Choux Pastry (For Cream Puffs, Eclairs, Etc)

Submitted by Random Rachel

"Basic choux pastry dough for eclairs, cream puffs, profiteroles, almond rings, crab puffs, etc. These are much easier to make than I would have thought, and they have a nice tast. You need fairly large saucepan because of all the stirring. I got 16 half dollar sized cream puffs out of one batch. This recipe comes from "Fabulous Cake Decorating" printed by Eaglemoss."

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 5
• Yields: 1 batch of dough

ingredients

• 2 ounces butter or 2 ounces margarine
• 3⁄4 cup water, scant
• 1⁄2 cup flour, heaping
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

directions

1. Chop butter, melt in water and just bring to boiling. Immediately add flour, and mix well with wooden spoon, until it forms a dough that leaves the side of the pan (it looks really gross and clumpy at first, but as you keep stirring it fixes itself). Remove from heat and cool 2 minutes.
2. For a sweet pastry, add the sugar to the beaten eggs. Stir in the eggs, mixing until it look like dough again (this is gross at first too).
3. Now you have many choices: using a pastry bag or spoon, shape the dough as desired (for puffs: use a spoon or pipe a mound, eclairs: pipe a line, rings: pipe a circle, profiteroles: pipe a mound w/star tip) onto a greased cookie sheet. Keep in mind that it will grow to aprox 3xs its size when done.
4. Bake at 425 'til it looks crisp and golden, about 30 mins for half dollar sized puffs. Cut in half, or cut a slit in the side to let the steam escape- if you don't do this fairly quickly they get soggy inside.
5. They save for a while in tupperware, unless they're filled. You are supposed to fill them with freshly whipped cream that has a touch of powdered sugar and vanilla or almond added in, but I just fill them with buttercream frosting because its cheaper and tastes pretty good too.

Reviews

[sirjohnbjornbasil]

The assembly of the recipe is easy and straightforward - I had it all memorized after making it once. The constitution is standard enough, though it could benefit from a smoother consistency that might be better achieved with a whisk than a wooden spoon. However, I feel the actual execution of the subsequent bake could stand for some polishing. Maybe I just have a godly powerful oven, but 425 degrees Fahrenheit at 30 minutes yielded dark brown, black-bottomed pastries visually more akin to brioche burger patties than choux. Hitting the choux with an initial high heat and decreasing that heat is frequently employed when baking the pastry - and this method proved more effective for me. I started at the prescribed 425 degrees and immediately lowered it to 350, though I've also seen recipes call for baking at 375 all the way through. Additionally, I switched over from directly baking on the cookie sheet to a silicone baking liner to stave off browning on the bottom. Following about thirty minutes of baking at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, I punctured the choux with a rotisserie rod (chopsticks and toothpicks are good too) and turned off the heat, but left the pastries in the oven for around 10-20 minutes longer to dry out the insides of the choux more.

 

[Kathleen M.]

Easy, but burned on the bottom. Pan? Oven? will try it again.

 

[KeePing L.]

My 9 year old and I thought that we should try making it, and we did it on the fly. And they still turned out great!

 

[Annie G.]

I piped half of them and spooned the rest, they both looked so cute, I also used 12 cupcake baking pan which made it more easier for me. I baked it as advised then turned off the oven, pricked them with a knife, and returned them to oven for 3 minutes (while oven is off) I think this tip really works wonders!!!!

 

[diner524]

Fantastic cream puffs using this recipe!! I made the full recipe and it made 9 cream puffs. I then put a thin layer of chocolate glaze in the base of each one, filled it with vanilla pudding and then drizzled a little chocolate glaze on the top. So good!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Made for ZWT8.