These mango cream buns are made with light, airy, and crunchy choux buns and filled with fresh mango custard and whipped cream taste like a bite of summer, super refreshing and delicious. You won’t be able to stop at one!
You know those desserts, once you eat them, you cannot stop thinking about them? These mango cream buns are exactly that. They are literally summer perfection – a light, airy, and crunchy chop bun filled with whipped cream and a super refreshing mango custard and fresh mangoes. I honestly can’t count how many of these I’ve eaten in the last few days.
I think a lot of people are scared and intimidated of making choux pastry, but honestly, it’s one of the simplest recipes to make. It involves a few techniques, but once you know what to watch out for, you will be able to crack out perfect choux buns every time.
I have tested quite a few choux recipes and made my fair share of mistakes and I know exactly what you need to do to make them correctly, so let’s get into the details.
Choux Pastry
Choux pastry (pronounced as SHOE pastry) is twice-cooked dough made with milk, butter, salt, sugar, and eggs. It’s twice cooked because the dough is first cooked on the stove and then baked. The cooking and baking process allows the moisture to evaporate from the dough, resulting in the raised, light and airy buns we all know and love.
Choux pastry is used for many different type of desserts – cream buns, profiteroles, eclairs, and even churros.
A good choux bun is completely hollow from the center, leaving space to be filled with any filling of your choice. They are like a blank canvas, and you can fill them with many different fillings like custards, curds, pastry creams, ganache, and more.
Let’s get into the step-by-step process for making choux pastry.
Making the panade
- The first step in making choux pastry is making the panade, which is a thick paste made by cooking milk, butter, sugar, salt, and flour.
- Make sure you use a high-quality pan to make the panade. Do not use a non-stick pan, instead use a stainless steel or simile one. This is because we need the dough to form a film at the bottom of the pan, which will not happen as well in a non-stick pan.
- In the pan, add the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt. The salt and sugar quantity will be very less, they are only added to slightly season the dough.
- Cook the mixture on medium heat until the butter has melted completely and it starts boiling.
- Once it starts boiling, turn the heat off, add the flour, and mix immediately with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula until it forms a thick, smooth thought. Make sure to mix immediately and quickly so that the flour does not form any lumps in the dough.
- Now, we have to dry the dough out by evaporating the moisture out of the dough.
- Once the dough is smooth, spread it evenly across the bottom of the pan and turn the heat back on to medium. Let it cook until you start to hear a hissing sound, this indicates that the water is being evaporated. Once it starts making the hissing noise, pull the dough from the sides, it should have formed a thin film at the bottom. Once the film has been formed, you can take the mixture off the heat.
- Once the mixture is smooth, continue mixing until almost all the steam has been released.
Adding the eggs
- In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. A very important thing to keep in mind here – the quantity of eggs should be exactly equal to the quantity of milk and water combined. In this recipe, we use 100 ml of milk and 100 ml of water, so we have to use 200 ml of eggs. For this reason, you have to measure the volume of eggs in a separate bowl and beat them before adding them to the dough.
- The eggs have to be added one at a time into the dough so that they can mix into the dough easily.
- Make sure the panade is still warm when you add the eggs but not too hot or the eggs will scramble.
- Add the eggs, a little at a time, mixing with a spatula or wooden spoon after each addition until all the eggs are incorporated with the dough completely and you have a thick, smooth, and shiny dough.
How to identify if your choux pastry dough is right
- Watch out for the consistency, it should not be too thick or too thin and should be able to hold its shape when piped.
- To test the dough, pick it up from your spatula or spoon and let it fall off. The dough should leave a little hanging ribbon from the spoon and should not just flow like a cake batter. If the dough feels too thick, you can add more egg, a little at a time, until you reached the desired consistency.
How to pipe choux buns
- If the choux buns are not piped correctly, they will not bake correctly.
- First, I recommend making a size guide for piping the choux buns. You can do this by drawing circles of the same size using a bottle cap or cookie cutter on baking paper. Make sure to turn it around, drawn side down, so that the ink or pencil does not transfer to the choux buns while baking.
- Transfer the choux pastry into a piping bag without a piping tip and cut about 1-1.5 cm open from the tip of the bag.
- The key to piping choux buns correctly is to pipe them in one smooth motion without any movement, you want the dough to be like a blob. This allows the choux buns to rise and be completely hollow from the center.
- Hold the piping bag at an angle and place it in the center of the circle. Push the batter out slowly, not moving the piping bag at any time. Keep pushing the dough out until you have a generously tall dough ball, then pick the piping bag up, releasing the dough ball.
- Continue this process until the tray is full, making sure to leave enough space for each bun to rise.
- Cover each dough with egg wash gently, making sure not to smash the dough blobs.
Craquelin
- Craquelin in a sugar cookie-ish dough that is placed over the choux pastry before baking. It gives the buns a crispy interior and also helps it stay in shape.
