Under the Blue Gum tree

There is a new kid on the blog challenge block and this time the hostess with the mostess is the lovely Jen from Blue Kitchen Bakes. Her ‘Classic French’ challenge is inspired by the recipes of the famous cookery tome, “Larousse Gastronomique Desserts, Cakes and Pastries.” Each month Jen will be choosing a classic technique for us to master and for September, this is choux pastry.

Now I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with choux pastry. I had made it several times fairly successfully and then I got too clever and decided to make it for a mystery box challenge at culinary school and obviously it was a disaster! The lesson I learnt from that little episode is choux pastry does not like to be made in small quantities. One egg and half a cup of flour does not a fluffy profiterole make.

I hadn’t actually attempted choux pastry again since my classroom humiliation so when Jen announced her challenge for this month, I decided that I should overcome my fears and give it another whirl. Plus, I had been going through my mounting collection of food magazines and just happened to find the perfect recipe for doing something a little different with choux. A savoury version of the profiterole containing pecorino cheese and accompanying a bowl of creamy cauliflower soup.

I must say a big thank you to Jen for inspiring me to try this recipe as it is a stunner and very simple too. Admittedly the method for making the choux is not classic à la Larousse Gastronomique as it uses a food processor to whizz the eggs and cheese into the butter, water and flour paste. As a technique however, it worked like a dream producing the perfect textured pastry for piping. Just one taste of the raw mixture and I knew these little pecorino puffs were going to be divine. The salty pecorino is a perfect partner for the subtleness of the cauliflower soup – buttery, cheesy and a great alternative to the classic bread roll as a soup accompaniment.

You can find the recipe on the BBC GoodFood website here. (Please note there is a typo – the original recipe in the magazine states that 125ml water is needed for the choux buns.)