Popcorn Choux Buns from Edd Kimber, GBBO's first winner
An across-the-pond riff to inspire your playing around
Choux and tell how yours turn out in BAKE AND TELL
Hello, Hello dear Playing-Arounders!
I hope you’ve had a good week making pâte à choux and one – or many – of its family members. Me? I’ve made so much choux dough that now even Michael, who’s never made a cream puff in his life (and who likely never will), can walk into the kitchen, sniff the air, know there’s choux in the oven and almost be able to tell if they’re ready to come out. Still, I know I won’t make a convert – he’s a bread baker through and through.
INSPIRATION FROM ACROSS THE OCEAN
Every month, I’ll send you at least one interesting riff on whatever we’re working on. For this month, I’ve fallen in love with a puff.
It was such a sweet moment of synchronicity when, almost the instant I decided that cream puff dough would be our first project, I found Edd Kimber’s recipe for what I think of as Popcorn Puffs! Edd, a Londoner whom many of you may know as The Boy Who Bakes, is a really creative baker. He had to be to win the first ever Great British Bake-Off and to go on to write so many good books, the last of which, SMALL BATCH BAKES, debuts in America on October 4.
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Edd’s puff, which he originally created for the BBC, is a pastry of small surprises. It’s a classic cream puff, what the Brits call a choux bun, with a craquelin top. Inside, there’s caramel corn, popcorn-flavored whipped cream and salted caramel sauce. What’s not a surprise is that it’s as wonderful as it sounds.
I asked Edd what made him think to do this and he said, “I made this during the phase when I was obsessed with infusing whatever I could into cream.” Yes, a phase of infusion-obsession sounded perfectly reasonable to me. Infusing liquid with flavor, as I mentioned in the Loosey Goosey Guide, is a great way to change up a pastry.
Photo: Mary Dodd
And while I had him on the phone, I asked him about craquelin. We both love it, but neither of us could say where it had come from or when. We both think it’s a recent addition to Puffdom. Maybe it turned up ten years ago? Maybe 15? As we talked, I thought I remembered first seeing it at Pierre Hermé’s pastry boutique in Paris. When I mentioned that, Edd had a little ah-ha moment and thought he, too, had first seen it in Paris. We were both intrigued by it and Edd said what I’d thought when I saw it: “It looked like something that would just be too hard for the average home baker.”
We were both wrong! There’s nothing difficult about craquelin. Even a “below-average” baker could make them perfectly! It’s a little gift from the pastry gods that something so lovely can be so easy.
Photo: Mary Dodd
A WORD ABOUT THE SURPRISES WITHIN
When Edd first made the puffs, he filled the bottom with caramel corn, poured in some salted caramel sauce and then topped everything with whipped cream and the puff’s cap. When Mary Dodd tested these, she changed the order – she put the whipped cream in the base, added caramel corn and then poured the caramel sauce over the corn and cream. When I mentioned this to Edd he said, “Perfect! I think if I were doing the bun all over again, I’d do it just like that. Or maybe I’d put in the cream and then sauce and circle the cream with the popcorn. Or maybe … “ And like the restlessly inventive baker he is, he was off thinking of more riffs.
I hope Edd’s riff on the classic will set you thinking about ways to play around. Or maybe it will inspire you to go traditional. Whatever you do, I hope you’ll have fun with this and remember to post what you’ve made and what you’ve discovered to our group. Use the hashtags #bakeandtell and #pateachoux so I can find you. See you back here Friday
SALTED CARAMEL AND POPCORN CRUMBLE CHOUX BUNS
Adapted from a recipe created by Edd Kimber for the BBC
Click here for printable recipe
Photo: Mary Dodd
GOOD TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START
The tools: Edd prefers to make everything – the dough, craquelin and whipped cream – by hand. If you want to use a mixer, plug it in and mix away!
The dough: Edd makes his pâte à choux and bakes his cream puffs a little differently from the way I do. Follow Edd’s recipe; follow my recipe; follow your own recipe. The goal is to get something you like and that you can play with.
The shaping: Edd is a piper, but you can shape the puffs with spoons or scoops. See here for some guidance.
The flavor-infused cream: It’s such a kick to infuse heavy cream with the flavor of caramel corn, but if it isn’t for you, you’ve got choices. The take-away here is the idea of infusing. You can use tea, coffee, herbs, spices – a split vanilla bean is classic and lovely – or, or, or. If you infuse your cream with something wild and crazy, tell us. And if you don't infuse your cream, that's fine too - of course!
The salted caramel sauce: Edd’s sauce is delicious, but again, if you’ve got a favorite sauce – or want to use a different kind of sauce (or no sauce at all) – do it.
The timing: There’s a lot to do here, so you might want to make the craquelin, caramel sauce and popcorn cream a day ahead. In fact, you could even make and shape the choux a day (or a month!) ahead. If you do that, freeze the puffs, then when you’re ready for them, put them on the baking sheet at the same time that you turn the oven on to preheat.
