Mini Egg Cream Puffs with Ovaltine Pastry Cream and Milk Chocolate Ganache

During this time of year, my diet consists of mostly mini eggs. I will, without fail, make at least one mini egg dessert per week in the month of April. Usually it’s my mini egg brownie cookies (which you all love making this time of year as well!) and more recently, the mini egg crackle cookies have made it into the regular rotation. Mini egg brownies and cheesecake have also made an appearance in the last few years. What’s great about a mini egg recipe is that you can usually substitute with regular chocolate when it isn’t Easter, and the recipe will still turn out relatively the same.

That’s what I love most about these cream puffs — crisp choux pastry is filled with an Ovaltine pastry cream before being topped with the smoothest whipped milk chocolate ganache. Because Easter weekend is coming up, I top each of the puffs with three mini eggs instead of its regular choux hat. The choux hat in this instance is a little baker’s treat for you.

Mini Egg Cream Puffs with Ovaltine Pastry Cream and Milk Chocolate Ganache

Crisp choux pastry is filled with Ovaltine pastry cream and topped with whipped milk chocolate ganache. I love this flavour combination all year round, but the addition of mini eggs chocolates make it the perfect Easter dessert.

Makes 10 cream puffs

By Amy

Ingredients

Ovaltine Pastry Cream

• 240 ml (1 cup) whole milk
• 240 ml (1 cup) heavy cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 4 large egg yolks
• 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 6 tbsp Ovaltine powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt

Milk Chocolate Ganache

• 240 ml (1 cup) heavy cream
• 130 g (3/4 cup) milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt

Craquelin

• 25 g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter
• 25 g (2 tbsp) brown sugar
• 25 g (4 tbsp) all-purpose flour

Pâte à Choux

• 60 ml (1/4 cup) water
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) whole milk
• 1/2  tsp  granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 57 g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
• 70 g (1/2 cup and 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour
• 110 g (~2 1/2) large eggs, lightly beaten

Garnish

• 3/4 cup mini eggs, to garnish

Instructions

Ovaltine Pastry Cream

• Combine milk, cream, and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for 3 – 5 minutes or until hot (do not allow to boil). Remove saucepan from heat.
• Whisk egg yolks, sugar, Ovaltine powder, and cornstarch, in a heatproof bowl until well combined. Slowly pour hot milk mixture over egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly.
• Return mixture to saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for 6 – 8 minutes, or until pastry cream thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon.
• Transfer the pastry cream into a large bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the custard (to prevent a film from forming). Transfer the bowl into the fridge and chill for 3 hours, or until the pastry cream is no longer hot.
• Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a medium round pastry tip to pipe into choux pastries once baked.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

• Place chopped milk chocolate into a heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
• In a small pot, bring heavy cream to a gentle simmer. Pour hot cream onto chocolate. Allow mixture to sit for 5minutes. Whisk until chocolate is full incorporated. Place a piece of plastic wrap over bowl and transfer the bowl into the fridge and chill for 2 hours, or until the ganache is no longer hot.
• When ready to assemble the cream puffs, transfer the chilled ganache to a stand mixture fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip mixture on medium-high until medium-stiff peaks form, about 1 minute.
• Transfer to a piping bag fitted with an open star pastry tip to pipe onto choux pastries once baked.

Craquelin

• In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix with rubber spatula until smooth.
• Roll out the craquelin dough to 1/8-inch in thickness. Use a cookie cutter and cut out 10 2-inch circles. Set aside.

Pâte à Choux

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• In a saucepan, combine the water, milk, sugar, salt, and butter. Bring to a light boil, remove from heat, and immediately add in all the flour. Quickly stir in the flour, using a rubber spatula, and return saucepan back over medium-high heat.
• Continue to stir the mixture, without stopping, until the paste is smooth, about 1-2 minutes. It will pull away from the sides of the pan and leave a thin coating of cooked paste on the bottom when ready. The texture should resemble dry mashed potatoes.
• Transfer the paste to a stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for the choux to cool down.
• While the mixer is running on medium, gradually stream in the lightly beaten eggs. Mix until well combined.
• Transfer the pâte à choux to the prepared piping bag with a round tip. Pipe out 10 choux mounds onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving roughly 2 inches between each puff. If you are making choux with a craquelin top, this is when you want to add the craquelin to the choux mounds.
• Place the baking sheet in the oven and immediately bake choux puffs for 35 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet and turn down the oven to 325F, then bake for 10 minutes more until choux are deeply golden. Remove from oven and set on cooling rack to cool.

Assembly

• Trim the tops off of the cooled choux pastry with a sharp serrated knife.
• Pipe the pastry cream into the puffs until it reaches the brim.
• Pipe two rings of whipped chocolate ganache on top of the custard. Top with mini eggs.