Fruit feves part 5: passion fruit
I’m a fan of steam powered pastries. Which is to say, pastries that don’t use a chemical or biological leavener, like yeast or bicarbonate of soda, to rise and develop their texture and shape. Instead they rely on trapping water inside themselves, which in a nice hot oven, creates steam that expands and blasts them into shape. Like puff pastry, which traps hydrated layers between fat layers, so the steam expands pushing the fat layers apart and generating dozens of puffy, flaky, crispy, tender layers.
Or choux pastry, a soft, putty-like, very hydrated dough. Unlike most baked goods, choux is powered by physics not chemistry. It’s a pneumatic pastry. When all that water gets heated in the oven, the pastry puffs up into very pleasing little rounds, batons or rings. It generates a stout, puffy, cheerful little shape. Also, all that water means these are tricky to get just right. Once the pastry has puffed up in the oven, it is very prone to collapsing until enough water has evaporated out and created a strong enough protein structure, a nice crisp shell that is strong enough to support its own weight. That’s why it’s important to leave the oven door closed for the majority of the baking time, and to cook cream puffs to a deep golden brown. This will help ensure they are baked well enough to form strong, stable shapes.
This is the last of the Valrhona fruit chocolate feves series; they are really fun to experiment with. I haven’t done a lot of baking with passion fruit before, but trying the passion fruit feves was a great way to test it out. They have a great tart flavour, and they are such strange looking, beautiful fruits with wrinkly purple-black exteriors and vivid jelly insides studded with crunchy black seeds. I used the feves to make a ganache to fill the bottom of the cream puffs, then used a bit of passion fruit puree to flavour the cream and glaze. I had some freeze dried passion fruit powder in my freezer, which helps to add even more passion fruit flavour, but it’s optional, especially since it’s tricky to find and a bit pricy.
This is a fairly technical bake, so I have tried to include a lot of notes to help you achieve success. But I hope you won’t be intimated. Achieving great choux pastry isn’t very difficult, especially if you follow a few tips.
Notes on ingredients and technique:
Flour: I recommend using bread flour if possible. This has more protein (gluten) to help form a stronger structure, and results in crispier shells. All purpose flour will also work.
Water/milk: Choux recipes either call for milk or water. I prefer to use water, as this avoids adding extra fat that will result in a less crisp pastry. If you want a more tender pastry use milk, if you want a crispy pastry use water.
Butter: salted or unsalted is fine. I used salted.
Eggs: you’ll need either 4 or 5 eggs. This depends on how dry your pastry is (due to stove top cooking time) and type of flour used. You can beat the last egg and add it a bit at a time, as you may need between 4 and 5 eggs.
Craquelin: a crispy, thin cookie you can opt to place over top of your pastry. This will melt over the pastry as it cooks, creating a crispy, crackly topping. It also helps the pastry to puff up more evenly, rather than having a craggy, lumpy, bumpy surface. I think it looks prettier with craquelin but you can leave it out if you prefer.
Make ahead plan:
Most of the elements here can be prepped in advance and then assembled later:
Choux: Prepare the dough up to 3-4 days in advance. Store in an airtight container, or right in the piping bag in a zip lock bag. Extra dough can be frozen in an airtight container.
Craquelin: this keeps very well in the fridge or freezer. Make up to a week in advance (fridge) or store frozen for several months, tightly wrapped. The day before you make the puffs (or a couple hours before), roll out the craquelin into a very thin sheet between two pieces of parchment, freeze until very firm.
Ganache: can be made 4-5 days in advance. Store in an airtight container, or in a squeeze bottle, which makes it easy to fill the puffs. You can reheat it to pouring consistency by popping the squeeze bottle in a bit of tap-hot water and swirling the ganache around to evenly warm it.
Stabilized whipped cream: a tablespoon of vanilla pudding mix helps to create a stable whipped cream that won’t collapse or weep as it sits.
Passionfruit glaze: make ahead one or two days and store in an airtight container in the fridge. If it has stiffened up or crusted over slightly add a teaspoon of water and stir to combine. You could substitute lemon or lime for the passionfruit in the glaze if you like.
