Pistachio & Strawberry Footie Choux Buns

Ingredients: Makes 12 choux buns
A note: Everything in this recipe makes enough for 12 choux buns apart from the craquelin and the choux pastry. I find that these are the smallest recipe sizes I can make while still getting good results. I usually pipe all of my choux pastry and freeze anything I don’t need. Same goes for the craquelin. Then the next time you need choux buns you can just grab them out of the freezer, lay out on your baking tray, defrost for a few minutes at room temperature, top with craquelin and bake.

Strawberry compote:
200g frozen strawberries
80g caster sugar
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp cornflour

Pistachio cream:
500ml double cream
40g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
55g good-quality white chocolate
40g pistachio paste*

Craquelin topping:
60g unsalted butter, softened
70g demerara sugar
70g strong flour

Choux pastry:
75g whole milk
75g water
30g unsalted butter
30g rapeseed oil
1/4 tsp salt
90g strong flour
120g eggs
a small handful of pistachios, to garnish
chocolate footballs, to garnish

*You can use shop bought pistachio paste however, I find that homemade imparts a better flavour. I blend down 100g of roasted pistachios in a food processor until you have a paste. Add in a tbsp or so of neutral oil until you have a thinner, smooth consistency. I find doing 100g of pistachios is the smallest my processor will blend.

Method
The day before
For the strawberry compote: place all of the ingredients into a saucepan, apart from the cornflour, over low heat. Stirring occasionally, cook the compote down until the strawberries are soft. Remove the pan from the heat and mash the strawberries to a pulp. Take a little of the compote and whisk it together with the cornflour before adding it back into the pan. Place over low heat and cook until bubbling and glossy. Pour the compote into a container, cover and refrigerate.

For the pistachio cream: place the cream and sugar into a saucepan. Heat the cream until it comes just under a simmer. Break the white chocolate into a heatproof jug along with the salt and pistachio paste. Once the cream is hot, pour it over the chocolate and leave it to melt for 1-2 minutes. Whisk the cream to combine all the ingredients before blending with a hand blender to emulsify. Make sure to scrape down the bottom of the jug to ensure you’ve incorporated all of the chocolate and pistachio. Place clingfilm on the surface of the cream before refrigerating overnight.

For the craquelin: in a bowl; mix together the butter, demerara and flour together until you have a dough. Roll the dough between two pieces of baking paper until it is roughly 3mm thick. Slide the craquelin (still between the parchment) into the fridge to set.

The day of assembly:
For the choux buns: Bring the milk, water, butter, oil and salt to a boil in a pan over medium heat. Once boiling add in the flour and quickly mix it together, still on the stove, until you have a dough. Continue to cook the choux pastry for a further two minutes or so, until it forms a smooth paste and no longer sticks to the pan. Take the pan off the heat and tip the pastry into a bowl. Leave the pastry to cool for 5 minutes before beating with a spoon whilst gradually adding in your eggs.

The amount of egg you will need will depend on how much you have cooked out your choux pastry. You may not need all of it or you may need a little more. You want to add enough so that it becomes glossy and forms a ‘V’ shape when you let it drop off of the spoon. Be careful, you can always add more egg but you can’t take it out.

Pre-heat the oven to 210°C and line a baking tray with either a silicone baking mat or baking paper.

Spoon the pastry into a piping bag fitted with a medium-sized plain piping nozzle. Pipe out your choux buns in blobs 3-4cm big, leaving plenty of space between them as they will triple in size. Take the craquelin from the fridge and peel off both pieces of parchment. Cut out discs of craquelin that are the same size as your piped choux buns with a circular cutter. Lightly place each disc on top of a piped choux bun. Any excess craquelin can be pushed back together and re-rolled for another time.

Place the choux buns into the pre-heated oven and turn it down to 170°C for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and set on top. Make sure not to open the oven too soon or the buns will collapse. Leave to cool completely.

To finish:
Once your choux buns have cooled, take the pistachio cream from the fridge and whisk until you have soft peaks. Place the cream into a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle. Spoon the strawberry compote into another piping bag.

Using a small serrated knife, cut the top off of each choux bun. Fill each bun approx. two thirds full with pistachio cream before filling it with strawberry compote. Pipe peaks of pistachio cream on top to cover the surface. Using a microplane grater, shave pistachio over the top to resemble grass. Top each bun with your chocolate football garnish and serve.