Pie-Wrapped Cream Puff (パイシュー, Pai Shū)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Medium saucepan
• •Wooden spoon
• •Piping bag with plain round tip
• •Baking sheet lined with parchment
• •Cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Cut the pastry

   Keep the puff pastry cold and cut it into ten squares, each about 8cm across. Cold butter in the pastry is what makes the layers lift and flake in the oven, so if the sheet softens, set it back in the refrigerator for ten minutes. Lay the squares on a tray and chill while you make the choux.

2. 2

   Start the choux

   Put the butter, water, milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring it to a full boil. Add the flour all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon. Adding the flour in one motion lets it hydrate evenly, so you don't chase dry lumps around the pan.

3. 3

   Dry the dough

   Keep stirring over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until the dough gathers into a smooth ball and a thin film forms on the bottom of the pan. This drying is not ceremony. It drives off extra water so the eggs can be absorbed properly, while leaving enough moisture to turn into lift inside the oven.

   The dough should smell faintly buttery and cooked, not raw and floury. If it still looks wet and pasty, give it another half minute over the heat.
4. 4

   Work in eggs

   Move the dough to a bowl and let it cool for 3 minutes, just so it no longer feels hot enough to scramble the eggs. Beat in the eggs a little at a time, stopping before the dough turns loose. You're looking for a glossy paste that drops from the spoon in a thick V-shaped ribbon and still holds a mound when piped.

5. 5

   Shape the shells

   Heat the oven to 200°C. Pipe ten mounds of choux, each about 4cm wide, onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Drape one cold puff pastry square over each mound and press only lightly around the sides. Don't seal it tight. The choux needs room to push upward as steam opens the hollow center.

6. 6

   Bake and set

   Bake for 15 minutes at 200°C, then lower the oven to 180°C and bake 15 to 20 minutes more, until the shells are deep golden, crisp, and light when lifted. The first heat sets the outside before the steam escapes; the lower heat finishes drying the shell so it doesn't collapse after the door opens. Do not open the oven during the first 20 minutes.

7. 7

   Cool completely

   Transfer the shells to a rack and let them cool completely. This is where patience protects the work. A warm shell turns the custard slack and dampens the pie layer from the inside, and then you have made soft pastry with great discipline, a small tragedy.

8. 8

   Fill and serve

   Make a small hole in the bottom of each shell and pipe in chilled pastry cream until the puff feels gently heavy in your hand. Dust lightly with powdered sugar if you like. Fill them close to serving time, because pai shū is at its best when the shell is crisp and the cream is cool.

Chef Tips

• •Use good butter and fresh eggs. There is no strong flavor here to hide tired ingredients, only pastry, custard, and the clean sweetness of milk.
• •Add the eggs gradually. Choux dough changes with flour, egg size, and kitchen humidity, so the ribbon tells the truth better than the number of eggs.
• •Fill only what you'll eat that day. The shells can wait, but filled pai shū softens as the custard gives moisture back to the pastry.
• •A plain round piping tip is enough. The shell will be covered with pie pastry, so neat, even mounds matter more than decorative ridges.

Advance Preparation

• •The pastry cream can be made up to two days ahead and kept chilled with plastic wrap pressed directly on its surface.
• •The puff pastry squares can be cut a day ahead and refrigerated between sheets of parchment.
• •Unfilled baked shells keep for one day in an airtight container. Recrisp them for 5 minutes at 160°C, then cool completely before filling.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 100g)