TARO & STRAWBERRY CHOUX BUNS

MAKES 10 / PREPARATION 40 MINUTES PLUS COOLING TIME / COOKING 30 MINUTES

The prettiest choux you ever did see!

CRAQUELIN

40g butter, softened

50g sugar

50g plain flour

3g ube flavouring (Mccormick brand,

can be found in most Asian supermarkets)

Mix everything together until there are no lumps or chunks of butter left. Roll out between two sheets of baking paper until roughly 2mm thick. Cut out 7cm circles and place in the freezer for 5 minutes. Keep the cut circles in the freezer, while you reroll and cut the leftover dough.

CHOUX PASTRY

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

40g butter

80g plain flour

1 egg

Heat the oven to 160℃ fan bake.

Put 100ml water in a pan with the salt, sugar and butter and bring to the boil. Once boiled, remove from the heat and quickly stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Mix until there are no lumps of flour. Return to the stove on a medium heat and keep stirring. The choux pastry is ready once everything comes together into a ball, the dough is shiny and it is beginning to stick to the bottom of the pot. Remove from the heat and put into a bowl, spreading it out so that it can cool more quickly. Alternatively, put it in a mixer and mix it with a paddle to let it cool down.

Whisk the egg. Add half the egg to the dough, mixing until fully combined. Then mix in the other half of the egg. The choux pastry is ready once the mix looks shiny and smooth. To check further, lift the spatula and let the mixture fall slowly into the bowl – it should fall off the spatula in a tapering V-shape.

Put the dough into a piping bag and pipe 7-8cm diameter circles onto a lined tray. To help with sizing, take a round cutter of the corresponding size, dip it in flour and then put onto the lined tray as a sizing guide. Put a disc of ube craquelin on top of each choux and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes or the choux could collapse. Turn the tray around for the last 5 minutes. Once golden, remove from the oven and leave to cool until ready to use.

TARO CUSTARD

30g taro

30g cornflour

¼ teaspoon agar agar

30g sugar

¼ teaspoon ube flavouring (Mccormick brand, can be found in most Asian supermarkets)

250ml soy milk

Steam the taro until softened and then mash with a fork. Add in some soy milk if it’s too thick. Mix everything together in a pan and place on the stove. Heat, while still mixing with a whisk, until it starts to bubble and thicken. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

TO ASSEMBLE

10 strawberries, leaves trimmed off

Cut off the top third of each choux. Using a star nozzle, pipe in some taro custard until the choux is half full. Put a whole strawberry inside, pushing it in so the taro custard oozes out slightly. Pipe around the top of the choux covering the strawberry. To make it look a little neater, use a cookie cutter to cut a circle from the choux pastry tops and place them back on top of the filled choux.