Savoury Puff with herbaceous scallop

June 6, 2015

I’ve only recently come to be fascinated and totally to pâte à choux or cream puff. For years, the only type of cream puff I ate were the lame frozen type that you find on buffet tables or when you go over to your mum’s place for dinner and ask for dessert.

They were soft, soggy and all round disgusting. N o t  g o o d.

Flash forward 2010 having my first cream puff in Paris was amazing, the crème légère was absolutely divine and the puff was light yet crispy! The first crispy cream puff I had, can you believe it?? Not that Singapore didn’t have good cream puffs, I just never ate a good one.

So today this Choux with herbaceous scallop is a combination of 2 recipes. A recipe I got from Raphi’s mom and the pâte à choux recipe I followed from Dulce Delight. I’m absolutely in love with these 2 domestic genius and I promise you these puffs are great appetisers/savoury bites to serve at any party you wish to impress!

Pâte à choux
– 250g water
– 110g unsalted butter
– pinch of salt
– pinch of sugar
– 140g all purpose flour
– 4 to 5 eggs
Stuffing
– 1 stick of garlic and herb butter
– 5 to 6 big scallops, pan seared and cooled.

Directions:

Preheat oven at 200C.

1)In a pan add water, cubed cold butter, pinch of salt and sugar. Bring this to a medium heat and as soon as the butter melts, turn off the heat and add the flour stirring it constantly until it forms a mass.

2)Bring this dough back to heat and dry it out (dessécher) for one more minute or until the dough starts to form a very thin layer around the pan.

3)In a mixer with the paddle attachment on or using a whisk, whisk the dough until it cools, add one egg at a time and when the dough reaches a ribbon stage it’s ready (ribbon stage is when the paddle attachment is lifted and the dough is heavy enough to fall down creating a ribbon connecting the attachment to the bowl).

4)Pipe the 1in round choux in a baking pan with a silpat or parchment paper on, press down the peak created and bake the dough until in gains a brown color (around 30 minutes).

When it looks brown turn your oven down to 150C and leave your oven door ajar (put a wooden spoon on the door to leave it partially open). Let this choux dry until there is no more humidity inside (around 10 more minutes).

Note : This recipe I took from Dulce Delight, watch her video instructions for clearer understanding.

So I had several batches of choux pastry, one type was crispy and brown, the other was soft and yellow. While the crispy ones were great for sweet cream puffs, I chose the soft puffs for savoury because it was easier to stuff and we also had to bake them again before serving.

Stuffing the pâte à choux :

Preheat oven at 150C

1) Dice the butter into small cubes enough to fill half a puff

2) Dice the scallop into small pieces enough to fill half a puff

3) Stuff 1 piece of scallop and butter each into the puff. Set aside.

4) Just before serving, preheat oven to 150C and bake in the oven for 10 mins or until warm. Serve immediately!

Place slice scallop and butter into the puff, its ok if its expanding out. The butter will melt and leave room for the scallop.

So there you have it! Scallops soaked in butter flavoured with herbs & garlic, blanket in a cute round puff. Perfect to hold in your hands without the butter getting to your fingers!

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