This is a favourite dessert that Mum often makes. It’s particularly nice at this time of year when there’s an abundance of berries and stone fruit to accompany it. It’s a light yet satisfying desert and never fails to impress guests. On this occasion we were entertaining the family Lewis – who all seemed to enjoy the circle of choux and left vowing to post their comments/feedback on the blog… comments (and followers) are what motivates a blogger, so I eagerly await these!
I use the Edmonds Chocolate Éclair recipe for the choux pastry:
1 cup water
75g Butter
150g flour
1 dessertspoon sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
4 small eggs
Bring butter and water to the boil. Add flour at once and beat. A tip from the Elkins family is to make sure the flour is ‘cooked’ for long enough until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan. Remove from heat, add sugar and vanilla and beat in the eggs one at a time. Place on a tray a sheet of baking paper that you have first scrunched up and run under cold water (this helps ensure the pastry rises and is light and moist). Put tablespoons of the mixture in a circle so they are just touching each other (I used a small plate as my outline). If there’s extra mixture left over add smaller spoonfuls to fill in any gaps. Bake for about 30 minutes at 200°C.
Once cooked, carefully cut the ring in half horizontally and lift off the top half of the ring. Fill the bottom half of the ring with cream, and any fruit of your choice - I piled on boysenberries and blueberries. Place the top back on and dust with icing sugar. I served this with a fruit salad of apricots, nectarines, mango and blueberries to which I added about a teaspoon of sugar and a good swig of sherry. Delicious!
I use the Edmonds Chocolate Éclair recipe for the choux pastry:
1 cup water
75g Butter
150g flour
1 dessertspoon sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
4 small eggs
Bring butter and water to the boil. Add flour at once and beat. A tip from the Elkins family is to make sure the flour is ‘cooked’ for long enough until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan. Remove from heat, add sugar and vanilla and beat in the eggs one at a time. Place on a tray a sheet of baking paper that you have first scrunched up and run under cold water (this helps ensure the pastry rises and is light and moist). Put tablespoons of the mixture in a circle so they are just touching each other (I used a small plate as my outline). If there’s extra mixture left over add smaller spoonfuls to fill in any gaps. Bake for about 30 minutes at 200°C.
Once cooked, carefully cut the ring in half horizontally and lift off the top half of the ring. Fill the bottom half of the ring with cream, and any fruit of your choice - I piled on boysenberries and blueberries. Place the top back on and dust with icing sugar. I served this with a fruit salad of apricots, nectarines, mango and blueberries to which I added about a teaspoon of sugar and a good swig of sherry. Delicious! 
That looks exceptional. Now, why is it that we didn't see anything like that at our pot luck morning teas? Hmmm?
ReplyDeleteI love your blog already, so many tasty bits and pieces and a lovely way of writing. I look forward to reading more!
ReplyDeleteTamsin
Thanks Tamsin - you've made my day - especially as I haven't coerced you into reading the blog or joining as a follower like I have with everyone else! How did you discover the blog?
ReplyDeleteOMG you should totally have put that second pic first! Yummy
ReplyDeleteXC
Five stars for appearance and taste!
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I make the ring of choux it is light and well risen and other times it disappoints and is comparatively flat or collapses when taken out of the oven. Why?? I've just found a couple of interesting sites:
Laurel Watson's choux pastry recipe at: http://tvnz.content/2068079
and Joe's pastry blog at: http://joepastry.com
These sites certainly help me understand the cooking and science of choux -so hopefully in the future I’ll consistently be able to make the ring of choux look and taste just like yours.
I found it through West Coast Kitchen which I used to read and loved and then when I revisited it lately I found it linked to this blog after reading the incredibly sad story of why the West Coast Kitchen had closed. My heart goes out to Daisy and her Mum. Keep up the fabulous blogging, it reminds me of hoime and makes me smile, and cook, as I read. I made the lemon yoghurt cake from your link last week and it was great, except I had no ring tin and it was hard to get the middle cooked using a standard tin...very yummy though.
ReplyDelete