Golden Swan Puffs (Perfect Savoury Cream Puffs)

After reading Rose's recipe, my daughter decided for me to go with the extra light and airy puff (Deluxe Puff variation), lightly sweetened whipped cream filling and swan shaped puffs.  When I asked if she would give the chicken liver filling a try, she exclaimed, "You've gotta be kidding me!".  Being a nice mum, I fulfilled her desired swan puffs.





One of my secondary school friend's mum used to bake cream puffs for our gatherings. Following her recipe, sometimes I baked with success but most of the time, the puffs collapsed and softened over time.  I could not figure out the collapse reason until I baked these golden swan puffs following Rose's Perfect Savoury Cream Puffs today.  One of the main difference was the baking temperature and time.  In her recipe, I baked at 196C for 25 mins and removed it entirely from the oven to cool completely.  Instead, Rose advised to bake these puffs at higher temperature (220C) for 10 mins, continue to bake them at 175C for another 15 - 20 mins, remove them and set them on wire racks to dry out in oven.

As we could not wait for 1 hour 45 mins, we tried out a couple of these puffs right after 25 mins of baking.  They tasted nice, with crisp crust and sturdy structure but the interior of these puffs was little moist.  It was quite similar to the ones made following my friend's mum's recipe.  In fact, this was the type of cream puffs that we had been eating for years.  

The puffs that dried out completely were so much nicer and worth the long wait.  They were so light, airy and crispy.  They dried out well inside, and the structure and crispiness sustained over time.



PREPARING PUFF PASTRY - It was easy to put together with just 6 ingredients.  







I only managed to get 10 swan puffs - probably big swans I have made :-)

For the swan head and neck, I baked them for just 10 minutes at 220C.  I put them back together to dry out in the oven with the rest of the puffs.



To compose the swans, I cut of the top half of the round puffs, then divide the top half into 2 for the wings.  I piped a swirl, attached in the head and neck and the wings.  Then, filled up the gap between the wings with more whipped cream filling.  I dusted them with powdered sugar to finish.

My daughter just praised me for being such a genius to make these swan puffs.  I guess it would not take long to see more swan puffs coming (or turtle puffs, totoro puffs etc!!).