Durian puffs, something that appeared some 15 years ago or so. Durians are special to me. My family eats a lot of durian. Before my dad migrated from Johore to Singapore, he used to sell durians. So he is an expert when it comes to choosing durians.

He would bring home a whole ‘cane’ of durians, about 60 of them, and we used to store them in the corner of our tiny one-room flat. Over a week, we would open some after each meal and have a whole lot. So, we literally grew up eating lots and lots of durians.

Unfortunately, I have never mastered the art of choosing durians, I only know that the moment you have eaten some, your perception and ability to choose is severely hampered. So my dad never ate durians while he was choosing them.

Durians used to be really expensive when we were growing up. However, in about 1990s, cheap durians started to surface. For the first time, we could buy durians by the fruit rather than by weight. I reckon, it was because people were getting more savvy and the ability to choose good durians became more rare. As a result, such skills were ‘charged’. So you pay more for good durians and less for the inferior ones. You pay for people to choose for you.

That was really fun for us, because my dad would squat at the durian store, at the $1/fruit section and started choosing. At one point, he was asked to leave because he practically chose all the good durians out of that basket. He brought home another cane of 60 durians, to much laughter. But also one of the last durians he brought home. My dad passed on in September 1995.

These durian products were novelties to us. However, choux pastry is not something that new. It was something I learned to bake as a teenager as well.

The key to having great choux is to make sure it gets dried on the inside. There are many new and old methods. I have read them since young. The easiest, I think, is to poke a few holes in the pastry, open the oven door and let the steam escape. Always dry and crunchy. Delicious.

The mousse is nothing more than just pure durian, and if you want, add a bit of whipped cream to make it smoother. In so doing, the durian taste is somewhat diluted. So you can choose taste or texture, or a balance of both.

Choux Pastry Puffs

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Ingredients

Choux Pastry

80 ml Water
40 g Butter
Pinch of Salt
50 g Plain Flour
11/2 Eggs

Filing

100 g Durian Flesh
50 g Whipping / Double Cream
50 g Fine Sugar

Instructions

Choux Pastry

Boil water, salt and butter in medium heat in a sauce pan.
Add all of the flour and stir until a ball is formed.
Let it cool for 5 minutes.
Stir in the 1/2 eggs, until it is of a dropping consistency.
Scoop a teaspoon of batter on the pan to make one bun. This recipe should make 25.
Bake at 200C for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
When done, switch off the oven, take out the buns and pierce holes in them.
Return to the oven and leave them with the oven door ajar.
They dry out in 10-15 minutes.