Choux Pastry
Uploaded: Feb 28th, 2018
Flavor: Sweet with underlying buttery tones.
Texture: Light, airy with hollow center and crunchy outer shell.
Key Ingredients: Eggs, butter.
Equipment: Wooden spoon and some elbow grease.
Optional: Standing mixer or hand mixer with paddle attachment.
Choux Pastry can seem a bit intimidating, however. it's more time consuming than difficult to make. It has several steps, but once you accomplish those, you're bound to be successful in this endeavor.
I will be sharing how to make to choux pastry for these puffs and you can fill them with either sweet or savory fillings.
If I had a preference, it would be the savory fillings. Those delicious custards though, make things equally as scrumptious.
One of my favorite ways to full these up, would have to be my easy chicken salad. I use this chicken in sandwiches, but they work so well in these puffs. In the original recipe I shared on YouTube I used canned chicken, however through the years I have preferred using freshly cooked chicken blended with my emergent blender to create a creamy chicken filling paste. You can find my Instant Pot creamy chicken salad sandwich recipe here.If an emergent blender isn't available, you can of course use the canned chicken version.
Another great thing about this recipe, is the simple basic ingredients it takes to make these.
Perfect for an appetizer or little finger foods for any gathering these are sure to be a crowd pleaser.
1. In a large saucepan, add in your one cup of room temperature water.
2. Slice your stick of butter into cubes. 1 stick of butter is 1/2 cup of butter.
3. On medium heat, add your cubed butter to the water and melt.
3. Bring to a gently boil.
4. Add in your flour.
5. Turn off heat.
6. Constantly stir your flour and water until it forms into a divided up dough. It will have come together but not into one uniform dough.
7. Turn your heat back on to medium low and keep stirring to evaporate any extra water.
8. Once that film starts to form at the bottom of your pan, place your dough into a heat safe bowl.
9. You want this dough to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes before we add in our eggs. We don't want scrambled eggs, so it's important to cool the dough for a several minutes.
10.Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
11. Add in your eggs one at a time.
12. After each egg, mix well for about two minutes until the dough starts to come together.
It will first separate but mix well until its combined and comes together.
13. Place dough into a piping back with a tip. I use 2D for a swirl shape on my puffs.
14. Pipe about two-inch circles going around and on top of each other (See video below) or just use a regular large tip to pipe 2-inch mounds.
15. Beat 1 egg with a tablespoon of water to create an egg wash.
16. Gently brush your egg wash on each puff.
17. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown.
Tip: If your puffs start to deflate, they aren't thoroughly finished baking. Place them back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes to finish cooking through.
