Yield: 4 swans

Ingredients
- 1 quantity choux pastry (see 12/19/08)
- 1 beaten egg, for glazing
- fresh berried to garnish
- icing sugar to dust

Chantilly Cream
- 1 3/4 cup cream, for whipping, chilled
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to moderate 350 F. Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a large plain nozzle. Pipe thick oval balls, about the size of an egg, onto the buttered baking tray (these will be the bodies of the swans). Brush the piped mixture very lightly with the beaten egg. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the pastry is well coloured. Remove the choux from the baking tray and cool on a wire rack.

2. Using a piping bag fitted with a 5 mm round plain nozzle, pipe large question marks (minus the dots) onto a baking tray lined with baking paper (these will be the necks of the swans). Weigh down the corners of the paper or stick them down with a little of the dough. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the pastry is well coloured. Make sure that they are dry or they will not hold up when the swans are assembled. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

3. To make the Chantilly cream, pour the cream into a bowl and add the icing sugar and vanilla. Using a balloon whisk or electric beaters, whip the cream until it just forms soft peaks, which hold as the whisk is lifted from the bowl.

4. Cut the top third off the tops of the bodies and scrape out any uncooked pastry from inside. Cut the tops diagonally to form two triangles. Spoon the Chantilly cream into a piping bag with a medium star nozzle and fill the bodies. Place a triangle of pastry on each side to form the wings and push the necks into one end of the bodies. Fill with the berries and dust with shifted icing sugar.

Notes: I made these at the cottage. They were originally for boxing day dinner, but I did not have enough time to make enough. I used a regular glass as a measuring cup and a big cooking pot for the bowl.

Adapted from: Le Cordon Bleu, Home Collections: Tarts and Pastries