Monday, August 8, 2011

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)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

little japan mama

This is the first post of ♡little japan mama♡

Hi, I'm Shinobu(忍 or しのぶ), I'm a half Japanese Australian, married to a Japanese and we are blessed with a little boy.
We live in Australia now, so it's my job to create of our home, a "little Japan" to make my husband feel at home and for my son to know his culture.

 This blog will be the story of our food, travel and any other adventures as we live/travel in Australia and Japan.

As my mother is Japanese, the only cooking skills I learnt from her were Japanese!  I hope to share useful recipes and tips with you.  The title background photo is my cream puffs.  Called in Japan "Shuu Kuriimu" from the french: Choix Creme.  Posting my recipe Monday!

We love going to beautiful places and enjoying both nature and culture.  Travelling in Japan and Australia I have some knowledge of the best places to see and the cheapest places to stay!  

Please ask me if you have any questions about Japanese food, cooking, travel advice or anything else.  I'll be more than happy to share my knowledge and know what you're interested in.

I'm waiting for your questions and comments!♡

じゃね!
See you soon!

しのぶ