Choux Pastry

Who doesn’t love Chocolate Eclairs or cream puffs? Both of these well-loved pastries start with Choux Pastry.

It is one of the most popular French pastries. It is famous worldwide. French pastries, in general, can be intimidating to make, but there seems to be something very approachable about Choux pastry.

All of the different recipes that I found say it’s easy to make pastries from this process.
I did not find it so easy; The dough is very straightforward and not complicated; however, the process can be.

When baking Choux Pastry, several techniques can be used.
For me, it was trying to figure out which one works best.

Some methods call for cooking the pastry shells at a high temperature and then turning the oven off and leaving the door open for them to cool and dry.
This method did not work for me. The result was flat pastry shells that were good for nothing but the trashcan.

What worked for me was baking at a high temperature, reducing the heat, and baking until dry. Make sure that the Eclair, puffs, or whatever you are baking, do not over brown.

My recipe for Choux Pastry produces a crisp, buttery shell perfect for any filling, savory or sweet. I have used this successfully for cream puffs, eclairs, and even ham puffs, which are my favorite three.

I hope you give this recipe a try. Perhaps my method will not be your favorite, but you never know until you try. Enjoy!

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Choux Pastry

This "mother" dough recipe is the building block to many French Style bakery items. If you learn this technique, you can make everything from Eclairs to Cream Puffs.

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Keyword choux dough, dougbakes.com, french pastry

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Servings 24 puffs

Author Doug Bakes Staff

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs, room temperature

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt in a medium pan.

3. Bring to a slight boil over medium-high heat. As soon as it boils, please remove it from the heat to stop the cooking.

4. All at once, stir in the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until incorporated.

5. Place the pan back over medium-high heat, constantly stirring for 2 to 3 minutes to release moisture, and start cooking the flour. A film will form on the bottom of the pan, and the dough will create a smooth ball.

6. Transfer dough to the bowl of a stand mixer, and mix on medium speed for a minute so the mixture can cool slightly.

7. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on medium speed, allowing each egg to incorporate between additions.

8. Beat a minute longer until the dough is smooth and forms a ribbon when the paddle is pulled up.

9. For puff style choux, Fill a piping bag with a 1/2" round tip with the dough. Pipe in two-inch circles.

10. For Éclair style choux, Fill a piping bag with a 1/2" round tip with the dough and pipe in a four-inch line.

11. Bake at 425˚F for 10 minutes in the center of the oven. Without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 325˚F and bake 20-22 min longer or until golden brown on top.

12. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.