Choux Pastry

What is Choux Pastry?

Choux pastry is a light pastry that is best known when used for a shell to make delectable desserts like profiteroles and éclairs. It’s a simple thing to make, not requiring the same deft hand needed to make pie crust or puff pastry. Choux pastry is also unusual because the ingredients are actually cooked on the stove top prior to being baked in the oven.

The ingredients of choux pastry are again, quite simple. Generally, choux is just a mix of butter, flour, water and eggs. Butter is melted, flour is added, and eggs and water are beaten in over low heat. After the choux pastry has been combined, it can be dropped onto pans, or piped onto them to create special shapes. The French are known for their beautiful choux pastries in the shape of swans, often served at the end of meals of several courses in fine restaurants. Choux may also be used to make beignets or other deep-fried desserts like funnel cakes.

Ingredients:

150 g (11⁄4 cups) plain flour
250 ml (1 cup) milk or water
Large pinch of salt
65 g (1⁄4 cup) butter or 4 tablespoons olive, canola or sunflower oil
4–5 eggs

Preparation method:

1. Sift flour onto a piece of baking paper. Put the milk or water into a saucepan and add the salt and butter or oil. Bring to the boil and cover.

2. Turn off heat as soon as liquid begins to boil. Tip in flour all at once and stir vigorously while heating again until a thick mixture, then a lump, is formed.

3. Remove pan from heat as soon as a white film has formed on the pan base (after about 2 minutes). Place the mixture in a bowl; let cool until lukewarm.

4. Using a wooden spoon or the dough hooks of a hand mixer, beat 1 egg into lukewarm mixture. Then add 3 more eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly into mixture.

5. As soon as the pastry is very shiny and falls off the spoon or dough hooks in fairly solid peaks, it is ready. The fifth egg will not be needed in this case.

6. Using 2 spoons, place small ovals of pastry on baking tray by the spoonful, leaving about 3 cm distance between them. Use tablespoons for large profiteroles and teaspoons for small ones.

7. For large pastries, bake at 220°C on the middle rack for 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 180°C and bake an additional 5–10 minutes. For small pastries, bake at 220 degrees C on the middle rack for 8–10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 180°C and bake an additional 2–5 minutes. Do NOT open the oven door during the first high-temperature baking or the profiteroles will collapse.

8. Remove the profiteroles to a wire rack. Fill the cooled pastries with sweetened whipped cream or a savoury filling.

History of Choux Pastry

A chef by the name of Panterelli invented the dough in 1540, seven years after he left Florence, along with Catherine de' Medici and the entirety of her court. He used the dough to make a gâteau and named it Pâte à Panterelli. Over time, the recipe of the dough evolved, and the name changed to Pâte à Popelin, which was used to make Popelins, small cakes made in the shape of a woman's breasts. Then, Avice, a pâtissier in the eighteenth century, created what were then called Choux Buns. The name of the dough changed to Pâte à Choux, as Avice's buns resembled cabbages – choux in French. From there, Antoine Carême made modifications to the recipe, resulting in the recipe most commonly used now for profiteroles.

Source: Notes, recipes & pictures from Google