Pâte à choux
Pâte à choux is a light pastry dough used to make many pastries including: éclairs, profiteroles, croquembouches, beignets, and gougères (just to name a few). Profiteroles and éclairs are essentially the same thing, just piped into different shapes - éclairs are long and thin while profiteroles are small and round. Both can be filled with pastry cream, flavored whipped cream, ice cream or custard. Profiteroles filled with ice cream and éclairs filled with pastry cream are usually covered in chocolate. A croquembouche is a giant, celebratory, French cake, where profiteroles filled with pastry cream are dipped in caramel and then stacked into a tower. Gougères look like profiteroles but are savory and usually filled with Gruyère. And finally, beignets are a French doughnut where the choux dough is fried and then dusted in sugar.
Once you master making this dough (which admittedly takes some time) the possibilities are endless. There are a few tricks to getting this dough right every time and I have learned the hard way. I estimate that I have made choux dough nearly 20 times in the last two years and almost every time I have had to toss the first batch. I have tried every technique offered by cookbooks and food blogs and multiple variations of the recipe. At last I have figured out what works and what doesn't.
Tip 1: Measure everything (including the eggs) very carefully.
Tip 2: Use a mixer (I prefer my hand mixer for this job) to add the eggs to the dough, otherwise use a whisk and beat by hand. Do not use a food processor.
Tip 3: Bake the choux at two different temperatures, start high and lower after 10 minutes.
Makes 24 profiteroles or 12 éclairs
Ingredients:
1 cup water
8 tablespoons butter (1/2 cup)
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 cup eggs (~4 large)
Preheat oven to 425F.
Heat water, butter, and salt over medium heat until just starting to simmer. Add flour and beat with a wooden spoon until mixture comes together and starts to form a ball. Lower heat and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a minute or two.
Before adding the eggs, turn the mixer on to break up the dough and release some of the heat. One at a time beat in the eggs until dough is thick and sticky. Have a baking sheet lined with parchment paper ready. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag or large Ziploc bag. It's hard not to make a bit of a mess with this step, the dough is very sticky.
Pipe pastries on baking sheet into desired shapes.Wet your finger with cold water to fix any shape problems - be sure to smooth the tops a bit so they cook evenly. Mine aren't particularly pretty but I don't worry about that so much.
Bake 10 minutes at 425F and then reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake another 10 minutes. Let cool completely before filling or serving.
Once you master making this dough (which admittedly takes some time) the possibilities are endless. There are a few tricks to getting this dough right every time and I have learned the hard way. I estimate that I have made choux dough nearly 20 times in the last two years and almost every time I have had to toss the first batch. I have tried every technique offered by cookbooks and food blogs and multiple variations of the recipe. At last I have figured out what works and what doesn't.
Tip 1: Measure everything (including the eggs) very carefully.
Tip 2: Use a mixer (I prefer my hand mixer for this job) to add the eggs to the dough, otherwise use a whisk and beat by hand. Do not use a food processor.
Tip 3: Bake the choux at two different temperatures, start high and lower after 10 minutes.
Makes 24 profiteroles or 12 éclairs
Ingredients:
1 cup water
8 tablespoons butter (1/2 cup)
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 cup eggs (~4 large)
Preheat oven to 425F.
Heat water, butter, and salt over medium heat until just starting to simmer. Add flour and beat with a wooden spoon until mixture comes together and starts to form a ball. Lower heat and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a minute or two.
Before adding the eggs, turn the mixer on to break up the dough and release some of the heat. One at a time beat in the eggs until dough is thick and sticky. Have a baking sheet lined with parchment paper ready. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag or large Ziploc bag. It's hard not to make a bit of a mess with this step, the dough is very sticky.
Pipe pastries on baking sheet into desired shapes.Wet your finger with cold water to fix any shape problems - be sure to smooth the tops a bit so they cook evenly. Mine aren't particularly pretty but I don't worry about that so much.
Bake 10 minutes at 425F and then reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake another 10 minutes. Let cool completely before filling or serving.
Comments
Post a Comment