Choux à la crème a.k.a kue Soes

This sweet snack/dessert were originally from France, if I am not mistaken, they call it as Croquembouche. Its balls of choux pastry with cream filling, usually they stack it together to make somekind of cone tower. In Indonesia, we call it Kue Soes. Its light, sweet and almost melt in your mouth. 

As you might have known, Indonesia were under the Dutch colony for few centuries, that explains why some of the European cuisine become our classic dish as well, such as this Kue Soes. The Dutch call it as Soesje.

In my family tradition, we have this pastry on every family gathering. My grandma, who spent her childhood when Indonesia was still under the colony of the Dutch used to tell me how the Dutch brought their traditions into our culture. This pastry was one of them. She told the same story every time she make this pastry. 

My grandma has long passed away, but her stories and memories of her stay with me. I remembered how easy she made me think to cook this pastry, yet I have failed tons of time making it. I almost believed that the success of making this pastry lays on your mood; if you are in a good mood, your pastry will rise, and if you are in a bad mood than your pastry will definitely flunk. That is totally kitchen supersition, or most likely my alibi whenever I fail at cooking.. hihiihihihi.. 

I have never had the confidence to share my Kue Soes recipe, until today. I am pretty sure this recipe is fail-proof. I had tried it when I was happy, sad, mad, silly, and even when I was running out of time, and it had always been successful. Is this my grandma's recipe?.. well I can not say that she invented it and claim it as our family recipe, but it is the recipe she used when she was still around. 

Pastry dough:

125 gr butter,
150 gr all-purpose flour,
200 ml water (I used drink water),
4 eggs, medium size,
1/4 tsp salt,
1/4 tsp baking soda,
2 tbsp sugar

Cooking step:

1. In a pan, boil water, butter and salt, once the butter is all melted, lower the heat to simmer and slowly add the flour. Whisk gently all the way and make sure there are no clumps. Once the dough become thick like in the picture below, put off the stove and put away the pan (so it doesn't continue cooking),

2. Once the dough cools down a bit, mix it with electronic mixer and add the eggs, one egg at a time. Don't over mix it, just make sure that the eggs are well incorporated into the dough. Add baking soda, and mix once more. 

3.  Pre-heat the oven to 170'C. Meanwhile, put the dough into a piping bag (pastry pipe) with star-shaped nozzle. Pipe the dough gently onto a greased-and-slightly-floured pan. 

4. Bake the dough for 20 minutes or until it turns light golden. This recipe yields about 30 bite size pastries. 

Cut the pastry in half or slit it in the side (horizontal wise) to let the steam out so the inside of the pastry will not get soggy.

Filling ingredients:

300 ml milk,
3 tbsp maizena,
75-100 gr sugar, depends how sweet you want it to be,
1 tbsp flour, (add more if you wish for a thicker filling),
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1/4 tsp vanilla essence,
1/8 tsp salt,
Rhum flavoring (optional)

Cooking step:

1. In a pan, boil milk, sugar, and salt. Once its boils, lower the heat and add butter,
2. Put the egg yolk in a small bowl, then take around 3-4 tbsp of the boiling milk and whisk it fast to prevent the egg yolk from getting cooked,
3. Once the egg yolk is well mixed with the milk, pour it in the pan with the rest of the milk mix and whisk it again until the egg is well diluted in the milk mix then add the vanilla essence,
4. In a small bowl, mix maizena with a bit of milk and mix it so it will not be lumpy.
5. Pour the maizena mix into the pan and stir gently,
6. Add flour by small scoop at a time until you  get the stiffness you like.
7. Turn off the heat, set the pan aside and add rhum, stir gently.


Let the filling cream cool down then put it into a piping bag. Pipe the filling cream into the pastry and sprinkle the top with confectionary sugar (optional). For my personal taste, I like it better to eat it when the pastry is cold (room temperature).

PS: I have just experienced a not-so-nice experience with my gas oven while baking the pastry; my gas-oven was sort-of blew up almost on my face. That was pretty scary but don't worry, I am fine, and the rest of my pastry dough was okay too. It was a tiny technical problem. Please becareful using gas oven!!! Lets cook safely!