bake in a very hot oven 210-220 degrees Celcius, 25-30min until well puffed and browned then down to 100 degrees C for 40 min or more to dry.

(oven MUST be well pre-heated) (esp with these big puffs, don't turn the heat down early, they fell when I did that! wait until they're well puffed and the colour is fully developed.)

Custard creme

1. Using a whisk, Combine flour and sugar, 

2. add:  2 egg yolks and a small amount of the milk, whisk until combined.  Add remaining milk and scrape in vanilla pod.

3. stir over medium heat, till it thickens. Remove from heat.

4. mix in 40g real butter

5. allow to cool with plastic wrap on surface to prevent a skin. Refrigerate until cold.

6. If you like, beat cold custard cream until smooth and then add a cup of whipped fresh cream

The beard papa's I had in Japan was better than in Aus.  

And the "pai-shuu" I had from another patisserie was even better than that.  

(What? "Pie-shoe"??)

Pai-Shuu (Pie Choix - Japanese use the word "pie" for what American Beard Papa's calls "cookie")

It's the sweet crispiness of their cream puffs which is made by piping 2 layers simultaneously: choix pastry and cookie pastry.

I don't have such a machine, but we can make something similar without it.


Would you like to know how?
Click Here for my Pai-Shuu Crispy Shell Cream Puff Recipe (Similar to Beard Papa's)