Choux Pastry

So I've been meaning to make this gorgeous pastry for a while now. Pâte à Choux or Choux (pronounce shoe) Pastry is a delightful French pastry. It is light, crispy on the outside and usually consists of a delicious cream or custard filling on the inside.

I piped my Choux in the shape of a swan and filled it with passion fruit cream. Although this picutes makes it look like a heavy dessert, it actually wasn't. It was very light and almost delicate in texture. The passion fruit cream add a refreshing touch, and that's why this was a huge hit with my husband.

This simple choux pastry recipe can be used to many many different treats; such as profiteroles, éclairs or croquembouches. You can also make a savoury version by making gougère which usually includes cheese in the choux mixture. I haven't made gougère before but I can't wait to try it. 

Choux Pastry:

Ingredients:

1 Cup water

½ Cup unsalted Butter

¼ Tsp salt

1 Tsp sugar

1 Cup plain flour

4 eggs

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 210°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

- Place the water, butter, sugar and salt in a medium sized saucepan and place on medium heat. Remove from heat as soon as the butter has melted and the water is boiling.

- Quickly add in all of the flour. Mix for at least two minutes and until the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps of flour. (I prefer to use a silicon spatula). Note: The residual heat of the pan dries the dough as you are stirring. If the mixture is still a little running return the pan to heat unit it starts to dry up. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and allow it to cool for about 5 minutes.

- Add one egg and beat with an electric mixture until the egg is fully incorporated. Add the other three eggs, one at a time, in the same fashion. Each egg takes about a minute to be absorbed into the batter.

- Fill the mixture into a piping bag, pipe according to what you want to make.

Éclairs: Pipe a long 10cm long log using a 1.5cm star nozzle

Profiteroles: Pipe dough in a swelling motion forming a small ball.

Swan Shape: Using the 1.5cm star nozzle, pipe the swan body. (it should look like an upside down tear-drop shape). To make the swan heads, use a 1/2cm round nozzle and pipe a question mark shape.

- For small puffs, bake at 210°C for 20 minutes, Lower oven temperature to 150°C and bake for another 15 minutes. To insure that the inside of the choux pastry does not get soggy after baking, pierce each puff and return the tray to the oven that has been turned off. Leave them in the oven with the door slightly open for 10 minutes. If making swan, Bake Swan heads for 10 minutes.