More timing: Because of the caramel sauce and popcorn, it’s best to assemble these right before you’re ready to serve them.
A word on measurements: If you have a scale, I suggest that you use it and the metric measures. Edd wrote the recipe in metric and Mary Dodd tested the recipe in metric, so those are the most reliable measurements.
Makes 10 puffs
INGREDIENTS
For the crumble topping (the craquelin)
50 grams (1/3 cup) all-purpose flour
50 grams (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
40 grams (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
Photo: Mary Dodd
For the salted caramel
150 grams (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
125 ml (about 1/2 cup) heavy cream
10 grams (2 teaspoons) unsalted butter
Large pinch flaky sea salt
Photo: Mary Dodd
For the popcorn cream
600 ml (2 1/2 cups) heavy cream, plus extra to top it up
125 grams (2 1/4 cups) caramel popcorn
Large pinch flaky sea salt
Photo: Mary Dodd
For the choux pastry
140 ml (about 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) water
60 grams (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon light brown sugar
85 grams (about 2/3 cup) all-purpose flour
2 to 3 large eggs
Photo: Mary Dodd
For the filling and topping
Caramel popcorn, for filling
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)
DIRECTIONS
To make the craquelin: Working in a medium bowl, mix the flour and sugar together. Add the butter and, using your hands, toss and rub the ingredients together until they’re the texture of breadcrumbs. Still working with your hands, press the mixture together to form a uniform dough. Place it between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out until it’s a few millimeters thick (aim for about 1/16 inch). Freeze until needed, or for at least 1 hour.
Photos: Mary Dodd
To make the salted caramel: Put the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Allow it to melt and caramelize, stirring occasionally (start from the edges and work in). Once the sugar is a dark copper-caramel color (put a drop on a white plate to test the color), remove the pan from the heat, stand away from it and add about half of the cream. When the bubbling has subsided, add the remaining cream, the butter and salt. Return the pan to the heat and stir until the mixture is smooth. Pour the caramel into a heatproof bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill until needed.
Photos: Mary Dodd
For the popcorn cream: Put all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover the pan and set aside to infuse for 1 hour. Strain the cream through a sieve into a 3- to 4-cup measuring cup, pressing down on the soft popcorn to get as much of the cream as possible. Measure what you’ve got and add as much cream as needed to bring it back to 600 ml (2 1/2 cups). Press a piece of plastic wrap against the cream and chill until needed.
Photos: Mary Dodd
The craquelin, caramel and cream can all be done a day ahead and you might want to do them then – it will make baking and filling the puffs easier the next day.
To make the choux pastry/cream puffs: Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using a 5 cm (2 inch) cookie cutter as a guide, draw 10 circles on a piece of parchment and turn it over.
Working in a medium saucepan, pour in the water and add the butter, salt and sugar. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a full, rolling boil. When the butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat and add the flour all at once. Immediately start beating with a wooden spoon until a thick paste forms. Return the pan to low-medium heat and beat for about 2 minutes to dry it out a little. Turn the paste into a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) and beat for a few minutes to cool it down slightly.
Add 2 of the eggs, one at a time, beating each egg until fully combined. If you lift your spoon (or paddle) and the choux drops off it in a V-shape, you’re done. If the dough is too thick and solid, beat the last egg in a small bowl and add it to the dough little by little. (Edd says you might not need it and Mary didn’t when she tested the recipe.)
Photo: Mary Dodd
Put the dough in a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle, then pipe rounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheet, using the circles as your templates. (Alternatively, you can spoon or scoop out the dough.) Remove the craquelin from the freezer and peel off the top layer of parchment. Using a 5 cm (2 inch) cookie cutter, cut out 10 disks of the crumble topping and put one on each mound of dough.
Photo: Mary Dodd
Bake for 40 minutes, or until the choux is well risen and the craquelin is golden. Turn the oven off but leave the choux in until fully cooled. (Mary removed her choux after 20 minutes of cooling time in the turned-off oven – they were still warm, but they were firm, which is what you want.)
Photo: Mary Dodd
To finish the puffs: Check your salted caramel. If it has firmed too much, place it over a bowl of simmering water to loosen it, or pop it into the microwave for about 15 seconds. Remove the cream from the refrigerator and whip it (by hand or with a mixer) until it holds soft peaks. Turn it into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. (You can also just spoon the cream.)
Photo: Mary Dodd
Using a serrated knife, carefully slice each bun in half. Place a few pieces of popcorn in the base of each bun and spoon over a little caramel. Pipe a swirl of whipped cream onto the base (or spoon some on). If you’d prefer to do what Mary did, put some whipped cream into the base of each puff, top with some popcorn and finish with a little caramel. Pop the caps onto each puff and, if you’d like, dust the tops with confectioners’ sugar.
STORING: Almost all of the components can – and should – be made ahead. But once the puffs are assembled, it’s good to get everyone around the table in short order – these can be kept for a bit in the fridge, but that might spoil their texture and soften the popcorn a tad.
Photo: Mary Dodd
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