This week’s recipe comes from Caroline of A Consuming Passion. I’ve been wanting to try to make pate a choux since I saw it on Good Eats ages ago, now I have the chance. I do not, however, enjoy peppermint. No. That’s an understatement… I loathe peppermint. The smell, the taste, the feel. All terrible. I get nauseated when I eat it. Maybe I’m allergic…
At any rate, I knew a Peppermint Ring was out, but, luckily, the mint was only in the filling and Dorie gave some alternatives. Being a citrus lover I knew I would go with a Lemon Cream filling. Now this filling could only come after three (in my opinion) failures at the dough.
Now, it came together fine. I boiled it until it was a ball. I mixed my eggs in one by one. I squeezed it into a ring and (on the first attempt) into eclairs and rolls. I baked them for a total of 45 minutes. Each time they came out browned and firm and puffed up.
And everytime… after leaving them in the kitchen to cool… I came back to a deflated ring. It looked a bit like a large donut that someone sat on. So, I tried a second time. Same result. I looked up Alton Brown’s recipe on footnetwork.com. He had a suggestion of puncturing the choux after it came out of the oven to let the steam escape and stop the dough from going soggy.
Eureka! I thought. This the problem! If I puncture the dough when I take it out, all will be well and my ring will be lovely. So, into round three I went. I did everything I was supposed to. I turned the oven down after 15 minutes. I even baked it an extra 5 minutes to be sure it was done. As soon as it came out, I took a paring knife and punctured the ring in several places. The crust was so nice and firm! But, alas, when I returned from letting it cool…
Voila! A Pate A Choux Pancake! That’s right, flat again.
I don’t know what the issue is but I’m thoroughly frustrated. I never got to the lemon cream. What’s the point of making it, if your pastry won’t be able to hold the weight?
I’ll give it a day or two, and maybe I’ll have another go.