Rhubarb and strawberry choux buns

Plus some tips for choux pastry

Golden choux buns with a light brown sugar craquelin, filled with a velvety vanilla crème pâtissière, soft vanilla whipped cream, a homemade rhubarb, strawberry & cardamom jam and fresh strawberries.

The choux bun is ever versatile–a delicious vehicle to celebrate the fruits of the season. Fresh rhubarb and strawberries are everywhere right now, which makes me incredibly happy because I adore baking with and eating both. Individually they are glorious in their own right, and combined they work harmoniously. The addition of cardamom is always welcomed for me, but is particularly delightful when combined with rhubarb because it accentuates its aromatic qualities.

This is a recipe made up of a few different elements, but much can be made in advance so that by the day of baking, most of the preparations have been done. The jam can be made up to 5 days in advance, and the vanilla crème pâtissière, craquelin and choux pastry can all be made up to 2 days in advance. I always recommend making whipped cream the day of serving/eating, preferably immediately before you’re going to use it–this is because the cream will begin to deflate about an hour after it is whipped, and it will also begin to weep.

The craquelin shown in the photographs was made with a touch of freeze-dried raspberry powder, but I decided against including this in the recipe. Unbaked, it boasted a beautifully rosy colour, but once baked it lost its colour (as I suspected might happen), and while the flavour was nice, I wouldn’t consider it an essential addition. But if you do happen to have some freeze-dried raspberry (or strawberry) powder on hand, I added 1 tbsp to the craquelin recipe.

Some tips on making choux pastry:
1. Make sure that you cook your salt and sugar long enough to dissolve fully, and that your flour is cooked for 2 minutes minutes. These steps help to ensure that the choux has an even rise and smooth surface once baked.
2. While all choux pastry recipes will have a certain amount of eggs listed in the ingredients, it is important that you add the eggs a little bit at a time, mixing well after each addition, until the mixture is at ‘dropping’ consistency. You may not need all of the eggs, and adding more than needed will make the pastry too wet and lead to flat choux buns.
3. When piping, always hold the piping bag vertically above the baking tray, and start with the piping tip about 1/2 cm away from the baking tray. Always apply a steady pressure to the piping bag. Once the base of the choux has been piped, continue to apply pressure to the piping bag while slowly moving the piping bag away from the baking tray, still holding it vertically, ensuring that the tip of the piping bag is always making close contact with the pastry that you’ve piped. The height of your finished piped pastry should be around 2.5cm, finishing piping with a swift circular motion as you stop applying pressure to the bag.
4. I have baked many choux buns, chouquettes, profiteroles etc. over the years, and have found that I get best results when I bake them at a steady temperature throughout baking. A lot of recipes suggest baking at a higher temperature for the first 10-15 minutes, and then reducing the temperature for the rest of the bake, but I find this unnecessary.
5. As soon as the baked choux is removed from the oven, use a toothpick to prick a few holes onto the underside of each choux bun before transferring to a cooling rack. This helps to keep the choux crisp by allowing the hot air inside to escape.