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Choux pastry or Pâte à Choux is a French pastry made of eggs, butter and flour. Learn all about its ingredients, fillings, tips and how to pipe with this easy choux pastry recipe.
Choux Pastry Recipe
What is a choux pastry? In French, choux pastry is called pate a choux.
It’s a pastry dough used in many desserts, for example: cream puffs, profiteroles, French beignets and gougères (cheese puffs).
They are very easy to make at home. They are light, fluffy, airy, buttery, eggy and great with a variety of fillings.
Recipe Ingredients
This recipe calls for five (5) simple ingredients that you already have at home:
- Unsalted butter
- Water
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
- Eggs
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make Choux Pastry
First, heat butter and water on low heat. Add in the flour, salt and stir quickly to form a dough.
Let the dough cool off before you add in eggs and mix well.
To make pate a choux puffs, pipe the dough to form puff shape with a pastry piping bag.
Bake the puffs at 425F (220C) for 30 minute or until the choux puffs turn golden brown.
Filling Ideas
Pate a choux are basically pastry shells, so you can fill them up with either a sweet or savory filling.
Here are some of the filling ideas you can try at home. The possibilities are endless!
- Cream custard filling, for example: cream puffs.
- Chocolate sauce or caramel sauce, for example: profiteroles.
- Ice cream.
- Chicken salad can turn choux pastry into a light meal.
- You can add cheese into the choux pastry batter and turn it into gougères.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use a pastry bag or piping bag to pipe the dough.
You can also pipe the dough using a plastic bag by cutting off one of the bottom corners.
Transfer the dough inside the bag, press and squeeze it out of the cut corner to form the puff shape.
In warmer countries, the dough might be runny and hard to form a shape when you’re ready to bake.
If it happens, please chill the dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or longer before piping.
This recipe is only 379 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Choux Pastry
Serve these pastries as is, with strawberry jam, sweet or savory filling. For an afternoon tea, I recommend the following recipes.
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Choux Pastry
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs , or 1 cup eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Put the butter and water into a saucepan over low heat.
- Add the flour and salt, then turn the heat to simmer. Stir quickly until a dough forms and does not stick to the saucepan. Let it cook for about 1-2 minutes to dry out the water slightly.
- Transfer the dough to a large bowl and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time using an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture is well combined and sticky.
How to Pipe Choux Pastry
- Using a plastic bag with one bottom corner cut off (make a small opening), scoop the dough into the bag and push it down toward the snipped corner. You can also use a piping bag.
- Squeeze and pipe the dough onto a greased baking sheet or one lined with parchment paper. When piping the dough, use a clockwise motion to form small coil shapes. Leave enough space between each pastry.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 425°F (220°C) for about 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375°F (190°C) and bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until they turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve warm.
Notes
- Some eggs are bigger than the others. Use small eggs or just barely 1 cup of eggs if you can’t decide on the size of the eggs.
- In warmer countries, the pastry dough might be too "runny" and hard to form a shape when you’re ready to bake the choux pastry. Chill the choux pastry dough in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes before piping them for baking.
- DO NOT use aluminum foil for baking as the bottom of the choux pastry will be burned. I ran out of parchment paper hence I used aluminum foil.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Very hard to find pastry recipe for begets! Still havent found
Beignet recipe here: https://rasamalaysia.com/new-orleans-beignets/
How many can you make with this recipe?
I like this recipe because its so easy good.
Why do the cream puffs at the bakery shop is crispy and does not flatten when it is cooked and cooled. Mine always looks nice when just taken out of the oven but unfortunately later in the day it is slightly flatten and soft.