Gluten-free vanilla cream puffs.
Gluten-Free Vanilla Cream Puffs Jun 19 Written By Laurence Boris Requested by many students during my pastry classes, I have just tested this gluten-free cream puff recipe, simply replacing wheat flour with rice flour and cornstarch. The result is astonishing. Not only is the preparation easy, but the taste is surprisingly light and the texture is amazingly crispy. A creamy whipped cream with fresh vanilla beans and a few slices of organic strawberries deliciously accompany these airy puffs.
Ingredients for about 45 puffs:
Water: 250 grams (or 125 grams of semi-skimmed milk + 125 grams of water) (1 cup + 1 tablespoon)
Salt: 5 grams (1/2 teaspoon)
Sugar: 5 grams (1/2 teaspoon)
Butter: 100 grams (1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons)
Rice flour: 75 grams (2/3 cup)
Cornstarch: 75 grams (2/3 cup)
Eggs: 250 grams (4 to 5 eggs)
Spray oil and icing sugar for glazing
Liquid cream with at least 30% fat content: 400 grams (2 1/2 cups)
Icing sugar: 80 grams (2/3 cups)
A vanilla pod
Strawberries: 225 grams (8 ounces)
Equipment:
A baking tray 60 x 40 cm (18" x 26") covered with baking paper
A large bowl, a saucepan, a spatula
A large piping bag, a plain nozzle of 10 or 12 mm (US sizes: 804 or 805) and a fluted nozzle of 12 mm (US size 865 French star)
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) with fan.
Step 1: The Panade Pour water, salt, sugar, and butter cut into pieces into the saucepan and cook over medium heat until slightly boiling. It is imperative that the butter is completely melted before the mixture boils. Mix. Off the heat, pour the rice flour and cornstarch all at once onto the liquid mixture and stir immediately with a spatula. Put the saucepan back on medium heat and mix between 20 seconds and one minute until the panade detaches well from the saucepan. Pour into a large salad bowl and stir to remove steam and cool the dough.
Step 2: The Choux Pastry Roughly whisk the eggs in a bowl and add them one by one to the panade. Mix the dough between each egg using your spatula or with your pastry robot’s leaf to homogenize the dough. The choux pastry is ready when you get a breaking ribbon and the dough is smooth and shiny. You may not use all 250 grams of eggs; sometimes only 200 grams may suffice.
Step 3: Piping Pipe the puffs onto a tray covered with baking paper, spacing them sufficiently. The diameter of the chouquettes is about 3 cm; they may seem small but will puff up during baking. To help, you can draw your templates on the back of your baking paper with a pencil. You can pipe about 25 chouquettes per tray. If you have a second tray, pipe all the puffs; otherwise, you will need to bake in two batches.
Step 4: Glazing Spray a light layer of oil on the puffs and sprinkle them with icing sugar using a sieve.
Step 6: Baking Bake at 180 degrees with fan for about 40 minutes. Do not open your oven door under any circumstances as this would cause your puffs to fall immediately! Once cooled, cut a cap at the top of your puff that you will reposition once the cream is piped.
Step 7: The Vanilla Whipped Cream Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and place them in the bowl of your mixer or in a mixing bowl. Add the very cold cream and whip using your mixer’s whisk attachment or an electric whisk. When it starts to thicken, add the icing sugar in two batches. Once the cream is thickened and you achieve a “bird’s beak” peak, place it in a piping bag fitted with a 12 mm fluted nozzle. Pipe the cream into the puffs and decorate with slices of strawberries that you have previously washed, dried, and cut. Admire your chouquettes and enjoy! They are delicious on the same day and even more tender the next day.
