Swan Puffs

Swan puffs....anyone? It's daddy's birthday today and I've made these swans to celebrate it with him, through the Internet, how sad.... Aaron and me will be eating these after we show it to him.

As I've said I might make cream puffs since I have remaining custard from my tiny fruit tartlets and I did. I just twist them a little and make swan puffs instead. Found this beautiful recipe here by Keiko and please click on her website here. I think everyone should subscribe and see for themselves.


Here's the video of Pastry Chef, Keiko doing it:



I know mine is sucky compared to hers but for my very first attempt, I think I did well! And I've quartered the recipe to make 2 cream puffs and two swan puffs. Here is what I have done and used:

Preheat oven to 200°C. Prepare two baking sheets, both lined with parchment paper and lightly greased with butter.

50ml water
20g chopped butter
1/2 tsp sugar
Small pinch of salt


Place all the above in a pot and bring to boil over high heat. Meanwhile, sift 35g plain flour into a bowl and beat one egg. Make sure you beat the egg well. Measure out 50g of the egg and set aside the remaining to glaze the puffs later.

When the mixture comes to a boil, add in all the plain flour at once. If you add it bit by bit, you'll get lumps in the end. Using a wooden spatula, stir everything until the dough form a ball and releases itself form the sides of the pot and there is an obvious layer of dough clinging to the bottom of the pot. Cook the dough a while more over low heat and take it off the heat.

Transfer it to a larger bowl and cool it a while. When it's warm to touch, slowly dribble in the 50g of beaten egg, bit by beat,beating into submission each time. Add more or less egg mixture until you get a glossy and shiny dough, the texture of mayonnaise. Scoop all into a piping bag with a small round tip. Pipe 2 to 3 'S' shaped as the neck of the swan. Pipe a little more towards one tip of the 'S' so the beak is more obvious (hard to describe, easy to do, just watch the video!).

In another tray, pipe 4 round little mounds. Just use up all the remaining dough in the piping bag. I can't really tell you how big mine were. They were all of equal size puffs. With the remaing egg, use your fingers and dab the swan necks and puffs all over, evening out any peaks.

Bake the swan neck first. I did mine for 15mins at 200°C. It is best to bake the puffs when they are still slightly warm so I place the other tray of puffs in a warm place first. When the neck is done, bake the bodies, i.e., the puffs. For the puffs, bake them at 200°C for 30mins and turn down the heat to 170°C and bake another 20mins or so. Do not open the oven within this period else the puffs will deflate. Let it cool in the oven, with oven door ajar.

After 40mins or so, remove them from the oven. Slice the puffs into half, approximately 1/3 way down from the top. Slice the other smaller half into half lengthwise. These would be your swan wings(See the video if you're not following anymore!). Fill it with homemade custard or creme patisserie. Use a star tip to pipe whipped cream to completely cover the custard. Gently place the neck and the wings over.

Liberally dust it with sifted icing sugar all over and serve immediately. Here is the back of the swan. You could probably tell it's a hot day as the whipped cream didn't hold its shape long enough for me to shoot some photos.

I'll present this to Dad tonight through the webcam and sing him a song and blow his candle and eat it on behalf of him. I hope I'm not too evil to some of you guys! Try makign this, they really look impressive!