Coco Puffs (Oʻahu Local Chocolate Choux with Hawaiʻi-Style Chantilly)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Two rimmed baking sheets
• •Heavy 2-quart saucepan
• •Stand mixer or hand mixer
• •Pastry bag with 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch round tips
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the pudding

   Whisk the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy saucepan until no dry lumps hide in the corners. Whisk in the whole milk, evaporated milk, and egg yolks, then cook over medium heat, scraping the bottom, until the pudding thickens and slow bubbles break through the surface. Pull it from the heat, stir in the chopped chocolate, butter, and vanilla until glossy, then press plastic wrap right on the surface and chill until cold and firm, at least 2 hours.

   Cold filling matters. Warm pudding makes the choux soften from the inside, and then the puff gives up before the table does.
2. 2

   Make the Chantilly

   In another heavy saucepan, whisk the evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch, and salt until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking steady, until it thickens to a soft frosting that leaves tracks from the whisk, about 8 to 10 minutes. Off the heat, beat in the butter a few cubes at a time, then the vanilla, until the topping turns tan, shiny, and thick. Chill until spreadable.

   Hawaiʻi-style Chantilly is not French whipped cream. This one is a cooked bakery frosting, rich with evaporated milk, yolk, and butter.
3. 3

   Cook the paste

   Heat the oven to 425F and line two baking sheets with parchment. Bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a full boil in a saucepan. Add the flour all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon until the dough gathers into one ball and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pan, about 2 minutes. That little film tells you the paste dried enough to lift.

4. 4

   Beat in eggs

   Move the hot paste to a mixer bowl and let it cool 5 minutes, so the eggs don't scramble. Beat in the eggs one at a time, waiting until each one disappears before the next goes in. The dough should turn smooth and glossy, thick enough to hold a mound but soft enough to fall from the paddle in a slow V.

5. 5

   Pipe and bake

   Pipe or spoon 16 mounds, each about 2 inches wide, onto the baking sheets. Smooth any sharp tips with a damp finger. Bake 10 minutes at 425F, then lower the oven to 350F and bake 20 to 25 minutes more, until the shells are deep golden, light in the hand, and dry in the cracks. Turn the oven off, poke each puff once near the side, and let them sit in the open oven 10 minutes so the centers dry out.

6. 6

   Fill the puffs

   Cool the shells completely. Beat the chilled pudding until smooth, then spoon it into a pastry bag with a small round tip. Push the tip into the side or bottom of each shell and fill until the puff feels heavy in your hand. No need overfill until it bursts. Give it enough so every bite gets chocolate.

7. 7

   Cap and chill

   Spoon a thick cap of chilled Chantilly over each filled puff, letting it sit proud on top the way the bakery case teaches you. Chill the coco puffs 30 minutes before serving so the pudding sets, the topping holds, and the shell still keeps a little crisp at the edge. Serve cold from the box, the tray, or the table.

Chef Tips

• •Choux looks fussy, but it tells you what it needs. Cook the flour paste until it leaves a film, beat the eggs in slow, and bake until the shells feel light. If they feel heavy, they need more drying time.
• •Evaporated milk is not a compromise here. It is part of the Hawaiʻi bakery flavor, the pantry milk that gives the Chantilly its cooked, buttery body.
• •Fill these close to serving when you can. The pudding will always soften the shell over time, so a coco puff eaten the same day has the best mix of crisp edge, cold filling, and glossy topping.
• •This is the Local register, yeah? Warm, sweet, everyday. We honor it by telling the truth about it, not by dressing it up as ancient food.

Advance Preparation

• •Cook the chocolate pudding up to 2 days ahead and keep it chilled with wrap pressed to the surface.
• •Cook the Chantilly up to 2 days ahead; whisk it smooth before topping the puffs.
• •Bake the choux shells the morning of serving, or freeze unfilled shells up to 1 month and re-crisp them in a 325F oven before filling.
• •Filled coco puffs keep refrigerated for 24 hours, though the shells soften as they sit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 130g)