Choux Paste and Pastry Creme
There are a lot of pastry doughs out there in the world – pie crust, puff pastry, phyllo… All of them can be used for a variety of applications. There is one dough – a paste, actually – that should be in all of our repertoires – Choux Paste.
The Inspirational Choux Paste
Unlike other doughs, Choux Paste is cooked twice, once to prepare it and once to create the final product. Choux paste is usually baked, but can also be fried. What makes it great is that it can be used for sweet or savoury WOW moments. How the Choux paste is flavoured and shaped can create an endless supply WOW moments that are limited only by our imagination (or, as I have said before, how good our inspiration is!). But there is something else special about Choux Paste – when it is baked it bakes up crispy and hollow which only means one thing – fillings! When something is baked then stuffed with deliciousness there is a great opportunity to create something new!
Classically choux paste is filled with
- Ice Cream in Profiteroles
- Pastry Cream in Eclairs
- Whipped Cream in Cream Puffs
- Pastry Cream in a Paris Brest
- Apples in Choux a’ la Normande
- Cherries in Choux a’ la Montmorency
There is tons that can be done. Here are the basic recipes for Choux paste and pastry cream.
- 1 cup water
- 8 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- dash of salt
- dash of sugar
- 4 eggs
- Place water, butter, salt and sugar in a medium pan over low heat allowing the butter to melt.
- Once the butter is melted increase heat and bring to a boil.
- When the water starts to boil remove from heat and dump all the flour into the pot. Stir with a wooden spoon rapidly, combine thoroughly.
- Put the mixture over medium heat and continue to stir until the dough forms a mass that does not stick to the side of the pan.
- Reduce heat to low and continue stirring for another minute to remove just a bit more of the moisture from the dough.
- Remove the mixture from the heat and transfer to a glass bowl.
- Add one egg at a time thoroughly incorporating each egg before adding another.
- The dough will be smooth and a little stretchy.
- Shape the dough using spoons or a pastry bag.
- Bake the dough on a parchment lined baking sheet at 400F for about 20 minutes or until golden brown, firm to the touch and doubled in size.
- ½ cup sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 2 cups milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, split.
- 4 tbs butter
- In a saucepan bring the milk and vanilla (or vanilla bean and seeds) to a boil.
- In a heat proof glass bowl whisk the eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch until the mixture is thoroughly mixed and pale in color.
- Remove the bean from the milk and slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
- Place the mixture back into the pan and, stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil. Let it boil 1 minute. (It must boil for it to thicken! Don’t worry about making scrambled eggs - the starch and flour will stop this from happening.)
- Remove from heat, whisk in butter, allow to cool stirring occasionally to stop a skin from forming.
There is tons that can be down with both of these recipes. The obvious thing to do for the pastry cream is to flavour it with all variety of interesting flavors – hazelnut, coffee, cinnamon, ginger etc. Any of these flavors will go along way to making a great dessert! And fruit compote? The sky is the limit here, too!
The choux paste is also intriguing, though. Making it savoury is easy. Simply removing the sugar is a start, but why not add cheese! Adding a cup of cheese after preparing the choux paste as above will take this to a whole new level! Cheddar? Yep! Smoked Gouda? A WOW waiting to happen! Monterrey Jack with Jalepeno? Now we are cooking! Of course, do not forget the spices! This can take your choux paste around the world and up 100 notches!
With a savory choux paste a whole new world of fillings opens up! Tomato Salsa, Guacamole, Hummus, Chicken Salad (can you imagine a chicken salad eclair!), Tapenade, Indian dhal, pulled pork, sloppy joe!
The list is never ending and that is what makes Choux paste great and must have in your repertoire!
Keep Eating! Keep Innovating!
How do you make your choux paste creations special? Any great filling ideas? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook.
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