Choux pastry & Cocoa Craquelin — Ilaria Marzullo (2024)

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.

    See Also
    FAQ

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 hom*ogeneous 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.

Choux pastry & Cocoa Craquelin — Ilaria Marzullo (2024)

FAQs

How to know when choux has enough eggs? ›

When enough egg has been added the mixture will be glossy and thin enough that a large spoonful will fall heavily from the spoon in one lump (without shaking or tapping the spoon on the side of the saucepan), but thick enough that it doesn't slide off easily.

What 3 things do you look for to tell if your choux pastry is ready? ›

Your dough should be shiny and smooth.

You will know it's ready when the pastry has a consistency that slowly closes in on itself once the spoon has passed through. Your choux ball is ready when you have a skin at the bottom of the pan, which takes about 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

What is a small choux pastry sprinkled with pearl sugar and sometimes filled with custard and mousse? ›

A chouquette is a viennoiserie consisting of a small portion of choux pastry sprinkled with pearl sugar. It is sometimes filled with custard or mousse. Sometimes a chouquette can be dipped in chocolate or covered in chocolate chips.

Why did my choux pastry fail? ›

Too much moisture causes the choux pastry to sink. The other important reason is your oven was not preheated enough. The oven must be very hot the moment you put your choux pastry dough in to bake. The last reason your pastry collapsed is because you baked with uneven heat.

Why won't my cream puffs rise? ›

Why Aren't My Choux Pastries Rising? Choux pastries (i.e. cream puffs, eclairs, etc.) won't rise if the oven temperature is too low.

What is the secret to choux pastry? ›

To understand why choux is twice-cooked, it's important to know that choux needs lots of moisture: it's the steam generated by its high water content that causes it to swell and puff so much (there's no baking soda, baking powder, yeast, beaten egg whites, or any other leavening agent to help give it extra lift).

How to keep choux crispy? ›

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 is the most important ingredient in choux pastry? ›

The essential ingredients are butter, water, flour and eggs. Instead of a raising agent, choux pastry employs its high moisture content to create steam, as the water in the dough evaporates when baked, puffing the pastry.

Is choux pastry better with milk or water? ›

Choux pastry has two important stages. First you cook it and then you bake it. For the liquid, you can use water or milk or a combination of both. We choose the combination of both because this way you get a nice color and tender bite, but the extra water also allows for baking at a slightly higher temperature.

What does egg do in choux pastry? ›

Eggs make sure your choux pastry turns more liquid again. You'll want to obtain a consistency that is firm enough to hold its shape, but liquid enough that you can pipe it with a piping bag. If it's still too firm at this point, you can add a little water to help loosen it up.

What are 2 types of choux pastry? ›

Choux pastry dishes
NameTypeOrigin
ProfiteroleSweetFrance
ReligieuseSweetFrance
St. Honoré cakeSweetFrance
Tuna puffSavoryCaribbean
17 more rows

What is the formula for choux pastry? ›

Typical choux pastry formula includes:2,3

Bring the milk, water, sugar, salt and butter to a boil, stir to combine. Remove from heat source, add the flour and continue stirring. Heat the mix again while stirring till the mixture becomes a cohesive mass and clears the side of the pot.

What happens if you add too much egg to choux pastry? ›

If you add too much eggs, the mixture will be runny and unusable. This is what the final dough/paste should look like. If you are not sure, place some of the mixture in the piping bag with a tip fitted, and try piping.

Why do you cook choux pastry twice? ›

Choux comes from the French word 'cabbage,' because once baked, the pastry puffs up into a crinkled little ball, much like a cabbage. Made simply with flour, water, butter and eggs, choux pastry is cooked twice – first on the hob, then in the oven where it magically puffs up using only steam as a leavener.

Is butter or margarine better for choux pastry? ›

The most used fat is butter, but choux pastry can be made also with oil, margarine or lard. The higher is the content of fat, the more the cream puff will be crumbly and rounded with a smooth surface. Less is the fat (compared to the flour), lighter the cream puff will be (with an irregular and cracked surface).

Is choux pastry supposed to taste eggy? ›

Choux doesn't have a hollow center: Your dough was likely too thick from too much flour or cooking out too much of the water while it was on the stove. Choux pastry tastes eggy: This is normal, for the most part!

How to fix choux pastry too runny? ›

If your batter ended up being too runny, possibly you have added a little too much eggs. To fix this, cook a paste using roughly half the choux recipe (water, milk, flour, butter similar to how you started).

Why is my choux pastry not forming a ball? ›

If the puffs collapse it means there was too much moisture in them. So either you did not dry the dough enough, or they were not cooked enough. To avoid this I recommend drying the dough really well (see below) and cracking the door of the oven open when the choux are baked.

Can you over mix choux pastry? ›

Second, it is important to cook the flour for a few minutes before adding the eggs. This will help to develop the gluten in the flour, which will give the dough its structure. Finally, it is important to not overmix the dough after the eggs are added. Overmixing can make the dough tough.

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