- Make the craquelin by mixing softened butter, brown sugar, and flour until they form a thick dough that can hold its shape. Place the dough between two baking papers roll it out to about 2mm thickness and place it in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes. Make the craquelin dough before making the choux dough and let it chill while you make the choux dough.
- Once the dough is chilled and hard and the choux buns have been piped, cut circles out of the hard dough that are about the same size as the choux buns. I like to use the same cookie cutter for both the choux pastry and the craquelin. A 4 cm cutter is perfect for a big-sized choux bun.
- Place each cut circle on top of each dough blob using an offset spatula.
Baking the choux bun
- Baking the choux buns is the most technical part of the process because if you do it wrong, the choux buns will deflate immediately.
- To bake the choux buns correctly, you have to understand the science behind it. When the choux buns are baking, the water content within the dough evaporates, creating steam. This steam allows the buns to rise significantly, creating a hollow center. For the rise to reach 100% and not deflate, the heat in the oven has to be consistent at least for the the first few minutes. This means if you make the mistake of opening the oven within the first 20 minutes, the buns will either deflate or just not rise correctly.
- Before baking the buns, pre heat the oven to 230 degrees celsius. This will allow the oven to get really hot before you keep the buns in it.
- Before placing the buns into the oven, reduce the temperature to 170 degrees celsius and immediately place them inside.
- Let them cook undisturbed, without opening the oven, for 20 minutes. This is very important. The initial high heat in the oven will accelerate the evaporation process and help the buns rise very well.
- After the 20-minute mark, the buns should be nicely risen. At this point, open the oven door slightly for 5 seconds to release the steam inside the oven. We do this as a high amount of steam will stop the buns from getting golden-brown, so once the buns have risen, we release some of the steam to encourage browning.
- Bake for another 15-20 minutes until the buns are golden brown. Make sure not to over-bake them or the bottoms will get too dark.
- When you take the buns out of the oven, make sure to place the tray on the counter very gently and do not smack it or the buns will deflate.
- Let the buns cool down completely before filling them.
- A good choux bun will be golden brown, crunchy from the top, and completely hollow from the center.
Mango Custard
While making the choux buns correctly is important, they are basically nothing without the filling. Think of them like a vehicle for your filling. The choux buns themselves don’t have a lot of flavor, so all the flavor comes from the filling, which means that your filling has to be 10/10,.
This mango custard (or curd) is the perfect summer filling for these choux buns. It’s rich, creamy, and super refreshing.
The mango curd is paired with a simple sweetened whipped cream to give that perfect light and refreshing combination.
Here are the steps for making the mango custard.
- Prepare a double boiler: fill a saucepan with water about halfway through and bring it to a boil. Choose a heat-proof bowl that perfectly fits the top of the saucepan.
- In the chosen bowl, add the egg yolks, caster sugar, mango puree, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Whisk until everything is combined, then place the bowl on top of the saucepan with the boiling water.
- Keep whisking the custard continuously so that the eggs do not curdle. Continue cooking until he mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Remove from heat and add butter. Whisk until fully combined, then cover with cling wrap. Make sure the plastic is touching the surface of the custard so that no skin forms on top of it.
- Place the custard in the fridge for at least two hours to thicken.
- Before using, give the custard a quick whisk to smoothen it out, then mix-in finely chopped mangoes into it for extra freshness.
- Place the curd in a piping bag with a small round tip (or no tip, just cut the end of the bag to create a 1 cm opening).
Filling The Choux Buns
- To fill the choux buns, first, make sure they are completely cool.
- Fill the whipped cream into a separate piping bag, ideally with a round tip.
- Push the tip into the bottom center of the bun and start piping. Fill the bun generously but make sure to leave some space for the mango custard. I like to keep a 50-50 ratio of cream to custard.
- Now insert the mango curd piping bag into the same opening and fill the bun with the mango custard until the bun is full. Make sure not to overfill or the buns may explode. Clean off any excess from the bottom using a knife or offset spatula.
- I like to enjoy the choux buns as fresh as possible as they become soggy from the filling eventually. If you are serving them at a party or sharing them with friends, I recommend filling them just before serving so that they do not become soggy.
This may seem like a lot of information, but it’s just to help you figure out the pain points of the recipe. The actual recipe is really simple and requires little to no equipment. If you keep an eye out for the techniques, you will be able to make these choux buns very quickly.
Ready to get started? Let’s go!
Mango Cream Buns (Mango Choux Buns)
These mango cream buns are made with light, airy, and crunchy choux buns and filled with fresh mango custard and whipped cream taste like a bite of summer, super refreshing and delicious.
