Choux pastry (pâte à choux)
Choux pastry is used for making profiteroles, eclairs and other small pastries.
531 K 3.7/5 (61 reviews)
1 hour 4 min.
Easy
400 g
8 IngredientsLast modified on: February 13th 2022
For 400 g, you will need:
- 1
60 ml Milk - 2
60 ml water - 3
60 g butter - 4
75 g flour - 5
110 g egg ( How to... ) - 6
2 g fine (or table) salt - 7
4 g caster sugar - 8
100 g craquelin (sweet cracker dough) (optional) - Total weight: 375 grams
Change these quantities to make:
Change measures:
Times for this recipe
Preparation: 25 min.
Cooking: 45 min.
All in all: 1 hour 4 min.
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time
Step by step recipe
Stage 1 - 3 min.
Stage 2 - 5 min.
Pour 60 ml Milk and 60 ml water into a pan, add 60 g butter, 2 g fine (or table) salt and 4 g caster sugar.
Stage 3 - 7 min.
Heat on medium heat until butter is completely melted.
Stage 4 - 1 min.
Remove pan from heat, and 75 g flour.
Stage 6 - 1 min.
Put pan on low heat, and stir dough for one minute to dry it.
Stage 7 - 2 min.
By hand
Pour the ball into a small bowl.
Stage 8 - 5 min.
Pour beaten eggs step by step...
Stage 9
...and whisk to mix.
Stage 10
Stage 11
Your handmade choux pastry is ready.
Stage 12
With a mixer
Pour the ball into the bowl of a mixer.
Stage 13
Start up at minimum speed.
Stage 14
Gently pour the eggs into the bowl of the mixer while it is moving, until completely incorporated.
Stage 15
Increase the speed of the mixer a little and continue beating for a minute or two to aerate the dough a little.
Stage 16
Your choux pastry mixer made is ready.
Stage 17 - 3 min.
Stage 18 - 5 min.
Make choux with the forcing bag, in shape and size of your choice, here small round choux.
Don't forget that dough will rise and spread during cooking, so choux must not be too close together.
Don't forget that dough will rise and spread during cooking, so choux must not be too close together.
Stage 19
If you're not easy with forcing bag, you may have unwanted small peaks on top of choux
Stage 20
In this case, flat the peak using a teaspoon soaked in milk...
Stage 21
...to get a well rounded top.
Stage 22
Other solution, use craquelin (sweet cracker dough) which give a real professional look.
Stage 23 - 30 min.
Cooking
Put in the oven for about 30 minutes.
Remove choux from the oven as soon as they are browned.
Note: Don't open the oven door during cooking, because the drop in temperature will make your choux collapse.
Leave to cool on a wire rack
Remarks
According to whether the choux pastry will be used for a sweet or savoury recipe, you can double the quantity of sugar or salt to accentuate the taste. For example: you want to make sweet cream puffs, make this recipe with 2 g salt and 5 g sugar, for salted cream puffs (with bechamel sauce for example) use 2 g sugar and 5 g salt.
Keeping: Choux pastry cooked: several hours.
Source: Home made, but after Gaston Lenôtre.
Nutritional information
| Proteins (gr) | Carbohydrates (gr) | Fats (gr) | Energy value (in k-calories) | Energy value (in k-joules) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole recipe | 30 RDI=10 % | 150 RDI=10 % | 110 RDI=20 % | 1,440 RDI=70 % | 6,010 RDI: 70 % |
| Per 100 g | 7 RDI=3 % | 40 RDI=4 % | 30 RDI=4 % | 390 RDI=20 % | 1,620 RDI: 20 % |
How much will it cost?
- For 400 g : 0.90 €
Change currency: 
Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
Some other recipes using this recipeSee them all 9
Puits d'amour
This delicious little cake's charming French name means "well of love". It is made up of layers of puff and choux pastry, assembled with a light caramel and filled with vanilla confectioner's custard.
114 K4.4 1 hour 45 min.
Gougères
Gougères are small cheese choux pastries, sometimes (like here) with bits of ham.
241 K 13.8 60 min.
Paris-Brest
The Paris-Brest is a famous French patisserie: a ring of choux pastry, scattered with flaked almonds and icing sugar and filled with a praline cream. The name comes from a historic cycle race between Paris and Brest (600 km or 372 miles), as the shape is like a bicycle wheel.
189 K4.6 2 hours 20 min.
Profiteroles
Small choux pastry puffs, filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with a rich smooth chocolate sauce.
308 K 14.5 1 hour 35 min.
Saint Honoré cake
The Saint Honoré cake is a famous example of French patisserie. It consists of a puff pastry base surrounded by a ring of caramel-coated choux puffs and topped with whipped cream (Chantilly). It is a bit tricky to make, but this recipe gives you all the hints you need.
121 K4.7 2 hours 55 min.
This recipe uses (among others)
Egg
Like these other recipes: Little vegetable omelettes, Eggs "en cocotte" with spinach, Spinach brik parcels, Basic cake batter - the French way, "Oeufs rabattus" with leeks, ... See them all 232
Flour
Like these other recipes: Lemon and lime cakes, Poppy seed and lemon cake, French Family Cake, Brownies, Grated potato cakes, ... See them all 198
Milk
Like these other recipes: Little vanilla, clementine and chestnut verrines, Crème caramel, Dublin fruit scones, Chocolate eclairs, Nantes Tourton, ... See them all 60
Other recipes you may also like
Clarified butter
This is a way of melting butter to eliminate all the impurities. The clarified butter can then be heated without spoiling, and is more digestible. It is ideal for cooking at high temperatures where small black specks would spoil the appearance, or for emulsified sauces like béarnaise or mousseline.June 21th 2017459 K4.2 2 hours 15 min.
Chestnut cake
This delightful cake is doubly chestnutty: it contains chestnut flour, and sweet chestnut purée.May 8th 2020332 K5 1 hour 15 min.
Frozen nougat
Dazzle your guests with this delicious dessert, a creamy blend of meringue, whipped cream and dried fruit that can be prepared several days in advance.November 17th 2024278 K4.5 1 hour 25 min.
Bouquet garni
Used very frequently in French cuisine, a secret of French chefs, it adds flavour to a lot of recipes, and it's easy to prepare. The basic principle is to make a small bundle of herbs, bind them in green leek leaves and to tie it up, so that the whole thing can be removed and discarded easily after...March 21th 2017413 K3.5 15 min.
Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
Quite similar to crème anglaise but much thicker. It is used in many pastries like choux pastry (pâte à choux) or millefeuille.January 27th 2017751 K 313.7 40 min.
News list of cooking-ez.com
Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2025-01-26)
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Follow this recipe (as 8 people already do)
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.