{Pate a Choux} Pastry Swans

If I've learned anything from my travels this last fall, its that everyone pretty much everywhere appreciates a good dessert. I found some great ones (belgian waffles anyone?) and others that were interesting, to put it nicely (looking at you and your puddings England). But I decided it would be appropriate to break my baking sabbatical with a nod towards the country I miss so much. So I cracked open my Great British Bake Off cookbook my aunt had given me for Diwali, and decided to make the first thing I saw. Tah-da! Pastry Swans! And aren't they a beaut?

I love these just because they hit all the criteria for my favorite kinds of dessert: simple ingredients and simple steps but visually stunning. And the best part that you get to be creative with it and its fun to eat. (Well, sort of. Do you take it apart? Use your hands? I don't think it's possible to be graceful with these)






























I've stayed away from making these for a while because the pasty seems like it would be delicate and easy to mess up, but since the pate a choux is essentially a cooked dough, it stays sturdy enough to withstand all the carving and filling. 

The dough is super easy to make and once you've beaten in the eggs, all that's left is to pipe the swan head and bodies onto the parchment. As a general guide, I cut a piping bag to make a 5mm hole, then traced half of a 4" heart shape I drew on printer paper that I placed underneath the parchment sheet on the tray. For piping the bodies, I cut a piping back to make a 1" hole, and then piped a tapered zig-zag about 4" long. 

After they baked, I cut the bodies in half horizontally, and then cut the top half in half again length-wise. And then you fill the bottom with the cream, place the base of the swan neck into the front, and then place each half back on top. And wah-lah! I might've confused you there, but I swear, its simple.

I filled these with chantilly cream (otherwise just known as sweetened whipped cream), but you can do anything you'd like with these. Next time I'd probably add chocolate or berries in, and you could even substitute the whipped cream for pastry cream or mousse - the options are endless. I finished them off with a dusting of powdered sugar and placed them on a raspberry dark chocolate marsala sauce to spice it up a bit (ignore the plating, I was trying too hard to be fancy). Hope you give these a try! Recipes for everything are down below

Pastry Swans (Barbara Bakes)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs


1) Preheat the oven to 425º. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

2) In a small saucepan, bring butter, water, salt and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove pan from the heat and beat in flour with a wooden spoon. Stir quickly until all the flour is incorporated. Return to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, for another minute or two, until it pulls away from the sides and becomes one big ball. 

3) Transfer the dough to the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat at medium speed for 1 minute to cool the dough down a little.

4) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; beat until the dough loses its “slimy” look, and each egg is incorporated. The dough should be thick, but should fall slowly and steadily from the beaters when you lift them out of the bowl.

5) Using a pastry bag fitted with either a 1/2" tip or cut with a 5mm slit, pipe out 12 swan heads. (Using a heart shape as a general guide, pipe out half a heart, and then add a curved "tail" at the base to create an "S" shape, and add a blob on the other end to resemble a head)

6) Using another piping bag, this time with a 1" slit or tip, pipe out 12 swan bodies. These will be about 4” long, and about 2-3” wide. One end should be a bit narrower than the other. Giving it a pointy end will also make it look more graceful.

7) Bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375º and bake until puffed up and light golden brown, about 25 minutes more. Try not to open the oven door too often during the baking. For the swan heads, bake a 375 for 10 minutes, keeping a close eye to make sure that they don't brown

8)Let cool on the baking sheet. Poke a small hole into each body to allow the steam to escape

9) Assembly: Take a swan body and use a very sharp or serrated knife to cut off the top 1/3rd or 1/2. Cut the removed top lengthwise down the center to make two wings. Fill by piping cream into the body, insert head, and then add wings on the sides. Garnish with berries and powdered sugar

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Marsala Sauce

1/2 cup raspberries

1/2 cup dark and/or milk chocolate 

1 tablespoon Marsala wine (or any red wine)

1) In a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate, whisking constantly to prevent burning

2) Once half melted, add in raspberries, mashing them using the whisk

3) After the chocolate and raspberries are incorporated, pour in wine and allow mixture to warm. 

4)Spoon and spread onto plates before plating swans.