INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Put water, butter or salt in a large heavy saucepan and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat (butter should be completely melted) and add the flour all
in one fell swoop. Mix as quickly as possible with a sturdy wooden spoon.
This mixture is known as a "panade". Return the saucepan to the stove over
the lowest possible heat. Continue to stir with the wooden spoon while the
panade dries out. This will take about 5 minutes, and a thin crust will
form on the bottom of the pan. This is supposed to happen, so don't worry
about it, and don't try to scrape it up and incorporate it into the dough,
or you will have plaster chips in your pastries. The dough should be soft,
but when you pinch it between thumb and forefinger it should not stick to
your hand. Dump the panade into a bolw, and let it cool for at least 5
minutes. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each
addition. The mixture should be smooth and creamy looking before you add
the next egg. After all 4 eggs have been beaten in, the dough will be shiny
and satiny yellow, thick and heavy. Butter and flour a cookie sheet. Fill a
pastry bag with the diugh. If you don't have a pastry bag, you cna use a
tablespoon to drop dollops of dough onto the cookie sheet for eclairs
and/or cream puffs, but you really must have a pastry bag in order to make
a cream puff ring.
For cream puffs, Squeeze out balls about the size of ping pong or golf
balls.
For eclairs, squeeze out oblongs at 3 to 4 inches long. If you are using
the recipe given above, you should end up with 14 to 16 pastries. Don't
succumb to the temptation to make fewer and larger ones, for they won't
cook properly if you do. Brush the tops of the pastries with beaten egg,
using the bristles of the brush to gently push down and flatten out the
little curlicues left by the pastry bag as you lifted it off. Finally, drag
the tines of a dinner fork down the length of each eclair. The resulting
stripes will make for a more attractive and professional looking product.
For a cream puff ring, first mark a 10" circle on the surface of the
buttered and floured cookie sheet. Then, using a pastry gab, squeeze out a
1" wide "halo" of cream puff paste right on top of the circle you've
outlined. Squeeze anoth 1" wide ring of dough adjacent to - and touching -
the first. Squeeze a third ring directly over the "crack" between the other
two. Brush the whole thing with beaten egg, and sprinkle a handful of
thinly sliced almonds all over the top of the ring. Let the cream puffs,
eclairs, or cream puff ring sit and "dry" for no less than 15 and no more
than 25 minutes before baking. The oven should be preheated to 375F for
cream puffs and/or eclairs, and to 400F for a cream puff ring. Bake the
former at 375F for about 30 minutes, or until they have puffed up nicely
and turned golden brown. Bake the latter at 400F for about 45 minutes, or
until it is well puffed and golden brown. Then, turn the oven off, open the
door, and leave it halfway open for an hour. If it won't stay ajar by
itself, prop it open by wedging something in there. This is to allow steam
to escape and to let the pastries cool slowly and "dry" as they cool so
that they won't collapse or become soft and soggy. After an hour has
passed, remove the pastries from the oven. They are now ready to be filled.
To fill individual pastries: Cut cream puffs and eclairs in half (from side
to side, not from top to bottom). Fill with whatever filling you desire.
Replace lids. Glaze with icing or pour sauce on top. Serve. It is wise not
to fill pastries to far in advance of the serving time. The closer the
preparation time is to the serving time, the smaller the likelihood that
the pastries will begin to soften or get soggy.
To fill a cream ring: Use a slicing knife with a long serrated blade to cut
the top off a cream puff ring. Fill the bottom with praline cream (or
coffee cream, or chocolate cream) filling. Fill a pastry bag with sweetened
whipped cream. use a nozzle with a zigzag edge (like pinking shears) to
squeeze out a layer of fancy puff-balls of whipped cream all over the layer
of praline cream filling. Finally, replace the lid and dust the top with
10X powdered confectioners' sugar. Keep the cream puff ring in a cool dry
place until serving time.
Recipe by: Homemade Good News (Vol 3 No 3)
Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 457 by Bunny
<layla696@ix.netcom.com> on Jan 5, 1998

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