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Choux pastry (pâte à choux)

Name: Choux pastry (pâte à choux)
Prep time: 21 min
Cook time: 43 min
Total time: 1 h 4 min
Yield: 400 g
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 60 ml milk; 60 ml water; 60 g butter; 75 g flour; 110 g egg; 2 g fine (or table) salt; 4 g caster sugar; 100 g craquelin (sweet cracker dough)

Choux pastry is used for making profiteroles, eclairs and other small pastries.

559 K 3.7/5 (61 reviews)

1 hour 4 min. difficulté

Easy

1.25 €

400 g

8 Ingredients

Last modified on: February 13^th 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

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 25 min.

Cooking: 45 min.

All in all: 1 hour 4 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

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.

Preheat oven to 410°F (210°C).

whisk

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 5 - ⌛ 2 min.

Mix well with a spatula or a maryse, the choux dough will form a "ball".

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

Note:The more eggs you add, the more difficult the dough will be to mix. If you need to, you can use a spatula or a maryse instead of a whisk.

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.

Dressing

Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Pour the choux pastry into a piping bag.

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.

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 %

Possible allergens in this recipe: milk, Gluten, egg

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

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.
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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...].
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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.
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Mini Mont-Blanc choux puffs

These mini choux puffs are topped with a layer of craquelin and filled with Mont-Blanc cream: a mixture of whipped cream and sweetened chestnut purée.
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Profiteroles

Small choux pastry puffs, filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with a rich smooth chocolate sauce.
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This recipe uses (among others)

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