“GONE WITH THE WIND” CREAM PUFFS (BIGNE’ VIA COL VENTO)

Via col Vento cream puffs are pastries that originated on 1989 in the Colmayer pastry shop located in Naples near Charles III Square.

The recipe originally called for a simple decoration with sugar sprinkles; today in pastry shop windows you can find them filled in many flavors: pistachio, Nutella, white chocolate and more.

BIGNE’ VIA COL VENTO

“GONE WITH THE WIND” CREAM PUFFS

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Course Dessert, Italian Side Dish

Cuisine Italian

Servings Cream Puffs

Ingredients

Pastry Cream

2 Egg Yolks
1 Cup Whole Milk
1/4 Cup Sugar
4 tbsp Cornflour
1 tsp Lemon Peel

The Bigne

3 Eggs
1 Cup Water
1 1/16 Cup All Purpose Flour
Pinch Salt

To Decorate

Pastry Cream
Nutella
Apricot Jam as needed
White Sugar Sprinkles as needed

Instructions

Prepare the pastry cream, combine the yolk with sugar and cornflour
Heat the milk with the lemon peel on the stove, gradually pour the hot milk over the egg, sugar and corn flour mixture. Transfer the mixture back into the saucepan and place it on the stove.
Cook until the pastry cream thickens. Cover with a cling film and leave to cool.
Prepare the bigne, place the water and butter in a medium saucepan. Add the salt and bring the mixture to a boil.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the flour all at once. At this point stir the mixture vigorously, place the saucepan back on the stove. Lower the heat and use a wooden spoon to bring the mixture together. Cook while mixing continuously until the mixture slightly starts to coat the base of the pan.
Remove the sauce p[an from the heat and let cool. Once cold add the pastry cream reserving around 2 to 3 tsp for the decoration. Stir to incorporate the pastry cream into the flour mixture.
Next start adding the eggs one by one and make sure to mix each egg properly before adding the next one.
Spoon the bigne mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle tip and make 4-5 cm sized spirals.
Bake in a preheated oven at 340 F for 20 minutes. Avoid opening the oven door during this period. Turn off the oven and leave the bigne inside the oven for 5 more minutes with the oven door ajar. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
Sprinkle the bigne col vento with icing sugar. Pipe the center of each bigne with nutella, pastry cream or apricot jam. Serve with hot coffee or tea as you like.