In the course of 10 years as a wife and then a mother, I have gone from being slightly indifferent to culinary adventures to a person highly interested in spending time in the kitchen. As a result, I like watching cooking shows on TV, especially ones with a vegetarian theme. I also like watching shows where the chef bakes things, because that's one area that I dabble in quite frequently. All this interest then led me to watch an episode of Martha Bakes on PBS where she demonstrated a recipe for pate choux and several other delectable recipes using the pate choux pastry. The recipes were impressive and delicious, needless to say.
So when Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot announced the recipe for the monthly Baking Eggless challenge, it came as a pleasant shock - because we were supposed to make pate choux and chocolate mousse! The recipe was suggested by Shey of Just Not The Cakes.
I knew that the pate choux recipe was going to be difficult to adapt to an eggless version because the original recipe required a large number of eggs in order to get the rise and texture of the pate choux. Every time I searched on the internet for eggless pate choux recipes, I got the same recipe and almost similar results.
Due to some health issues, I wasn't able to get to the recipe in time. When I did decide to try out the pate choux recipe, I stuck to the most common recipe found on the net.
As soon as I mixed the batter, I realized that something was wrong ! When the little pastry balls came out of the oven, it was evident that something went wrong. Instead of the puffy, airy, light pastry balls, what I had were slightly chewy and hard pastry puffs. Any harder and I would have been in a position to supply several hockey teams with pucks !!
Since I was already out of time for the challenge, I didn't get time to make modifications to the recipe and try again. But several bloggers who participated in this challenge have adapted recipes that seem to have worked, so I am definitely going to try again, at least once :)
In contrast, the chocolate mousse was a breeze to prepare and turned out pretty well.
I adapted Tarla Dalal's recipe and the mousse came together very quickly.
I did cheat a little and used store bought whipped cream, because I had some in my refrigerator and wanted to use it up. But by all means, use fresh whipped cream for better results !
Recipes:
Eggless Pate Choux
Recipe source - How To Feed a Vegan
Ingredients
1 C all purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 Tb coconut oil
1 C milk
2 Tb Ener-G egg replacer whipped until stiff with 1/3 cup water
Method:
1. Stir together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
2. In a saucepan, bring the milk and the oil to a boil.
3. Add all of the flour mixture in to the hot liquid, stir quickly and constantly on low heat, until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball.
4. Remove from heat and add in the egg replacer mixture and beat in until well incorporated.
5. Use spoons to drop the mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
6. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for a further 25 minutes. (The original recipe had us bake at 350 for 10 minutes, but I found that the insides were not cooked through properly)
7. Cool completely.
Eggless Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
1 C chopped unsweetened dark chocolate
1/4 C milk
1/2 C raw sugar
1 3/4 C whipped, lightly sweetened cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp maple syrup or honey
Method:
1. Combine the chopped chocolate and the milk in a saucepan and heat on low flame until the chocolate melts.
2. Remove from heat, add the sugar and whip until sugar is dissolved. To make your work easier, use powdered sugar. Also, if you use semi sweet chocolate, you will not need to use as much sugar. Since I had only unsweetened chocolate blocks, I used more sugar.
3. Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix well.
4. Once chocolate mixture has cooled considerably, fold in the whipped cream gently.
5. Pour into serving cups and refrigerate for a few hours to let the mouse set.
6. Serve cold and enjoy!
This was indeed a difficult challenge and made us all think and research quite a bit. I have to say that I failed in the pate choux category, although I am quite determined to try again with a different recipe !
So when Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot announced the recipe for the monthly Baking Eggless challenge, it came as a pleasant shock - because we were supposed to make pate choux and chocolate mousse! The recipe was suggested by Shey of Just Not The Cakes.
I knew that the pate choux recipe was going to be difficult to adapt to an eggless version because the original recipe required a large number of eggs in order to get the rise and texture of the pate choux. Every time I searched on the internet for eggless pate choux recipes, I got the same recipe and almost similar results.
Due to some health issues, I wasn't able to get to the recipe in time. When I did decide to try out the pate choux recipe, I stuck to the most common recipe found on the net.
As soon as I mixed the batter, I realized that something was wrong ! When the little pastry balls came out of the oven, it was evident that something went wrong. Instead of the puffy, airy, light pastry balls, what I had were slightly chewy and hard pastry puffs. Any harder and I would have been in a position to supply several hockey teams with pucks !!
Since I was already out of time for the challenge, I didn't get time to make modifications to the recipe and try again. But several bloggers who participated in this challenge have adapted recipes that seem to have worked, so I am definitely going to try again, at least once :)
In contrast, the chocolate mousse was a breeze to prepare and turned out pretty well.
I adapted Tarla Dalal's recipe and the mousse came together very quickly.
I did cheat a little and used store bought whipped cream, because I had some in my refrigerator and wanted to use it up. But by all means, use fresh whipped cream for better results !
Recipes:
Eggless Pate Choux
Recipe source - How To Feed a Vegan
Ingredients
1 C all purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 Tb coconut oil
1 C milk
2 Tb Ener-G egg replacer whipped until stiff with 1/3 cup water
Method:
1. Stir together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
2. In a saucepan, bring the milk and the oil to a boil.
3. Add all of the flour mixture in to the hot liquid, stir quickly and constantly on low heat, until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball.
4. Remove from heat and add in the egg replacer mixture and beat in until well incorporated.
5. Use spoons to drop the mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
6. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for a further 25 minutes. (The original recipe had us bake at 350 for 10 minutes, but I found that the insides were not cooked through properly)
7. Cool completely.
Eggless Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
1 C chopped unsweetened dark chocolate
1/4 C milk
1/2 C raw sugar
1 3/4 C whipped, lightly sweetened cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp maple syrup or honey
Method:
1. Combine the chopped chocolate and the milk in a saucepan and heat on low flame until the chocolate melts.
2. Remove from heat, add the sugar and whip until sugar is dissolved. To make your work easier, use powdered sugar. Also, if you use semi sweet chocolate, you will not need to use as much sugar. Since I had only unsweetened chocolate blocks, I used more sugar.
3. Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix well.
4. Once chocolate mixture has cooled considerably, fold in the whipped cream gently.
5. Pour into serving cups and refrigerate for a few hours to let the mouse set.
6. Serve cold and enjoy!
This was indeed a difficult challenge and made us all think and research quite a bit. I have to say that I failed in the pate choux category, although I am quite determined to try again with a different recipe !
The mousse looks really silky & smooth...love your style of writing Chhaya..
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, Malvecka!
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