I love the smell of orange and ginger in the morning. I started them last night and filled them in the morning.  Don’t really want them sitting around too long.  But I doubt they will.

INGREDIENTS

Orange & Ginger Filling
530 ml milk
3-4 pieces of fresh ginger
75 g egg yolks (about 5 eggs)
90 g sugar
60 g cornstarch
1 tablespoon ground ginger
Zest of two oranges
1 vanilla bean pod
270 g heavy whipping cream

Choux
375 ml water
150 g unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
240 g flour
6 eggs (335 g)

DIRECTIONS

Orange & Ginger Filling
In a medium pot, heat milk with chunks of ginger and seeds from vanilla bean pod until steaming but not boiling. Remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes and then strain out ginger.

In a medium bowl, whisk yolks and sugar then whisk in cornstarch and ginger until smooth.

Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg mixture bowl while whisking constantly. Return the combined mixture to the pot and continually whisk on a medium heat until thickened.  Once it reaches desired consistency, add orange zest.  Refrigerate until completely cooled.

Place pastry cream in a large flat container (for quicker cooling time) and cover with plastic wrap making sure that the wrap touches the cream. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Choux
Prepare two baking sheets with parchment and brush on some water. Preheat oven to 400F.

Add water, butter and salt to a pot over medium heat.  When butter is melted, take off heat and whisk in flour.  Once smooth, return to heat and cook out the water.  Use a wooden spoon to keep moving the mixture until you see a film start to develop on the bottom of the pot.

Remove from heat and add to stand mixer with paddle attachment.  Run at medium for a bit to cool down flour mixture. Once at about 160 F, add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated and smooth.

Put choux into pastry bag with piping tip (Ateco #865) and pipe out 2″ mounds onto parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400F and then lower temperature to 375F but do not open door.  Cook for about 15-20 minutes more until browned all over.  Slice off tops and let cool on baking sheet.

Assembly
Whip cream to stiff peaks in stand mixer then add chilled pastry cream and whisk until combined.  Put in pastry bag with star tip and pipe into bottom half of choux shells.  Cover with lid.