Bánh Choux (aka Bánh Xu, Bánh Su, Choux à la Crèam, Bánh Sữa, Cream Puffs)

This is a French pastry that made its way into Vietnamese Cuisine via the French colonization of Vietnam. Known as Choux à la Crème, the Vietnamese translate it to Bánh Sữa or Bánh Sữa Nhân Kem (which means milk pastry/cake). Other names for this pastry include Bánh Xu or Bánh Su. “Xu or Su” is spelled from the Vietnamese pronunciation of the French word “Choux”. In the US they’re known as cream puffs. However, American cream puffs are usually filled with fresh whipped cream while the Vietnamese version is only filled with pastry cream. Vietnamese spin-offs have resulted in fillings of durian, coconut, or coffee pastry cream.

Pâte à Choux (Pastry):
-240g water
-125g flour
-5 eggs (250g)
-50g butter
-1 tsp sugar
-1/2 tsp salt if using unsalted butter

*Boil water, sugar, salt, and butter together. Add flour and stir dough over medium heat for about 5 mins or until not sticky when pinched. Cool for 5 mins and beat in eggs one at a time. Fit a star tip in a pastry bag and fill with dough/batter. Pipe round pastries on a baking sheet and bake at 350’f for about 20 mins or until golden. Cool pastries completely before filling.

Crème Pâtissière (Pastry Cream Filling):
-5 egg yolks
-500g fresh milk or cream
-125g sugar
-1 tbs custard powder (optional)
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2 tbs corn starch (1 tbs if using custard powder)
-50g butter

*Beat together egg yolks, starch, and custard powder with sugar. Meanwhile boil the milk and slowly add ½ of the heated milk to the egg mixture while mixing constantly to keep the eggs from curdling. Add egg mixture into the pot with the rest of the milk and constantly stir over medium heat until thickened. Add butter and mix until melted. Cool cream before filling. If the cream looks a little thin…don’t worry it will thicken when it cools.

Variations:
*Coconut Pastry Cream: Replace milk with coconut milk/cream.
**Durian Pastry Cream: Replace sugar with durian flesh and add sugar to taste (if needed, durian alone should be sweet enough).
***Coffee Pastry Cream: Replace ½ or all of milk with coffee (depends on how strong you want the coffee taste to be.

What to Do:
Once pasties are cooled, use a knife or scissors to cut a small slit on the side of each puff. Fill with cooled pastry cream.