Santa Choux Pastry with Hazelnut Mousse Filling
At age one, I was very scared of Santa. I can’t remember actually crying but pictures don’t lie – and there I am, in the little red outfit, with my mouth wide open, howling as any baby would if you put them infront of a strange pudgy man with a red suit and a long white beard! And it wasn’t just me… my sister looks pretty terrified too – don’t you think?
Santa's worst photo shoot ever...
And the next year, the same thing happened…
Santa's second worst photo shoot ever!
It was only around age 3 and 4 that I realized how GREAT Santa was. He was the jolly man in the red suit who would give me presents if I was good! Oh yes sure, he saw me when I was sleeping, he knew when I was awake, he knew if I’d been bad or good and so I was usually good for goodness sake!
Every year my siblings and I would write Santa a letter of all the things we wanted for Christmas. At age five or so, I remember my lists being pretty extensive and I would have to ask my eldest sister to help me write it out. The letters would always begin with some summary of how good or bad I was the during the year. Of course I would always emphasize the good and the bad stuff was always watered down. There was one year I can still recall my obsession with Hello Kitty and I had a Dear Santa letter that was a page long asking for everything hello kitty from shoes, a bag, a doll to a cooking set (yes I loved to cook even then!). Every 24th of December my Mom would ask all of us kids to take an afternoon nap and a few hours later we would all wake up and beneath the tree were the presents we had asked for! Of course we never really took naps – we were always too excited to see what Santa would bring this year! So we’d just close our eyes and wait until my Mom finally told us we could have a look at the tree.
As a child, it was something I always looked forward to!
When I was ten, I was in love with a little doll I had “adopted” – her name was Patricia and she was a Cabbage Patch Doll. I remember asking Santa for everything Cabbage Patch so that I could take care of Patricia in true Cabbage Patch style. I asked for a swing set, a tea party set and a new dress for her.
A few days before Christmas I was looking for Patricia’s little shoe and for some reason I thought my Mom had kept it. I looked all around her room but could not find it. I thought it must be in her shoe closet so I went to her dressing room and of all the things to find – the Cabbage Patch swing set! What was the swing set doing in my Mom’s dressing room?
And that’s when I knew… When did you find out?
He knows if you've been bad or good - so be good for goodness sake!
I’ve made some choux pastry and filled them with a rich hazelnut mousse in the form of Santa – for whom this post is dedicated to. May he always bring out the child in everyone…
Recipe (Adapted from Balthazar Cookbook)
- 125 ml milk
- 125 grams butter
- 5 grams salt
- 5 grams sugar
- 140 grams flour
- 5 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
- Pre heat the oven to 170c (fan forced)
- In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, butter, sugar and salt with 1.2 cup water and bring to a boil. Add the sifted flour and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.
- Continue stirring over medium heat for around 3 minutes.
- Transfer the dough into a bowl of a standing mixer. Stir at a low speed for a few minutes to lower the temperature of the dough. Increase the speed to medium and then add the eggs, one at a time.
- Mix until a smooth, cool dough forms, about 5 minutes.
- Fill a pastry bag, fitted with a # 9 tip, with the dough, or use a spoon to form small puffs, about 3 cm in diameter, and another around 5 cm in diameter on parchment paper or silpat.
- Brush the puffs with some beaten egg yolk and transfer to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes to 40 minutes until golden brown. Cool the puffs on a wire rack.
- To fill, make a hole using the tip of a very small piping nozzle and fill with your choice of filling (hazelnut mousse recipe here).
Red Icing Recipe
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- a few drops of red food colouring
- Mix the icing sugar, milk and red food colouring together and use to dip the baked choux pastry.
Hazelnut Mousse Recipe – see link.
To Assemble
Lay a coloured smaller dough on top of the larged colored dough. Pipe with some whipped cream using a star nozzle in between the two doughs as if to form a collar. Top with some more whipped cream to form Santa’s hat.
Santa Choux Pastry
Trissalicious 
Awesome Trissa, loving it! Merry Christmas.
[…] Choux Pastry Here […]
What an adorable post! Santa choux? Too cute!
Love your tale Trisha, and loved the pictures. Thanks for sharing them… brilliant! Love the ever-so-cute Santa choux & the dedication as well. Wonderful stuff this! xoxo
LOL the santa must have had a hard time with you crying like that..haha..the choux are so cute!!
Hi Everyone – so sorry I cannot respond individually – with the holiday season in full swing – it’s been crazy! I do love reading all your responses – it seems like a lot of people found out about Santa when they realized their Mom’s handwriting was the same as Santa! Very clever! And a great tip to all you parents out there!
Such a cute story!! My parents didn’t do a good job playing Santa. Santa’s presents always came in the same wrapping paper as the family presents, and Santa’s signature was always my mother’s. We’re gullible, but not THAT gullible. Still, it’s the thought that counts! Can’t wait to meet you!
I remember Patricia, her real name was Peggy Imelda… cute doll…
I was fortunate enough to drop by Tris’ tonight and had a private sampling of these santa choux – super super yummy! thanks Tris!!!
hehe what a cute story.. lucky for me still having lots of little ones in the family I am 23 this year and still expecting a visit from Santa!!! I love christmas
Lol. A strange man with a fake beard and a strange laugh who wants you to sit om his lap? No wonder kids are terrified! Love the family pics and your choux pastry looks delectable 🙂
Trissaaaa! I meant to comment days ago but I only just recovered from laughing so hard at your Santa photos! Those are the best photos ever hehehe! I think I was wayyy too shy as a child, my parents wouldn’t have had a chance if they tried to get me to take a photo with Santa! And I love the choux, it immediately makes me think of Santa 🙂
that was a good read for me.. funny and sentimental at the same time… I can’t recall when I knew the truth about my Santa.. but I remember clearly that I CANNOT make a decent choux pastry..waah..
thanks for sharing Trissa..are you a pastry chef? ..you bake like a real pro! 🙂
Those Santa Choux are so cute, one look at it will tell you that X’mas is around the corner. Great post!
