Ah the magnificence of képviselő fánk! It translates into English as “representative doughnut”? A standard fare in Hungarian coffee houses and with home bakers alike. No French choux pastry can ever come close to its splendour. In a class all by itself, in size, presentation and general magnificence, képviselő fánk is superior to profiteroles and éclairs. The small chocolate ganache covered cream puffs have been aptly named indianers, because they resemble turbans, but by far képviselő fánk is the preferred choice. I made it yesterday in honour of two dear old friends, for Jan who was visiting us from Victoria and for Ann who loves pastry. There was chatting and a lot of multitasking, except I am not so good at the latter anymore, so my pastry cream got scorched. There was no time for a repeat so I grabbed a package of vanilla instant pudding and some whipping cream and whisked it together for the vanilla cream. This turned out so good; I just might use it again. The recipe makes 9 pastries, one per person is all most people can handle. This is your basic Hungarian képviselő fánk. Nothing is better.
HUNGARIAN CREAM PUFFS
Pastry: 1 cup water
sprinkle of salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Cream Layer:
1 batch of Pastry Cream – the recipe is here.
Whipped Cream Layer:
2/3 cup whipping cream
• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Place water, salt, butter in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to medium and add the flour all at once.
• Start beating with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pot.
• Remove from heat.
• With the wooden spoon start adding the eggs, one at a time and keep beating until the egg is fully incorporated.
• Repeat the same process with the remaining eggs.
• Spoon the dough into 9 piles; [aim for height] onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
• Leave lots of room between the dough piles for expansion.
• Bake the pastries in preheated oven until puffed up, light, dry, and golden.
• Do not open the door, because the pastry can fall.
• Meanwhile make the pastry cream or in its place whisk together the instant vanilla cream.
• Cover and set aside in the fridge.
• Whip up 1 cup of whipping cream to soft peaks.
• Add 1 Tbsp sugar and whip until stiff peaks form.
• Add 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract and beat to incorporate.
• Cover the whipped cream and place in the fridge.
• When the pastries have a deep golden color and are crispy in appearance, turn off the heat and open the oven door a little.
• Let the pastries cool down in the oven a bit. This way you won’t have to scrape out the insides before the fillings are added.
• Transfer the cooled pastries to a tray and slice the tops off.
• Spoon or pipe the vanilla cream around the perimeter of the bottom pastries. Divide the remaining cream in the middle of the pastries.
• Spoon the whipped cream on top of the vanilla cream.
• Place on the tops.
• Sprinkle the tops with icing sugar just before serving.
Alternative to the Cream layer:
1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding
2 cups whipping cream
• Whisk together instant pudding with the whipped cream.
• Cover and refrigerate.
[Next time I will try it with half and half instead. I may not be able to use 2 cups though.
You don’t want pudding consistency, because the vanilla cream is best piped.]
