A family recipe, my grandma's choux pastries - Juls' Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to choux pastry? ›

Use unsalted butter (or don't add salt, if using salted butter) and cut it into tablespoon-sized pieces before adding it (this helps it melt faster). Water. This will bind everything together and create steam in the dough while it bakes, forcing the choux to rise and become hollow. Salt.

Unlike short crust, flaky or puff pastry, choux pastry dough is made from water and flour which is further enriched and lightened through the incorporation of eggs while beating the paste. Baking results in a crisp shell with a thin, moist lining of cooked paste and a hollow centre.

The essential ingredients are butter, water, flour and eggs. Instead of a raising agent, choux pastry employs its high moisture content to create steam, as the water in the dough evaporates when baked, puffing the pastry.

Shelf-life & Refeshing your Choux

You can keep the Choux in an airtight container for up to 3 days. They will feel soggy when you take them out so it's important to put them in a 175°C oven for about 5 minutes. That will dry and crisp them back up. ..But I suggest to use,the same day you make them, so much better.

Choux comes from the French word 'cabbage,' because once baked, the pastry puffs up into a crinkled little ball, much like a cabbage. Made simply with flour, water, butter and eggs, choux pastry is cooked twice – first on the hob, then in the oven where it magically puffs up using only steam as a leavener.

Just as a cornstarch slurry thickens a gravy once it's brought to a simmer, the gelatinized starch in the choux paste thickens the batter, helping give it that strange hybrid dough-batter consistency that's so dang useful yet uncommon in the kitchen.

If too much egg is added or if it is added too quickly, the Choux's ability to rise when baked will be affected. Similarly, if not enough egg is incorporated, it won't puff, causing it to be dense inside.

Profiteroles (also sometimes called cream puffs) are golden little balls of pastry that when filled with a pastry cream form the tower that becomes a croquembouche. Profiteroles are made from a unique pastry known as “choux”, where butter, water and flour are cooked on the stove top until a large ball forms.

To make sure your dough is just right, scoop up the mixture on a spoon or spatula and then raise the spoon in the air, letting the pastry fall back into the pan. You will know it's ready when the pastry slides off slowly, creating a 'V' like shape.

What desserts can be made from choux pastry? ›

Choux Pastry can be used in anything from cream puffs, profiteroles, and eclairs to churros, croquembouche, French cruller donuts, choux beignets, and gougères! It only takes about 10 minutes to prepare and the options for filling and shaping are endless.

Pâte à Choux is too Eggy

Also, if the puffs do not bake long enough, then they may taste slightly eggy because the insides haven't cooked long enough. We want the pastries to be crisp on the outside and dry on the inside. Solutions: Don't use too many eggs and bake long enough to dry them out.

Cream puffs and profiteroles are often used interchangeably to mean the same thing. They are both choux pastry-based puffs filled with a cream filling. The main difference between the two is that profiteroles are filled with ice cream instead of pastry cream.

No. They are very different. Puff pastry is made cold, flour, salt and water are combined to make the pastry, it's then rolled out and folded, sandwiched multiple times with butter. It's the layers of butter that make it “puff".

To understand why choux is twice-cooked, it's important to know that choux needs lots of moisture: it's the steam generated by its high water content that causes it to swell and puff so much (there's no baking soda, baking powder, yeast, beaten egg whites, or any other leavening agent to help give it extra lift).

If too much egg is added or if it is added too quickly, the Choux's ability to rise when baked will be affected. Similarly, if not enough egg is incorporated, it won't puff, causing it to be dense inside.

Choux pastry has two important stages. First you cook it and then you bake it. For the liquid, you can use water or milk or a combination of both. We choose the combination of both because this way you get a nice color and tender bite, but the extra water also allows for baking at a slightly higher temperature.

If the puffs collapse it means there was too much moisture in them. So either you did not dry the dough enough, or they were not cooked enough. To avoid this I recommend drying the dough really well (see below) and cracking the door of the oven open when the choux are baked.