Hey trissa .. it looks like a popover from the inside.. is it a similar batter?
Santa Choux.. MMmm!!
I had a good laugh at those photos – poor Santa with all those crying babies..hehe. I’m not sure when my sister and I finally clued in, but it was always a bit suspicious, the presents we would receive from Santa. I mean, a pair of flip flops wrapped in newspaper doesn’t indicate much effort on the elves’ part.
These are a great idea and I love love hazelnut-flavored um…anything! By the time I moved to America at age 6, it was already too late to be convinced of Santa’s existence, but I do enjoy witnessing the excitement of kids who are still under his spell 8).
when i was younger, one year we weren’t able to get a real tree. i remember coming home from a holiday school recital, i am pretty sure i wasn’t more than 8yrs old, and there was a small tree box on the front porch, from santa. to this day i STILL have NO IDEA who wrote “From Santa” on it! i’ve NEVER seen that handwriting from anyone in the family and my mom still won’t tell me!! 🙂
looove the santa choux’s!! too cute!!
Love them, great idea!
When I was 4 years old on Christmas eve the sounds of bells came closer and closer, suddenly there was a knock on the door and my mom told me to open it, and there he stood: Santa, dressed in all his glory with a huge bag of presents hanging over his shoulder, and I said: Hi uncle U. !
Oh well, I enjoyed it wile it lasted 🙂
Loved your post! And the Santa-pastries are adorable!
Been so long I have forgotten how I found out about Santa. Could not have been too traumatic. I would guess someone told me at school. Isn’t that how we found out most things?
Love the vibrant colour!! I think most babies don’t like Santa – I was just talking to a friend who’s one year old is scared of him 🙂 I can’t remember when I found out, but remember getting into trouble for telling someone else – whoops!
Oh my, Santa would be thrilled if you left him some of these! My little one who is almost 7 has decided to set Santa a “test” this year – she’s asking him a question in her letter and if he replies it means he’s real :P. Hope Santa brings you lots of surprises this year.
I wonder how many kids would love presents more than Santa, haha…Young kids grow up with expectations of receiving presents from Santa. Then the feelings about Santa are gradually being changed to be positive. I think you’re not alone.
I still can remember there’s a time when many kids were crazy about getting a Cabbage Patch Doll. When anyone “adopted” a doll, s/he would get a birth certificate. Did you get the one for your Cabbage Doll?
Oh my gosh, these are so creative. So darling! I love them. Can you send some to me?? 🙂
Your santa version is defintiely cuter than the nun version. I could get my daughter go near santa when she was berween 2-4. Now she is 7 and she believes Santa is a very rich man who is giving presents to all the children in the world who believes in Jesus.
Awww poor little Trissa!!
I realised one year that Santa’s handwriting was just like Mum’s handwriting, and although I still pretended to believe (I was scared if I didn’t believe anymore then he would stop giving me things!) I too had lost my innocence.
Very cute santas 🙂
Nice post. Quite an interesting read.
I can’t recall every believing in Santa Claus. What I do remember is keeping quiet and playing along while other friends of my youth were sucked into the Santa scam, year after year.
I love that hazelnut mousse and this pastry will definitely put you in a Christmas-y mood..
I’ve always loved Santa, and your Santa Choux are so wonderful and jolly! The hazelnut filling is such a great idea, and maybe the whipped cream ‘beard’ would be spiked with brandy?
Definitely prefer your version to the usual ‘nuns’!
But… I thought Santa was real…?? hehe. The Santa choux is so cute 🙂
What beautiful choux! I found out that Santa was my mum when I noticed their writing was the same hehe
O haha… love the photos of you crying on Santa’s lap! I guess here in Holland we don’t really have Santa stories but instead we have Sinterklaas. It’s a bit similar to Santa but he comes from Spain and his birthday is on december 5th when we all share presents. We do it again at christmas but when I was young we only had Sinterklaas to worry about and not Santa.
I think I was about 6 years old when my parents told me that Sinterklaas is not real… I was very very disappointed!
My parents tried so hard to make sure we believed. It worked till I was 9, I caught my dad putting gifts into the Santa sack. Nice Santa choux pastry. I haven’t tried making choux pastry. I may need your help.
Oh…so poor thing when you were young. What sad experience! Great that you got over with it soon. These little Santa are so cute and pretty. You are just so creative. Kids will really love them.
Awwww Trissa I know you were crying in those photos but they were cute!!! HEEHEEHEE!!!
Love the photos!
I was never deluded into thinking that Santa was real, maybe that is one reason why I have no xmas spirit. I am happy for it though, never being forced to sit on any strange mans knee, no cards signed from Santa – actually my Dad ruined the illusions for lots of people by telling them Santa wasn’t real!
Despite all that I also had a cabbage patch doll (Diana!) and I loved her so much.
I’m not so sure about the xmassy-ness of your hazelnut choux, but they sound delicious.
Oh no! I found out by asking a lot of questions. I wanted to sleep in front of the fireplace (and shockingly, they said no), I wanted to know if mom believed in Santa Claus – she said that she believed in the spirit of him. And then there’s the fact that everyone gets a different set of goodies in their stocking – we always got mandarins in the toe, but friends would get completely different things, I kind of inquired a lot & noted the little things. However, to this day, there is still something magical about Santa Claus to me. Love these Santa Choux – they’re brilliant!
Haha. That’s very funny. But now you’re making a choux inspired by the color of his outfit. They look great. The color is beautiful and of course something to tease my sweet tooth. 😀