Friday 29 August 2014

Totoro Cream Puff

Finally updating the Totoro recipes many of you have been waiting for today. I actually received quite a few emails asking whether I can make some to sell after I shared a photo of these cream puffs on Instagram. Sorry, I don't sell them, but they are not difficult to make, so you can try them out yourself using the recipe I'll be sharing at the end of the post. On a side note, I've been getting emails regularly asking me whether I make charabens for sale as well. No, I don't, but maybe one day when I've too much time on hand and my boys refuse to eat my charabens, I might consider doing so, lol.

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This is actually my first attempt at making cream puffs, there's still room for improvement, nonetheless I'm happy with how they turned out.

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I filled the Totoro cream puffs with pastry cream or crème pâtissière. The leaf on Totoro's head was cut out from fondant using a leaf cutter.

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These were the inspiration for my Totoro cream puffs. We had these at Shiro-Hige Cream Puff Factory. I missed that place and their cream puffs. For more photos of Shiro-Hige Cream Puff Factory, you can click HERE to check out my blog post last year.

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Ah.....as I type out this post, I feel like making these cream puffs tomorrow but I'm busy this weekend, need to get our Teacher's Day gifts and cards done.

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Please continue on for the detailed recipe for these Totoro cream puffs.

TOTORO CREAM PUFF RECIPE

Ingredients:
pâte à choux pastry:
150ml Water
100ml Milk
125g Unsalted butter
150g Plain Flour
4 medium sized eggs
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

crème pâtissière:
500ml milk
4 egg yolks
120g caster sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract


Method:
To make crème pâtissière:
  1. In a mixing bowl, add egg yolks, 100ml milk, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla extract in a bowl.
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  3. Heat the remaining 400ml milk to a scald in a saucepan. Pour the milk into mixture in step 1, whisking continuously as you pour. Once incorporated, pour everything back into the saucepan.
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  5. Whisk mixture over medium-low heat, keep stirring till it thickens. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.
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  7. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl. Once it reaches room temperature, fill into a pipping bag and refrigerate till ready to use. 
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To make pâte à choux pastry:
  1. Heat butter, milk, water, sugar and salt in a saucepan on low heat till butter has melted. Turn off heat when the mixture boils. 
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  3. Remove saucepan from heat, add in sieved flour and mix well. Stir quickly till a dough is formed and does not stick to the saucepan. If the dough is still liquid, continue cooking till it forms a dough.
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  5. Transfer the dough to another container, use a wooden spatula to mix and cool down the mixture a little.
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  7. Beat in the eggs one at a time using an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture is well combined and sticky.
  8. Transfer the mixture into a pipping bag, snip off the end and pipe out the shape of Totoro on a baking sheet. I piped an oval for the body, followed by 2 ovals for the ears.
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  10. Bake at 180C for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160C for another 25 minutes. Do modify the time according to how your oven heats up, once your puffs have rise to their maximum, you can turn down the temperature and continue baking till they are all golden brown.
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  12. Remove from oven and let the puffs cool down. Poke a hole at the bottom of the puffs and pipe the crème pâtissière into the puffs. This way, they will be able to stand upright.
  13. Draw Totoro's features using melted chocolate.
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44 comments:

  1. Oh! They glanced at me...sooooo cute!!! Can i hv one frm you? ^^
    Hehee..Actually i have been waiting for this post as i saw the picture on yrs site headline before^^

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  2. So cute! Now I know the secret to make them stand upright!

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  3. Oh gosh.....so cute!!! Got to force myself to bake them (me so lazy to bake) Thank you so much for the tutorial with pictures ^_^

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  4. Super cute and looks tasty!! No wonder people are asking you to sell, hehe.

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  5. these are tooooo cute!! i love them<3 do all the ingredients need to be at room temperature? please reply! Thank you :)

    Keona :D

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Keona. No need, the butter, milk and even eggs can be used straight out of the fridge.

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    2. Thanks you! Can't wait to try these! :)
      Keona

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  6. How big did you pipe the cream puffs? please reply. thanks ;) your recipes and creations are so amazing! i love everything that you make they are so adorable! <3

    Andrea :)

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  7. Thank you, Andrea. Not big, around 7 cm in length including the ears.

