Choux Pastry – Ten Top Tips to the Perfect Choux Pastry
Choux Pastry – Ten Top Tips to the Perfect Choux Pastry
Gotta love anything that will hold cream, custard or a creamy savoury filling such as mascarpone and goats’ cheese (recipe for that later), so you can probably see why I’m a big fan of choux pastry as a vessel, both sweet and savoury.
The most popular (in my opinion) way to eat choux pastry is in the much-loved profiteroles, and one of my particular favourites are the savoury kind, Gougères, small puffs with added flavour of herbs and then filled with a savoury creamy goodness, usually of the cheese variety.
Perfect for pre-dinner snacks and appetisers.
I think that making choux pastry has a bad rap, and I can see why, it can often go wrong, but only if the rules aren’t followed.
I know when I first made it, years ago, it worked first time, the second time I gave it a ago, not so much.
I can remember wanting to see how they were doing and opened the door way too soon, a big no no when cooking choux pastry.
So these ten top tips are my rules for making great choux pastry, and there are even a few recipes to play with at the end, so keep reading.
1) How do you say it?
Choux pastry is easy to make and easy to say, no matter what people tell you.
Shoo is how it’s said and with only four ingredients ( for a basic choux) to get it going, it’s easy to make too.
Choux pastry or pâte à choux, is a pastry dough made with butter, water, flour and eggs, because it doesn’t have a raising agent, it relies on steam he pastry produces right at the beginning of baking, to make it rise.
2) Use it?
Profiteroles, the fabulously dramatic croquembouche, eclairs, gougères and lots more, sometimes baked and sometimes fried, are all made with the same base recipe, so the skies your limit once you get the knack for it and tip three is the first step.
Parmesan ad rosemary puffs with goats cheese and mascarpone cheese filling.
3) Let it all melt
The first thing to do is to get the butter in to a saucepan to heat up and get that butter melted.
As soon as the butter is melted, add the water and bring it up to a very quick boil.
It’s the important thing is to the butter to melts completely so what’s left is a hot pan of water with a slick of butter floating on the top.
Bring the mixture to the boil before moving onto the next stage.
It’s this water that will convert into to steam causing the rise and puff.
Water and butter melted
4) Dump it in
It’s the flour next, and this is where panic can set in as the mix starts to come together into one big hunk of flour and fat.
Have a wooden spoon ready when the flour goes in the boiling water mix, and be brave, get all of the flour into the pan at once. Then it’s about the elbow power.
Keep the pan on the heat and get stirring until the mix comes together and away from the pan sides and all the liquid has gone.
Before the eggs can be added, it’s best to let the dough cool down a little , no one wants to have a hot curdled dough mixture to try and bring back to life.
Flour dumped and mixed
5) Eggs
It’s time to beat the dough and add the eggs.
Have the eggs ready and to hand to add to the warm dough.
The skill here is to add the eggs a little at a time giving the mixture the chance to absorb each egg before adding the next.
If the first egg isn’t absorbed before adding more, the mixture will just break up and then is more about crisis management.
You can do this by hand, a bit of a work out, or like me, put the dough into an electric mixer before adding the eggs, letting the machine do the work.
When I say have the eggs ready, I mean have them cracked in to a cup or jug, give them a beat with a fork to loosen them up and set them aside until this point in the recipe.
Let the dough cool for a few minutes in the mixer bowl before starting to add the eggs, as I said, what good is a curdled mess to anyone.
A good way of testing if it’s ready for the eggs is just to touch the underneath of the metal bowl, it should be warm but not warm enough to burn fingers.
What you should end up with is a smooth and sticky dough ready to be piped.
If adding anything else, cheese perhaps, this is when to beat it in too.
Now this is another one of those times when what should be done to make the perfect choux pastry can be a little different to what the recipe description tells us to do.
The mixture should never be runny, it needs to be smooth, pliable and able to hold its shape, so, depending on a few factors, adding all of the eggs may not be the right thing to do.
This is another reason to have the eggs beaten and ready in a jug.
Things that can make a difference to how much egg to use could be the flour quality even the humidity can make a difference to how many eggs are added to the mix to get the right consistency.
Tip – Add the last egg little by little.
Smooth after the addition of the eggs
6) Do I have to pipe it?
The answer to this question is a giant no.
Piping or using a spoon to plop dollops of it on to a silicone matt or no stick parchment, it’s up to you
The only thing to remember is the cooking time.
Having the sizes of the piped or dolloped dough consistent, will mean that they will all be cooked at the same time
A good way to do this is to mark the paper or silicone matt with a pencil or dipping a round cutter in flour and dabbing it onto the matt, leaving behind spaced out circles.
Dollop or pipe round mounds in the middle of the marks and make sure they are around 1 inch apart, giving them enough room to rise and spread out.
You’ll probably find a little peak on the top of the piped dough, if left like that there’s a chance that it will over cook, it’s an easy fix.
Dip your finger in clean water, give it a shake and then give the point a little dab to push it down.
Walnut sized for gougères
7) Get them in the oven.
Remember I mentioned at the beginning of this that because there’s no rising agent in the mix, and the thing that makes them rise is the steam.
The dough makes it’s own steam, all that water melted with the butter in the first phase of the making coming into its own.
The steam that is produced in the hot oven needs to stay in the hot oven, so it’s really important not to open the door to take a peak, at least until the first half of the baking is done.
What happens in the oven, stays in the oven.
Baked, brown and beautiful
Size & Shape
Profiterole - Walnut Size
Eclair - 2 Inches Long
Small Choux Bun -2 Inches
Gougères - Walnut Size
Filled and ready to eat
8) Do I have to use it straight away?
