Pate a Choux

One of my favorite Bakeshop items I learned to make was pate a choux. This versatile dough can be turned into eclairs, cream puffs and paris brest to name a few. There's even a savory version called gougères which have cheese mixed in. I'm going to make some eventually, they sound great.

Pate a Choux
Recipe from Advanced Baking and Pastry

100 g whole milk
100 g water
3 g salt
4 g sugar
88 g butter, melted
112 g pastry flour
160 g eggs

• Preheat oven to 390 degrees.
• Sift the pastry flour and set aside {if you cannot find pastry flour, use equal parts cake and all-purpose flour}.
• In a pot, bring the milk, water, salt, sugar and butter to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the flour and stir to combine.
• Return the pot to the heat and stirring consistently, cook the paste for 1 minute or until a thin film appears on the bottom of the pot.
• Transfer the mixture to a mixer with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Add a couple of the eggs, scraping the side of the bowl after each addition. Add the reminder of the eggs. Mix until the mixture drops off the paddle into a "V" shape.
• Pipe into the desired shapes, and brush lightly with an egg wash. If piping eclairs, use a knife to cut shallow lines into the pastry.
• Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the pastries exterior has browned well and it's "dry" in the center.

 

Ashley