I wouldn’t normally weigh liquid measures, such as milk and eggs, but I have been encouraged to do so for choux pastry by Nicola Lamb’s baking bible, Sift. The resulting light, crisp shell of choux pastry is better than those I have made previously. Her recipe is now my go-to one for super-crisp eclairs and cream buns.
he smell of baking still lingers. Toasty and warm. On the table, a tray of choux buns, small, crisp and walnut brown. I have already eaten three and I really shouldn’t, because guests are coming to tea. The buns are more crisp than usual, baked at a high heat to give them a shell that contrasts with the softly whipped clouds of lemon curd cream inside. There’s passion fruit in the filling, too, because it is gorgeous with anything citrus.
Set the oven at 220C/gas mark 8. Break the eggs into a jug or bowl and beat lightly to mix whites and yolks. Turn the beater on to a slow to moderate speed and pour in the egg, a little at a time, then keep beating until the mixture is sticky and quite glossy – about 5 minutes. Check the consistency. The batter should be thick enough to slide slowly from a spoon.
After 15 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 190C/gas mark 4-5 and continue cooking for 10-12 minutes, checking carefully, until deep nutty brown and crisp to the touch. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Slice the buns open and fill with the lemon and passion fruit cream, dust with icing sugar and pile on to a serving plate.Crush the juniper berries to a coarse powder using a pestle and mortar. Remove the leaves from the thyme – there should be a couple of teaspoons – finely chop, then add to the juniper berries, with a half tsp of salt flakes and several grinds of black pepper.
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