French Fridays: Raspberry Cheesecake Choux Puffs

Instructions

Make the puffs

1. Preheat oven to 400 ̊F/ 200 ̊C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

2. Bring the water, butter and salt to a boil in a heavy pot.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add all the flour at once.
Stir the dough vigorously with a wooden spoon - it will come together fairly quickly, but keep stirring over the low heat until it forms a smooth, shiny ball of dough. Altogether you will cook this flour mixture for 3 minutes. There will be a slight crust on the bottom of the pan.
4. Place the dough in a large bowl and use a wooden spoon to break up the mixture a little to release the steam. Keep doing this on and off for a couple of minutes so the dough loses some of its heat.
5. Add the first egg and, using a wooden spoon, stir vigorously - don't worry, your dough will separate and look like it's ruined but have faith and continue to stir until it comes together again into a smooth shiny dough.
6. Add the second egg and mix until the pastry has come together again and the mixture is soft, shiny and elastic.
7. Use two small spoons or a small cookie scoop (1 tablespoon) to form the puffs, and place them on the baking tray leaving about 4cm in between each puff.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, checking on the puffs 1⁄2 way through the bake time to perhaps turn the trays from front to back to ensure even baking.
9. Remove from the oven and transfer the puffs to a cooling rack.

Make the cheesecake filling

1. Using handheld electric beaters on high speed, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, about 2 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, use the mixer (no need to rinse the attachments) to beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together until smooth.
3. Add the raspberry purée to the cream cheese mixture, continuing to beat with the electric mixer until the purée is fully incorporated.
Using a rubber spatula, add the whipped cream a little bit at a time, to the cream cheese mixture.
4. Fold gently until everything is well combined and you can’t see any streaks of white.

Make the chocolate ganache

1. Place the chocolate, butter and corn syrup in a metal bowl, set over a pot of gently simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted (you can also melt this in a microwave at 50% heat, in 1-2 minute bursts of time until it’s melted).
2. Remove the bowl from the heat or microwave and stir until smooth.

Assemble the puffs - the easy way!

1. Using a small serrated knife, slice the puffs in half as you would a hamburger roll. Line them up on the baking tray with the top halves facing down. This will help make sure you only fill the bottom halves of the puffs. 
2. Pipe or spoon the cheesecake filling onto the bottom halves of the puffs. 
   Dip the tops of the puffs in the chocolate ganache, shaking off excess.
3. Carefully place the chocolate “lid” on the cheesecake filling.

Assemble the puffs - the fancy way!

1. Put the cheesecake filling into a piping bag fitted with a plain tip (roughly 1cm, I like Ateco 803).
2. Push the piping tip gently into the bottom of a puff and slowly pipe the mixture in until you feel a little resistance.
3. Gently remove the tip from the bottom of the puff and clean up any filling that might have squirted out, Continue in this way until you have filled all the puffs.
4. Dip the tops of the puffs in the chocolate ganache, shaking off the excess.

To serve

1. Serve immediately if you like although they are better if you can place them in the fridge for a couple of hours.
2. If you are not eating them the same day, you will want to assemble them on the day you do.
3. Store the unfilled puffs in an airtight container for 1-2 days (watch out - they will get increasingly less crispy but you can still fill and eat them!).