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Stainless Steel Saucepan
- Wooden spoon or silicon spatula
- Hand whisk
- piping bags with round tips (optional)
Ingredients
Mango Custard
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 whole eggs
- 75 grams caster sugar
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 30 ml lemon juice
- 280 grams mango puree
- 85 grams unsalted butter
- 200 grams finely chopped mangoes
- 300 ml sweetened whipped cream for filling and topping
Craquelin
- 90 grams unsalted butter room temperature
- 90 grams brown sugar
- 70 grams all-purpose flour
Choux Pastry
- 100 ml full-fat milk
- 100 ml water
- 90 grams unsalted butter
- 2 grams sugar
- 2 grams salt
- 110 grams all-purpose flour
- 200 grams beaten eggs about 4 eggs, but measuring is necessary
- 20 grams extra egg for egg wash
Instructions
Mango Custard
- Prepare the double boiler: fill a saucepan halfway with water and let it come to a boil. Meanwhile, take a heat-proof bowl that fits at the top of the saucepan.
- In the bowl, add the sugar, eggs, egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and mango puree into the bowl and give it a quick whisk.2 egg yolks, 75 grams caster sugar, 1 tsp lemon zest, 30 ml lemon juice, 280 grams mango puree, 2 whole eggs
- Once the water in the saucepan has come to a boil, reduce the heat and bring the water to a simmer. Then, place the heat-proof bowl on top of the saucepan. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.
- As soon as you place the bowl on the saucepan, start whisking the mixture and keep whisking continuously to stop the eggs from scrambling from the heat. Keep whisking until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 5-8 minutes.
- Once thickened, remove the curd from the heat, add the softened butter, and whisk until it’s melted and incorporated into the mixture.85 grams unsalted butter
- Cover the custard with cling film and chill it in the fridge for at least two hours. Make sure that the cling film is touching the surface of the curd to stop a film from forming on top.
- Before filling, whisk the custard to smoothen it out and mix in finely chopped mango pieces for extra freshness. Place in a piping bag with a small round tip or no tip (cut a 1 cm opening if not using a tip)200 grams finely chopped mangoes
- Fill a separate piping bag with sweetened whipped cream with a small, round piping tip. Set aside.300 ml sweetened whipped cream for filling and topping
Craquelin
- Add the softened butter, brown sugar, and flour in a bowl and mix it using a spatula or knead with your hands until it forms a dough that holds its shape.90 grams unsalted butter, 90 grams brown sugar, 70 grams all-purpose flour
- Roll the dough between two baking sheets to 2mm thickness, then freeze it for 15-20 minutes until hard.
Choux Pastry
- Pre-heat the oven to 230 degrees celsius.
- In a good-quality saucepan, add the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt and bring it to a boil on medium heat. Make sure the butter is completely melted.100 ml full-fat milk, 100 ml water, 90 grams unsalted butter, 2 grams sugar, 2 grams salt
- Once the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat, add the flour, and immediately start mixing with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula so that the flour does not form any lumps in the dough. Continue mixing until you have a smooth, thick dough. This mixture is called the panade.110 grams all-purpose flour
- Continue mixing the panade until almost all the steam has been released, then add the beaten eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Keep mixing until all the eggs have been incorporated and you have a smooth, thick, and shiny dough. The dough should not be too thick or thin and should not fall off like a ribbon from the spoon but be able to hold a little bit shape.200 grams beaten eggs
- Transfer the prepared dough into a piping bag without a tip and cut a 1-1.5 cm opening at the end. Line a baking tray with baking paper and use a 4 cm cookie cutter or bottle cap to create circles across the paper to act as a guiding template so that the buns are sized evenly. Flip the paper before piping the dough.
- To pipe the dough, place the piping bag in the center of a circle at an angle, and pipe the dough in one single motion without moving the piping bag. This will form a thick blob of dough, which is exactly what you want. Make sure not to pipe too much or too little, and leave enough space between each one to give them space to rise.
- Cover each dough blob with egg wash gently.20 grams extra egg for egg wash
- Cut the craquelin in the same size as the choux buns, using the same cookie cutter or bottle top, and place each one gently on each dough blob. using an offset spatula. The craquelin softens very fast so work quickly and if it becomes too soft, place it in the fridge for another 10 minutes.
- Before placing the baking tray into the oven, reduce the temperature to 170 degrees celsius. Bake the buns for 20 minutes undisturbed, without opening the oven at all as any drop in temperature will deflate the buns.
- After 20 minutes, open the oven door slightly for 5 seconds to release the steam and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
- Once the buns have completely cooled down, push the whipped cream piping bag into the bottom center of the bun and fill it halfway through, then fill the remaining bun with the mango curd through the same hole until the buns are full. Don’t overfill them as they may explode. Clean any excess from the bottom with an offset spatula or knife.
- Top each bun with a little swirl of whipped cream and serve fresh.
Notes
Storage:
These cream buns are best enjoyed fresh. If serving at a later time, I recommend baking them a couple of hours before and filling them just before serving so that they do not become soggy.
Tips & Tricks:
Make sure to read the detailed instructions here with all the tips and tricks!
I hope you find all these trips and tricks helpful! Trust me, once you follow these steps, you will be able to make perfect choux buns every time.
If you give this recipe a try, don’t forget to let me know how you liked it in the comments. And of course, share it with me on Instagram. Until next time!
