Pastry Puffs With Caviar Recipes

PASTRY PUFFS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment. In a small saucepan, bring water, butter, and sugar to a boil over high.
• Immediately remove from heat. With a wooden spoon, stir in all-purpose flour. Continue to stir until mixture pulls away from sides of pan, about 2 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes.
• Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition until batter comes together. Transfer batter to a large zip-top bag; twist and squeeze bag so batter is in one corner. With scissors, snip a 1/2-inch opening in corner (or use a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch round plain tip).
• Pipe batter into desired size mounds, 1 inch apart, onto sheets. With a wet finger, smooth pointy tops. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake until puffs are golden brown and feel light and hollow inside, 20 to 30 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

CHEESY PASTRY PUFFS

Steps:

• Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Crumble the oregano and salt in a small bowl using your hands and set aside.
• Combine the flour, baking powder and butter in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture forms a coarse meal. Add the cheese and 1 tablespoon ice water. Process until the mixture forms into a ball, adding extra water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if needed. On a lightly-floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 10-inch-diameter circle, about 1/4-inch thick. Form the dough into a flat disc and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Sprinkle the dough with the seasoned salt. Gently roll the salt into the dough using a rolling pin.
• Cut the dough into different shapes using the cookie cutters, and transfer to the prepared baking sheets. Bake until puffed and golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, about 10 minutes.

PASTRY PUFFS WITH CAVIAR

Steps:

• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F. Butter a large baking sheet.
• Bring water, butter, and salt to a boil in a 1 1/2- to 2 1/2-quart heavy saucepan over high heat, stirring. Reduce heat to moderate. Add flour all at once and cook, beating with a wooden spoon until mixture pulls away from side of pan, about 45 seconds. Remove from heat and cool slightly, then add 2 raw eggs 1 at a time, beating well with wooden spoon after each addition.
• Transfer mixture to pastry bag and pipe 24 mounds (about 1 inch wide by 1 inch high) onto baking sheet, spacing them about 1 inch apart. With a finger dipped in water, lightly tap down points on mounds to make tops round. Bake profiteroles until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and pierce each profiterole once with a wooden pick. Turn off oven and return profiteroles to oven, letting them stand in residual heat 5 minutes more. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
• Horizontally cut off top third of each profiterole with a serrated knife and discard tops. Force boiled egg through a medium-mesh sieve into a small bowl and stir in parsley. Spoon a rounded 1/4 teaspoon caviar into each profiterole and sprinkle with a bit of egg mixture.

CREAM PUFFS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400°F. In 2 1/2-quart saucepan, heat water and butter to rolling boil. Stir in flour; reduce heat to low. Stir vigorously over low heat about 1 minute or until mixture forms a ball; remove from heat. Beat in eggs, all at once; continue beating until smooth.
• On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls about 3 inches apart. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool away from draft, about 30 minutes.
• Make one of the fillings (directions below). Cut off top third of each puff and pull out any strands of soft dough. Fill puffs with filling; replace tops. Cover; refrigerate until serving. Store covered in refrigerator. Eggnog Fluff Filling: In large bowl, beat pudding mix, milk, rum extract, nutmeg and ginger with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Add whipping cream; beat on high speed 1 to 2 minutes or until soft peaks form. Fill puffs. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 3 hours. Just before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar or brush tops with light corn syrup and sprinkle with colored sugar or nonpareils. Peppermint Whipped Cream Filling: In large bowl, beat ingredients with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fill puffs. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 4 hours.

CLASSIC CREAM PUFFS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine butter, sugar, salt and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and quickly stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Continue to stir until a film forms on the bottom of the pan.
• Remove from heat and transfer contents to a bowl to cool slightly, about 3 minutes. Add 4 eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously to entirely incorporate egg after each addition.
• For the egg wash, whisk together the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water. Set aside.
• Transfer the pate a choux to a large pastry bag fitted with a 5/8-inch plain tip. Pipe 1-1/2-inch rounds onto each prepared pan. Gently smooth the pointed peaks with a moistened finger, rounding tops to ensure even rising. Brush tops with reserved egg wash. Bake until puffs rise and are golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Puffs can be stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.
• Transfer pastry cream to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/8-inch plain round tip. Insert the tip into the opening of each pastry, and pipe to fill with pastry cream. Serve immediately.

CHOUX PASTRY (FOR CREAM PUFFS, ECLAIRS, ETC)

Steps:

• Chop butter, melt in water and just bring to boiling. Immediately add flour, and mix well with wooden spoon, until it forms a dough that leaves the side of the pan (it looks really gross and clumpy at first, but as you keep stirring it fixes itself). Remove from heat and cool 2 minutes.
• For a sweet pastry, add the sugar to the beaten eggs. Stir in the eggs, mixing until it look like dough again (this is gross at first too).
• Now you have many choices: using a pastry bag or spoon, shape the dough as desired (for puffs: use a spoon or pipe a mound, eclairs: pipe a line, rings: pipe a circle, profiteroles: pipe a mound w/star tip) onto a greased cookie sheet. Keep in mind that it will grow to aprox 3xs its size when done.
• Bake at 425 'til it looks crisp and golden, about 30 mins for half dollar sized puffs. Cut in half, or cut a slit in the side to let the steam escape- if you don't do this fairly quickly they get soggy inside.
• They save for a while in tupperware, unless they're filled. You are supposed to fill them with freshly whipped cream that has a touch of powdered sugar and vanilla or almond added in, but I just fill them with buttercream frosting because its cheaper and tastes pretty good too.

CAVIAR PUFF PASTRY STARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• On a floured surface, roll out puff pastry 1/8 inch thick and with a 3 inch star-shaped cutter, cut out 16 pastry stars.
• Transfer to lightly greased baking sheets, brush tops with egg wash, being careful not to let it drip down sides.
• Bake in middle of oven for 12-15 minutes, or until puffed and golden.
• Let cool and split, leaving the bottoms cut-side-up and tops cut-side-down.
• Just before serving, spoon about 1 tsp sour cream onto each star, divide caviar among stars and sprinkle with chives.

CAVIAR PUFF-PASTRY STARS

Steps:

• On a floured surface roll out the puff pastry 1/8 inch thick and with a 3-inch star-shaped cutter cut out 8 pastry stars. Transfer the stars to a lightly greased baking sheet, brush the tops with the egg wash, being careful not to let the wash drip down the sides, and bake the stars in the middle of a preheated 400°F. oven 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are puffed and golden. Transfer the stars to a rack and let them cool completely. With a sharp small knife carefully split the stars in half horizontally to form a total of 16 stars, leaving the bottoms cut sides up and the tops cut sides down. Just before serving, spoon about 1 teaspoon of the sour cream onto each star, divide the caviar among the stars, and sprinkle the hors d'oeuvres with the chives.

EASY NO-COOK PASTRY CREAM

Steps:

• Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat until very stiff peaks form and the filling smooths out, about 2 minutes. Store covered in the refrigerator until well chilled. The pastry cream can be refrigerated up to 3 days.