Okay I know it sounds very French, well that’s because it is. Most eat it without knowing the actual term. Pate a Choux is really the puff pastry for a whole lot of yummy desserts like eclairs, cream puffs and Paris Brest. It’s nit terrible on its own but once filled with pastry cream or whip cream or whatever you decide to use, it’s over the top delicious. Now I’m normally not a fan of eclairs or cream puffs because unfortunately the only ones I have experienced were the frozen ones which were over filled with sugar. However once I tried these I felt like I had a bite of heaven in my mouth.
These were just before put in the oven and after.
And as you can see there are so many ways to decorate and create new pastries just from this base. Now it’s not the simplest technique in baking but once you got it then your good for at least 50 different desserts.
Pate a Choux
730 grams milk
310 grams butter (cut in pieces)
4 grams salt
7 grams sugar
465 grams all-purpose flour
730 grams eggs
1. Combine milk, butter, sugar and salt in a pan over medium heat; bring to a boil,stirring occasionally.
2. At a full boil, remove the pan from the heat; add the flour all at once. Stir vigorously removing any lumps of flour to a smooth consistency.
3. Return to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste forms a ball and a skin forms on the bottom of the pot.
4. Transfer the paste to the bowl of an electric mixer; beat on lowest speed with the paddle to cool the paste slightly, about 20 seconds. Add eggs gradually making sure to scrape down the bowl often.
5. pipe on parchment paper the size and shape corresponding to the pastry you desire.
6. bake at 400 for 30-40 mins. Make sure it rizes first so dont open oven the first 20 mins, then allow to brown
7. once cooled, fill with pastry cream