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  8. awesome \^O^/

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  9. Gorgeous. I'm swooning over these -- big time! ;)

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  10. Hello, I've tried your recipe but for the pâte à choux, when I added the flour, it didn't form a dougn but remained liquid~ I followed the recipe and put the right amount of each ingredient though...

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    Replies
    1. I've no idea, it worked as you can see in my pics when I tried it. It's actually my first time making. I'll be making cream puff again soon, I'll let you know if I can figure out what could be the problem.

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    2. Hi! I've tried it another two times and I think I've figured out why, have amended step 1, should work now. :)

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  11. Hi!
    for some of the ingredients, you have listed the unit in grams and not ml, cups, etc. Just wondering if those are the proper units, or if i can substitute mL for the grams

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    Replies
    1. Yes, can substitute direct for the liquids, the grams measurements can be converted direct to ml, it's the same for the water and milk.

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    2. I've changed all liquids to ml to make it easier. :)

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  12. Hi! I just attempted to bake these, and they're in the oven at the moment. I could not pipe it into the shape I really wanted so I had to stick to the classic cream puff shape. Do you have any tips on shaping the dough? - eileen

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    Replies
    1. Eileen, I used a round tip, similar to the one for pipping out macarons. For body, I start from the middle, the dough will spread out. Then I pipe the ears. You can dip your fingers in a little water to smooth out and adjust the shape a little if needed.

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  13. Hi
    I hv tried making the totoro cream puffs and it sunk when it was done..could u adv why cos I would like to try again and succeed cos they are so cute...
    I want to bake it as gifts.Tks and God bless

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    Replies
    1. Hi! I think they might not have rise till their max, you need a high initial temperature for them to rise and then turn down for them to cook. You might also want to try to poke a small hole once it's baked to let out steam, I've seen that suggested at some recipe, but I did not do for mine and they turned out well so far.

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  14. Ming
    thks for the pro.pt reply. May I know what thickness did u pipe the to totoro Body to?

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  15. Hello~
    I've always wanted to try making your totoro cream puffs with durian filling but I tried the basic cream puffs first to be on the safe side. The taste was good but my puffs were stuck onto the baking paper, I'm afraid this may happen to the totoro cream puffs as well, is there any way to prevent this from happening? :/

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    Replies
    1. Hi Zi Ning, are you using the Glad baking paper? I suggest remove them immediately then, coz I've read before the puffs sometimes get stuck if you wait till it's fully cooled down.

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  16. Thks. May I ask how high did u pipe the body cos it is so rounded and filled when u filled it up with cream.
    Also can u advise what tip u use to pipe in the cream?

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    Replies
    1. I actually can't remember how high, kind of like the usual macaron thickness, coz I used the round tip usually used for piping macarons.

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  17. Hi
    I must share tis with u...I tried making yr totoro cream puff again and tis time..they turn out great...they did not sink and I am so thankful to u and yr recipe...I will b trying out the rest of yr cute recipes..God bless

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    Replies
    1. Tk u so much for letting me know, happy that it turned out well this time. :)

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  18. Hi. I want to try this recipie. The cream puffs look so cute and yummy. But I live in the U.S. so I was wondering if it was possible for you to make the recipie with cups instead of grams and mL?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Mimi,
      Here are the conversions.

      For pâte à choux pastry:
      ½ cup (150 g) water
      ⅓ cup (100 g) milk
      ½ cup (125 g) unsalted butter
      1 ¼ cup (150 g) plain flour
      4 medium sized eggs
      1 tbsp sugar
      pinch of salt

      For crème pâtissière:
      2 cups (500 ml) milk
      4 egg yolks
      1 cup (120 g) caster sugar
      4 tbsp corn starch
      1 tsp butter
      1 tsp vanilla extract

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  19. Thank you! I saw in the first step u start with 100 mL of milk and then use the other 400mL is the second step. Could you possibly convert those measurements into cups for me too please? Thank u so much!

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    Replies
    1. You can set aside roughly 1/3 cup, and boil the rest first.

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  20. hi...u pipe the cream at the bottom of the totoro..do it wont leaking out when u put the totoro to stand?

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    Replies
    1. Won't leak out, as it's solid, but you might get a bit of cream at the part where the bottom of Totoro touches the plate.

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  21. I wish to make this for my kids.May I know it is I need pump the cream till full inside ? lee

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