Choux pastry & Cocoa Craquelin
What do we know about choux pastry?
We know that it comes from France. It’s a light, airy, crispy pastry used to make chouquettes, cream puffs/profiteroles, choux au craquelin, croquembouches and more.
Flour, eggs, butter and water are all you need to make it.
A pastry with a light and crisp outer shell, and a delicious, soft, creamy, custard-like inside. And it’s airy with large air pockets inside as well, perfect to be filled with a sweet filling. A few cracks will be visible on the outside, but it still retains the shape it was piped in.
Choux pastry doesn’t use a chemical raising agent to rise. Instead it uses air and moisture trapped in the dough to rise.
Tips
Give the flour a vigorous stir.
When the flour is added to the boiled butter and water mixture, it must be vigorously beaten to develop the gluten and create elastic dough. Then the mixture is cooked longer while continually stirring to further develop the gluten and cook the flour.Cool down the flour mixture immediately
It’s important to cool the flour mixture down before adding the eggs in.
Doing so will prevent the eggs from cooking when you add them in. Ignore this step, and you’ll end up with gummy choux pastry with an eggy taste.Add eggs in several additions
The proper way to mix eggs into the flour mixture is by adding a small amount at a time, then stirring the mixture vigorously after each addition.
When you added water to cook the dough previously, how much water gets evaporated during the cooking process can vary a lot.
Less water in the dough – more eggs you will need to add.
More water in the dough – less eggs you will need to add.
The type of flour can also have an impact on how much eggs to add. What you’re looking for here is a dough that looks glossy, but still thick, can hold its shape and is pipeable.Bake at a high temperature
While baking, the puffs are leavened from the steam created from the liquid ingredients which expands the dough into an airy shell. The puffs need a blast of high heat to create the steam. The starting oven temperature is normally 180°C for about 15 minutes of baking, and then reduced to 165°C to finish the baking and browning while drying the insides and crisping the outer pastry.Shelf-life & Refeshing your Choux
You can keep the Choux in an airtight container for up to 3 days. They will feel soggy when you take them out so it's important to put them in a 175°C oven for about 5 minutes. That will dry and crisp them back up. ..But I suggest to use,the same day you make them, so much better.
What variations can I try with choux pastry dough?
Milk vs Water – You can use 1/2 milk and 1/2 water instead of using all water (4 fl oz each of water and milk). Water makes a lighter and crisper puff, milk makes a softer puff that is not as crisp, provides extra flavor and will cause the puffs to brown more.
Cacao Craqueline
50g Butter
60g Light brown sugar
60g Plain flour
10g Cocoa powder
2g Salt
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment work together all the ingredients until obtain an homogeneous dough.
Roll out the dough between two parchment paper or guitar sheets to a thickness of 2-3mm and place in the freezer for 1h.
Remove the craquelin from the freezer and cut out circles (3cm wide) with a round mould cutter. Store in the freezer until needed.
Choux Pastry Recipe
125g Milk
125g Water
2g Salt
5g Sugar
100g Butter
150g Flour
225g Eggs
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Make the choux pastry dough: Combine the butter, water, milk, salt, and granulated sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring mixture to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce heat to low and add the flour all at once. Stir until the flour is completely incorporated and a thick dough clumps into a ball. Cook the dough for about a minute. Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or, if using a handheld mixer, a large mixing bowl. Allow to cool down for a few minutes before adding the eggs in the next step.
With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the eggs in 3-4 separate additions mixing for 30 seconds between each. Pour in the final addition of beaten eggs very slowly. Stop adding when the choux pastry has reached a pipeable consistency.
Your choux pastry dough is complete! You can use it immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
For cream puff and profiterole shells: Transfer choux pastry dough to a piping bag, and pipe 3cm mounds.
Place each craquelin circle on top of the choux.
Bake for 15 minutes then, keeping the pastries in the oven, reduce oven to 165°C and continue to bake for 15-20 more minutes until golden brown.
…And if you give the recipe a try, tag me @ila_riapastry on instagram!!