A Choux Shoe for HHDD!

Hay Hay Its Donna Day is a food event created by Barbara from WinosandFoodies and now taken care by Bron Marshall. When I found that Suzana was hosting this month I knew I wanted to participate. She made a great choice: choux! It's so versatile, it can be sweet or savory, can have many shapes, filled with so many different things, be part of cakes, be fried, etc. Well done Suzana! As the deadline for the entries was aproaching (next monday the 9th) I decided to do something today. At first I had no idea what I was going to do, so I started repeating "choux... choux... choux..." waiting for some inspiration. Nothing... I could only think of the obvious stuff like profiteroles or St. Honoré.... I kept repeating "choux, choux, choux" and then realized I was saying shoe instead of choux.

So I though "Hey I could do a choux shoe!" "Well that's just stupid... Why would I want to do a choux shoe? Just because how it sounds?" I was still thinking.... "But that's a perfectly good reason" You can see that I think a lot. Anyway I decided to give it a shot, so here they are, my choux shoes not so great for walking but sure great for eating!

• CHOUX SHOES

• Choux paste (I've used the one Suzana had on her blog from Donna Hay's magazine, Issue 35)

• 1 cup (8 fl oz) water (240 ml)
• 100 grs (3 ½ oz) unsalted butter
• ¾ cup (112 ½ grs / 4 oz) plain all-purpose flour
• 5 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (360ºF). Place the water and butter in a saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil. Add the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cook, stirring over low heat until the mixture leaves the side of the pan. Remove from the heat. Place in an electric mixer and beat on high, gradually adding the eggs until well combined. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with 12mm (½ in) plain nozzle and pipe shoes (oval shape blobs) onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool on wired racks.

• Orange pastry cream on the microwave

• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a bowl put and mix everything together with a wisk (except the butter) and take 1 minute to the microwave. Mix again with the wisk, and take to the microwave for 30 seconds periods until it gets thick and creamy, allways mixing with the wisk. It will take in total 2-3 minutes. Add the butter and mix until melted. Cover with plastic wrap to avoid a skin on top and allow to cool before filling the shoes.

I filled the shoes with the cream cutting the top part and then dipped the bottom with melted milk chocolate. I've then made laces with the chocolate and arranged a few chopped pistachios on top of the cream.

Wanna walk in my shoes? Or maybe you prefer to eat them... I don't blame you!

UPDATE: Here is Suzana's round-up!