Aki's Kitchen - Recipes

Notes:
This dessert is traditionally filled with almond pastry crème and whipped cream or Italian Meringue. My variation uses a plain vanilla pastry crème and topping. Homemade or store-bought chocolate mousse, pudding or other fillings can be used instead.

The dessert should be assembled minutes before serving it to keep the puff pastry crisp. The shells (ring), pastry crème and chocolate sauce can be made in advance and left separate. Store the shells in a dry place (uncovered and unwrapped). If they lose their crisp, simply dry them out in a 400'F. oven for a few minutes and then cool them: assemble the dessert. The dessert, nevertheless, can still be assembled a few hours, or one day, in advance. The pastry will lose a bit of its crisp, but the dessert will still taste as "good". To make in advance: assemble and refrigerate the dessert without the chocolate sauce, and when you're ready to serve the dessert, simply pour the chocolate sauce over dessert: serve.

If you don't have a pastry bag and tip to form the ring of choux, then form mounds in a ring, using 2 tablespoons. Don't worry about perfection when making this dessert. The finished puff will look completely different from when it was first formed. It has a mind of its own and it will puff up to an irregular shape, as "it wants to" during baking.

Make the pastry crème and chocolate sauce (if using), in advance, since they take 3 - 4 hours to cool. The topping can be whipped up minutes before assembling the dessert.

How:
Cut a circle of parchment paper 1 inch larger than the 12-inch round pan. Trace an 8-inch circle onto the paper using a pencil and a lid as a guide. Lightly grease the pan with a bit of shortening and then lay the paper with the tracing touching the pan. Set the prepared pan on a dampened towel.

Position one oven rack on the second to lower level and a second one on the lowest level; preheat the oven to 400'F.

Prepare the choux pastry as indicated in the recipe: "Basic Choux Pastry". Using a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip, pipe a ring of choux inside the traced ring. Pipe a second ring inside and along the ring of choux. Then pipe a third ring over the top of the rings (picture 1). Finally, pipe the remaining mixture over rings; don't worry how things look (picture 2). Bake the ring on the second to lowest level rack, in a preheated oven for 18 minutes. Then rotate the pan by 180' and bake for 10 minutes to brown evenly.

Remove the ring from the oven and quickly pierce a few wholes, or small slits, at 1 inch intervals, using a skewer or a knife, going around the inner and outer sides of the ring, midway the height of the ring (picture 3). Return the ring to the oven, lower the heat to 350'F. and then bake for 7 minutes.

Remove the ring from the oven and quickly split the ring in half horizontally, using a sharp knife, to make a cupped "u" shaped bottom shell, holding the hot ring with a towel. The sides of the bottom shell should be at least 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch high to contain the pastry crème (filling). Don't try to be perfect and expect an even horizontal cut; let the shape of the puff guide you, as where to split it. Some areas of the puff will be higher and others lower; this is to be expected and adds charm to this dessert. The ring will slightly collapse during splitting and this is normal.

Slide the cookie sheet between shells and lift off the top shell; invert the top shell onto a second pan. Pick or scrape off and discard the uncooked dough from the interiors of the shells (picture 4). Don't worry about tears, breaks or gaps in the shells, since they'll be concealed with filling, topping and chocolate sauce.

Return the shells to the oven and bake them with their cut sides facing up for 3 minutes. Then shift them from the upper to lower racks, turn off the oven and allow them to dry out for 25 - 30 minutes, or until crisp: cool completely.

Assembling the Giant Puff:
Beat the pastry crème to loosen it. Whip up the topping until stiff.

Line a serving platter with a paper doily and then place the bottom shell, cut side up, on it. Fill the shell with pastry crème and then pipe out (using the star tip), or top with 2 - 3-inch high mounds of topping; use all of the topping (picture 6). Place the top shell over everything and then pour on the chocolate sauce. Serve immediately with leftover chocolate sauce separately.