Article content
What better theme to start a retro recipe with than a memory of the sweet taste of socialist desserts. After all, pastry shops provided, in the grayness of then Czechoslovakia, at least the illusion of something colorful and sweetly intoxicating. Let’s recall childhood with a delicious retro dessert the kind your mother or grandmother used to bake.
I’ll sweeten my coffee
From the radio sang Karel Gott or Helenka Vondráčková, on the sideboard lay a crocheted tablecloth that grandmother had made by hand, a shiny Škoda 100 stood in front of the house, and a plastic dachshund bobbed its head sadly in its rear window.
People didn’t go to the Canaries, but to the cottage; they didn’t drink Aperol Spritz, but fruit wine made from the garden’s gifts, and with coffee we didn’t have Mille-feuille or Crème brûlée, but a small cream ring (věneček).
Perhaps you too carry a memory from long-ago days of going with your grandmother to the confectionery on the main street, where it smelled of freshly ground coffee and vanilla and where cream puffs, rolled wafers, meringues, cream-and-fruit tartlets or juicy punch slices smiled at you from behind the glass.
Cream puffs with caramel glaze
Ingredients:
- 50 g butter or margarine
- 180 ml water
- a pinch of salt
- 150 g semi-coarse flour
- 3 eggs
For the vanilla cream:
- 400 ml milk
- 1.5 packets vanilla pudding powder
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 200 ml whipping cream
- whipping cream stabilizer
For the caramel cream:
- 50 g sugar
- 200 ml whipping cream
- whipping cream stabilizer
For the glaze:
50 g granulated sugar
220 g powdered sugar
4 tablespoons milk
Instructions:
The day before, prepare the base for the caramel cream by melting the sugar in a saucepan, pouring in half the cream, stirring and letting it fully dissolve. Store in the refrigerator. Before filling, whip the remaining cream with the stabilizer and combine it with the caramel base.
Preheat the oven to 200 ° C. Pour water into a pot, add the fat and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil. While constantly stirring, add the flour in portions and stir until the mixture stops sticking to the sides. Remove from the heat, transfer to another bowl and, after it has cooled somewhat, work all three eggs into the mixture.
Fill the dough into a piping bag and form cream puffs on a greased baking sheet.
Brush with water and bake in the preheated oven for 12–15 minutes. Do not open the oven so the cream puffs don’t “collapse.” Remove, let cool and slice lengthwise.
For the filling use the vanilla and caramel creams, which can be prepared in advance. For the vanilla, cook a thick pudding and, stirring occasionally, let it cool. Whip the cream with the stabilizer and combine it with the pudding.
Fill the cream puffs using a piping bag first with the vanilla cream and then with the caramel cream. Dip the top into the caramel glaze and place it on top. Prepare the glaze by caramelizing the granulated sugar in a pan, pouring in the milk and stirring. Put the powdered sugar into a bowl and gradually mix in the warm caramel.