As well as tasting great, choux pastry is great to make ahead.
The uncooked choux pastry can be kept in the fridge for up to two days, once it’s been baked, store them in an airtight container for up to two days also.
If adding a filling to the cooked puffs, add it just before ready to serve so the pastry stays crisp and doesn’t absorb moisture making them soggy.
If you want to really plan ahead, freeze them.
9) Can I freeze the mixture?
Uncooked choux pastry can be frozen before piping or pipe into the shapes you need, open freeze them and transfer them to a container or bag to store in the freezer for up to three months.
Even better, if they’re already piped into shapes, no need to thaw them before cooking. Straight from the freezer, onto a lined baking sheet and into a hot oven.
If frozen in one big ball, defrost first and then pipe.
Not only that, but if they’re already cooked and left over (unfilled) freeze them cooked, remove from the freezer let them thaw and pop them back into a hot oven to crisp up again.
No waste and so versatile.
Place the piping bag into a tall jug for an easy way to fill
10) The Rest
Pre heat the oven before baking for around 15 minutes, just to make sure that it’s nice and hot to help make steam as soon as the dough hits the oven.
Oven should be 190c – adjust for a fan assisted oven.
Remember, the baking time of the pastry will depend on the size and shape, so be prepared to peak through the glass oven door (don’t open the door)
It’s pretty easy to know when the choux pastry is cooked, look for the tell-tale sign of light golden brown, puffed up and feel hollow when you pick them up.
When they’re out of the oven, remove them from the hot tray and transfer to a cooling rack.
Now all that steam that was so important to get them to rise, isn’t needed any more so it’s time to get rid of it before it makes them choux soggy.
It’s easy to do this.
Get a sharp knife and poke a hole in the underside of each puff and place them back on the cooling rack upside down, cool completely before filling.
What If?
The choux pastry is thin and runny: - A thin mixture means that you’ve added too much liquid, or that your eggs might be too large.
Eggs - Don’t be afraid to leave out an egg if you think the pastry has reached the right (thick) consistency. Eggs come in different sizes, and even different brands of flour absorb liquid at a different rate.
Piping – Depending what you’re hoping to end up with will determine the shape of the dough.
For eclairs and profiteroles, it’s good to pipe of you can. Use a large plain nozzle, and if making choux buns, use a wider nozzle.
Freezer Bag - If you’ve not got a piping bag, use a sturdy freezer bag. Fill the bag 1/3 full and snip off one corner to pipe.
Dolloping – If not using a piping bag is a good way to go, just remember that all the choux dough has to cook at the same time. The way to ensure that is to get them the same size.
Keep them crisp – The pastry will start to soak in moisture from the filling and whatever is covering the top, so eating them as soon as possible after filling is the thing to do.
Now the Recipes
Choux Pastry Recipe
What You Need
350ml Water
150g Butter- Diced - Use salted
200g Plain Flour
4 Eggs – Beaten Together
How It’s Done
Place the butter into a saucepan and begin to melt it over a medium heat.
Once it’s melted, add all of the water, give it a mix and bring it to the boil as quickly as possible.
Take the pan off the heat and dump all the flour in.
Beat it together until all the liquid has been absorbed by the flour and the mix is a thick ball of dough that comes away from the sides of the pan.
Tip the hot dough into the bowl of an electric mixture and let it sit for a while until it’s cool enough that you don’t burn hand when you touch the underside of the bowl.
Beat the mix for a few minutes using a paddle attachment to cool a little and then start to add the beaten eggs a little at a time.
Make sure all of the previous addition of the egg is absorbed before adding more.
When it comes to adding the last egg, add it a little at a time just in case less is needed.
Beat until the dough is smooth and thick.
Prepare oven proof trays by covering with non-stick kitchen parchment and marking out where the dough is going to be.
Heat the oven for at least 15 minutes before baking the puffs.
Pipe or dollop the dough onto the prepared trays
If there are points on the top, dampen finger and touch the top to flatten the spike a little.
Place into the hot oven and bake until golden brown – approx. 15 -20 minutes (all ovens vary so adjust cooking time accordingly)
Don’t open the oven to peak before the first half of the baking is done and then turn the trays around, place back into the oven to finish cooking.
Once cooked, take out of the oven and place onto a cooling rack.
Poke a hole in the bottom of each one and place back on to the rack, hole side up to cool completely.
Now they’re ready to fill.
Fill the piping bag or freezer bag with your chosen filling (see below) and pipe into the bake puff through the hole in the bottom
Fill through the hole in the bottom
For Parmesan & Rosemary Gougères
Add these ingredients once the eggs have been added.
125g of grated parmesan
2tbsp of rosemary- Finely chopped
For the Goats Cheese & Mascarpone Filling
225g Soft Goats Cheese
115g Mascarpone Cheese
Zest from 1 Lime
Beat together until smooth
Goats cheese, mascarpone , parsley and lemon zest.
Vanilla Cream Filling
300ml Double Cream
2tsp Vanilla Extract
2tbsp Icing Sugar
Beat together until thick and creamy
Pistachio Cream
300ml Double Cream
75g Unsalted, shelled Pistachio – Finely chopped
2tbsp Icing Sugar
Beat everything except the nuts together until thick and then fold in the chopped nuts.
Chocolate sauce
100g Dark Chocolate
3tbsp Runny Honey
Melt Together the chocolate and the honey, mix well.
Let cool and then pour over the top of the cooked and cooled choux
Take a nice big bite
