This month at the Daring Bakers, we were asked to make pâte à choux swans. Aren’t they cute? And they’re filled too, in my case with a vanilla creme which is like a custard with whipped cream mixed in.
They look impressive, but they’re actually pretty easy. Plus the dough and filling can be made in advance. The only annoying thing about pâte à choux, is that you really need a non disposable pastry bag to pipe it. Although, considering my dough’s consistency, I could have shaped the bodies by hand, but I’m sure that wasn’t right (plus you still need to pipe the heads).
I was afraid these wouldn’t be sweet enough, since there’s only a bit of sugar in the filling (a not a lot of vanilla either), but they were perfect. They’re also not as fragile as they look; I took them on a half an hour drive and all the wings and necks stayed in their place.
So, although I’m not a fan of pâte à choux, I would make this again cause they are so cute. They could even be used to decorate cakes or other desserts.
I made a half batch with no changes and got 15 swans. You can find the recipe here.
Blog-checking lines: Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!
I love how small and delicate they look. You may not be fan of choux pastry but you definitely own the technique. Great job!
Thank you :)
Your swans are lovely! Great job!
ceecee
Thankies ^-^
Great job. They look just perfect, I like that they are not so sweet so you can go with a really strong flavored filling. Beautiful job.
Thanks! And yep, that’s true. Pâte à choux is really versatile.
They look so cute! Amazing job!
Thank you! I love your crabbie by the way :)
Swans on the first picture are so cute!
Thank you :)