Matcha Shū Cream (抹茶シュークリーム, matcha cream puffs)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Bamboo matcha whisk (chasen), or a small balloon whisk
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Heavy saucepan
• •Stiff heatproof spatula or wooden spoon
• •Piping bag with 1cm round or star tip
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Make matcha paste

   Sift the matcha into a small bowl. Warm 3 tablespoons of the pastry-cream milk until hot to the touch, then whisk it into the matcha a spoonful at a time until you have a smooth, deep green paste. Dry matcha clumps the moment it meets a wet custard; making a paste first lets the tea spread evenly and keeps the cream clean-tasting.

2. 2

   Temper the yolks

   Warm the remaining pastry-cream milk in a saucepan until small bubbles gather at the edge. In a bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar, cake flour, cornstarch, and salt until pale and thick. Pour in the hot milk slowly while whisking. This tempering warms the yolks without scrambling them, so the custard thickens smooth instead of grainy.

   The flour and cornstarch need steady heat later to thicken fully, but the eggs need gentleness now. That is why the hot milk goes in slowly.
3. 3

   Cook the cream

   Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens heavily and the first slow bubble breaks through, 3 to 5 minutes. Keep whisking for another 30 seconds so the starch cooks through and loses its raw taste. Take the pan off the heat, whisk in the matcha paste and butter, then pass the cream through a fine sieve. The sieve catches any small lumps; the matcha goes in off the heat so its aroma is not boiled flat.

4. 4

   Chill and lighten

   Scrape the matcha pastry cream into a shallow container and press parchment or plastic wrap directly on the surface. Chill until cold and set, at least 2 hours. The cover prevents a skin, and the cold lets the starch settle into a pipeable cream. When it is cold, whisk it smooth. Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and fold it in in two additions, gently, so the filling becomes light without losing the tea's faint bitterness.

5. 5

   Start the choux

   Heat the oven to 200°C or 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Put the water, 60ml milk, 75g butter, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring it to a full boil, with the butter completely melted. The liquid must be hot enough to hydrate the flour all at once; lukewarm liquid makes a paste that turns heavy.

6. 6

   Dry the dough

   Add the all-purpose flour all at once and stir hard with a stiff spatula or wooden spoon. The dough will look rough, then gather into a smooth ball. Keep cooking over medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, pressing and turning it, until it pulls cleanly from the pan, leaves a thin film on the bottom, and smells faintly of cooked flour. This drying is the choux grammar: it drives off excess water so the dough can take in the eggs without turning loose.

   If you rush this step, the shells may puff at first and then sink. Dry dough has enough strength to hold the hollow center.
7. 7

   Work in eggs

   Move the hot dough to a bowl and let it cool for 5 minutes, just until it is warm rather than hot, so the eggs do not cook on contact. Beat in the eggs a little at a time. After the third egg, slow down and add the rest spoon by spoon. Stop when the dough is glossy and falls from the spatula in a thick V-shaped ribbon that holds its line for a moment. Eggs differ in size, and the dough knows better than the measuring cup: too little egg gives a tight shell, too much gives a flat one.

8. 8

   Pipe the shells

   Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round tip. Pipe 10 mounds, about 5 to 6cm across, leaving space between them. Smooth any sharp peaks with a wet fingertip. Peaks brown before the rest of the shell, and spacing gives each puff room to rise instead of leaning into its neighbor.

9. 9

   Bake and dry

   Bake at 200°C or 400°F for 15 minutes. Without opening the oven, lower the heat to 180°C or 350°F and bake 15 to 18 minutes more, until the shells are deep golden, light in the hand, and dry in the cracks. Turn off the oven, crack the door, and leave them inside for 10 minutes. The first heat sets the outside before the expanding water escapes; the lower finish dries the walls so they stay crisp.

   Choux is hollow because water is the leavening. Open the oven too early and the pressure drops before the shell has set, which is why it collapses.
10. 10

    Fill and finish

    Poke a small hole in each shell to release trapped moisture, then cool the shells completely on a rack. Cut off the top third of each puff, pipe in the cold matcha cream, and replace the cap slightly askew so the green filling shows. Dust lightly with confectioners' sugar and, if you like, the smallest sifted touch of matcha. Fill close to serving time. A warm shell melts the cream, and a filled shell softens as custard meets pastry, which is nature, not failure.

Chef Tips

• •Buy matcha from a tea shop that can tell you when it was ground. The powder should be vivid green and smell grassy, sweet, and clean. If it is olive brown or dusty, make another sweet today. Nothing hidden.
• •If Uji matcha is out of reach, use another fresh Japanese matcha from a reputable source. That is a sensible stand-in. Green tea latte powder is not; it brings sugar and milk powder where the tea should be.
• •Do not measure the eggs by stubbornness. Choux dough changes with flour, pan, and weather, so add the last egg slowly and watch the ribbon. The ribbon is the recipe speaking back.
• •Cool the pastry cream and the shells fully before filling. Cold cream holds its shape, and a cool shell keeps its crisp edge. Warmth here is how good work quietly comes undone.
• •Serve fewer puffs than you think. Three on a small plate with space around them look more generous than six crowded together. Leave it room.

Advance Preparation

• •The matcha pastry cream can be made 1 day ahead. Keep it refrigerated with parchment or plastic wrap pressed directly on the surface, then whisk it smooth before folding in the whipped cream.
• •Unfilled choux shells can be baked 1 day ahead and kept airtight at room temperature. Recrisp them for 5 minutes at 160°C or 325°F, then cool completely before filling.
• •Filled shū cream is best the day it is made, ideally within 6 hours. Refrigerate it once filled, but expect the shell to soften gently.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 115g)