Tea Time Thursdays II - Choux à la Crème Pâtissière

Welcome to the second edition of Tea Time Thursdays. This week has gone by so amazingly fast that I’ve kind of got myself in a bind. You see, I just managed to sneak to off to my favorite Des Moines tea store, Gong Fu Tea, and pick up some new teas and I haven’t had a chance to really try them yet. I will usually try a tea for a week or so during different times of the day to get a better feel and taste of that tea before I post about it. So without a tea to post about my mind has really be racing trying to find something for my second Tea Time Thursday.

Onigiri: Hrm... What to blog, what to blog?

Voice in my head: Well.. how about something made with tea?

Onigiri: Erm.. there is a recipe I want to try out but I’m missing the ramekins to make it in. BAM is letting me borrow her set but I won’t see her until next Thursday at our semi-monthly knitting get-together.

Voice in my head: Ok. Well how about something to eat while drinking tea?

Onigiri: Oh, what a good idea! Um.. Ok, well what DO you eat while drinking tea?

Voice in my head: Oh, Good grief! Listen, dummy, what’s your favorite dessert? What have you been wanting to try making after you made your New Year’s resolutions? Hello.... earth to Onigiri!

Onigiri: Oh yeah! Cream Puffs! I love cream puffs! Ok, that’s what I’ll do. Er..how do you make cream puffs?

Voice in my head: You’re on your own for this one, chick-a-dee. I’m outta here.

Ok, so besides showing you all that I’m a tad bit insane because I listen to the voices in my head, that little brainstorming session did give me a wonderful idea. I’ve always loved cream puffs but have heard they are hard to make and easy to screw up on. So I’ve avoided making them because of that reason.
I did consider popping down to my local patisserie and buying some of their beautiful cream puffs but, another voice (yes I have a few) whispered, “Why not give it a try. The worse that could happen is you throw them out.”

Come join me while I make my first batch of cream puffs. Since the voices in my head weren’t that helpful (they never are), I scoured the internet and my various cookbooks looking for a recipe. In the end I decided on Pichet Ong’s Pate Choux recipe on eGullet and a pastry cream from Cooks.com. What will I be drinking with my cream puffs? Earl Grey Darjeeling from Gong Fu Tea, of course. I like mine with two lump and milk, please.

Since this will be a long post I'm breaking it up into two. Please check back for my post about making choux à la crème pâtissière.

**French translations provided my wonderful fellow blogger Chez Ptipois**