Poland - Karpatka

A large crisp choux pastry filled with indulgent vanilla pastry cream. I decided to add some compote into the bottom, which isn’t traditional but was very delicious!

Ingredients

Choux pastry:

60ml whole milk

60ml water

10g sugar

45g unsalted butter

Pinch of salt

70g strong flour

2 eggs

Filling (pastry cream):

375ml whole milk

100g sugar

20g cornflour

10g flour

1 tsp vanilla extract 

3 egg yolks

125g unsalted butter, room temp 

Method

Start with your filling so it can cool: place the milk and vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. In the meantime, whisk together the yolks, cornflour and flour into a bowl. Once simmering, gradually pour a third of the milk into the yolks while whisking. Then transfer this back into the pan. Continue to whisk over medium heat until thick and bubbling. Be careful it doesn't burn! Take it off the heat and place into a bowl. Cover the surface with clingfilm and leave to one side until cool.

For the choux pastry: preheat your oven to 190C. Grease and line two 6inch cake tins with parchment. Place the milk, water, sugar, salt and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once boiling, add in the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until you have a paste. Continue to cook on the stove (while still mixing) or a few minutes, or until the paste no longer sticks to the pan. Remove from the heat and place the choux paste into a bowl. Gradually beat in the eggs until you have a mixture that slowly falls off the spoon. Split the mixture evenly between the two cake tins and spread flat. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown and crisp. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, beat the remaining filling butter until fluffy. Gradually add in the cooled pastry cream and combine together. 

Assembly: line a 6inch cake tin (preferably loose-bottom) with parchment on the base and around the sides. Place one choux pastry disc in the bottom followed by the filling (here you can also layer any fruit compote you like.) Finally, top it off with the second choux pastry disc and press down to make sure its all together.

Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to set before demoulding and dusting with icing sugar.