Choux pastry (pâte à choux)
Choux pastry is used for making profiteroles, eclairs and other small pastries.
548 K 3.7/5 (61 reviews)
1 hour 4 min.
Easy
200 g
8 IngredientsLast modified on: February 13th 2022
For 200 g, you will need:
- 1
30 ml milk - 2
30 ml water - 3
30 g butter - 4
40 g flour - 5
55 g egg ( How to... ) - 6
1 g fine (or table) salt - 7
2 g caster sugar - 8
50 g craquelin (sweet cracker dough) (optional) - Total weight: 190 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 30 ml milk and 30 ml water into a pan, add 30 g butter, 1 g fine (or table) salt and 2 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 40 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 | 10 RDI=6 % | 80 RDI=7 % | 50 RDI=8 % | 730 RDI=40 % | 3,040 RDI: 40 % |
| 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 200 g : 0.45 €
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
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.
201 K4.6 2 hours 20 min.
Gougères
Gougères are small cheese choux pastries, sometimes (like here) with bits of ham.
251 K 13.8 60 min.
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.
130 K4.4 1 hour 45 min.
Chouquettes
Chouquettes are small choux puffs with sugar crystals on the top. They are usually eaten plain, but can also be filled with a variety of things: cream, fruit, chocolate... whatever you like.
232 K4.8 1 hour 25 min.
Pets de nonne
These small fritters are like mini doughnuts: they're simply made with choux pastry dough, then tossed in a little sugar. [Translator's note: their amusing French name literally means "nun's farts". So, maybe we'll leave it French...].
81 K4.1 45 min.
This recipe uses (among others)
Egg
Like these other recipes: Spinach brik parcels, Surprise eggs, Clementine cake, Almond mug cake for Mary, Muffin dough, ... See them all 238
Flour
Like these other recipes: Diamond biscuits, Gâteau Nantais, Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée), French Family Cake, Lemon and lime cakes, ... See them all 204
Butter
Like these other recipes: Fillet of salmon meunière, Sausage mushroom and cheese crumble, Spinach Mornay, Victoria pineapple and lime tarts, Tea and white chocolate biscuits, ... See them all 477
Milk
Like these other recipes: Dublin fruit scones, Ciabatta, Old style brioche, Chocolate-verbena cream, Crème de foie gras, ... See them all 61
Other recipes you may also like
Arizona cupcakes
Cupcakes are small sponge cakes. In their original American version, they are usually decorated with brightly coloured icing. Here's a version inspired by the famous saguaro cactus, so common in Arizona. October 13th 2010217 K 14.6 1 hour 50 min.
How to make fleur de sel (salt flakes)
French "fleur de sel" is a salt with a special texture, formed by the action of the wind on salt marshs. The wind dries the surface of the water which has a high salt concentration (this will later become sea salt) producing thin flaky crystals. May 4th 2011250 K 43.9 1 hour 7 min.
Pancake batter
Here is a pancake batter that is a little more sophisticated than the traditional version. The pancakes will be tastier with a softer texture. February 2nd 2020365 K3.8 15 min.
Tiramisu
Classic italian recipe (the name means "pull me up" or more poetically, "take me up to the sky"). It's similar to a charlotte in its structure: layers of flavoured biscuits between layers of smooth cream. July 27th 2013511 K5 50 min.
European glass
A little dessert that's rather long to make, but which will always impress your guests. Layered in a glass: a jellied red fruit coulis, a layer of pineapple charlotte cream, a layer of kiwi coulis, topped with a peeled clementine segment. It's "european" because it resembles the italian flag, and in another version with apricot instead raspberries, the irish flag (a country so dear to me). August 15th 2010240 K5 2 hours 30 min.
News list of cooking-ez.com
Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2025-09-21)
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.