Baking & assembly: aim to do this all in one day. Bake the puffs, make whipped cream, gently warm the ganache to get it a bit flowier. Once the pastry is totally cooled to room temperature, carefully cut the tops off, glaze the tops, fill with ganache, pipe the cream and top. These are best eaten on the same day they are made. They can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge but they will begin to soften after a day or so.
Check out the rest of the fruit feve series:
almond - quadruple almond and apricot cookies
raspberry - raspberry almond freeform florentines
strawberry - pb & j cookies
yuzu - yuzu pistachio shortbread
passion-coco cream puffs
choux pastry
240 ml water
115 g butter
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
125 g bread flour sifted (all purpose flour will work too, but
4-5 large room temperature eggs
Melt water, butter, sugar and salt together in a medium sized pot. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Add in flour all at once and stir vigorously until evenly incorporated, with no lumps remaining. Return the pan to medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly for about 4-5 minutes. You should see a film of cooked dough thinly cover the bottom of the pan.
Transfer dough to the bowl of a stand mixer (or a mixing bowl with hand held beaters, or right in the pot with a spatula if you don’t have either). With paddle attachment, beat for a couple minutes on low speed to allow the dough to cool slightly. Begin adding eggs, one a time, incorporating completely between each addition. You will need either 4 or 5 eggs, depending on how cooked your dough is, the type of flour and liquid used. When the dough is done it should be glossy and flow slowly off the end of a mixing paddle, making a V shape. If it doesn’t flow, add another lightly beaten egg a bit at a time until the texture is very glossy and flowing, but not runny.
Transfer dough into an airtight container or piping bag with a large round tip attached, and chill.
Heat oven to 400° F. Line baking sheets with parchment.
Pipe small rounds about 1” in diameter onto the prepared pan. Leave plenty of space between them, they will puff up a lot. Using a 1” cookie cutter, punch rounds into the frozen craquelin.
Bake for 15 minutes, then turn down the oven to 350° F and bake for 15-20 minutes more, or until the puffs are dark gold. Remove from the oven and poke a hole in the side of each puff with a small knife. Turn oven off and return puffs to the cooling oven, with the door wedged open with a kitchen towel for 2–30 minutes.
craquelin
Combine all ingredients in a food processor or stand mixer until evenly blended. Chill or freeze in an airtight container if making in advance.
When ready to use, bring craquelin back to room temperature. Roll out very thin (approx 2mm thick) between a large sheet of folded parchment paper. Put this sheet of dough on a cookie sheet in the freezer until very firm, at least 30 minutes.
passion fruit ganache
5 ounces Valrhona passion fruit feves, roughly chopped
5 ounces whipping cream
Warm the whipping cream in a heat proof bowl over a small pan of simmering water or a bain marie. Off the heat, add chocolate and stir until melted and evenly combined. Store in an airtight container or squeeze bottle.
passion-coco whipped creme
2 cups whipping cream, cold
3 tbs passion fruit puree
1 tbs vanilla pudding powder
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp coconut extract
1-2 tbs freeze dried passionfruit powder (optional - this is hard to find and pricey, but will deepen the passion fruit flavour without adding too much extra liquid).
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip cream until soft peaks form. Add remaining ingredients and continue to whip until firm peaks form.
passion fruit glaze
1 ¼ cup icing sugar
2 tbs passion fruit pulp (fresh or frozen is fine)
1 tsp lemon juice
a couple drops yellow food colouring (optional)
Stir everything together in a bowl until a thick, smooth glaze forms. If making in advance, cover tightly and refrigerate. You may need to add a couple drops of water to refresh if you store it.
assembly
cream puffs
passion fruit ganache
passion-coco whipped cream
Passion fruit glaze
2 tbs coconut flakes, toasted
Using a sharp serrated knife, carefully cut off the tops of the puffs. Dip the tops into the passion fruit glaze and sprinkle a little toasted coconut on top of the glaze. Fill the bottoms of the puffs with about 3 tablespoons of passion fruit ganache each. Pipe a generous amount of whipped cream over the ganache and put the tops back on. Let sit in the fridge for an hour or two; cream puffs are best served on the day they are made.