Sunday, August 26, 2012

Choux Pastry


An easy to bake choux pastry recipe with only a few simple steps.  Baked them and fill up with either sweet custard, whipped cream or savory fillings of your choice.  For this batch, I used tuna mayo filling and kept some with a generous filling of ice cream.

The choux pastry is crispy, golden on the outside and has a nice hollow inside.  Good pastry and stays puffy even though I kept in the fridge for 3 days.




Ingredients
[makes 12 pieces]
65 gm plain flour - sifted
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
125 ml water
70 gm butter - cubed
2 large eggs - lightly beaten [I have some left for glazing pastry]
  1. Sieve flour and mix with salt and sugar.  Set aside.
  2. Boil water with butter cubes until butter melts over medium heat.  Off fire.
  3. Remove away from heat and quickly add in the sifted flour mix.  Immediately stir with a spatula to mix ingredients into a soft and smooth paste or until the paste leaves the sides of the pan clean.
  4. Using a electric mixer with paddle hook, slowly add in the beaten egg.  Beat until batter is smooth and leaves a trail and drops slowly when lifted up.   Must not be too stiff or thin.  You may not need to use up all the eggs.
  5. Use 2 spoons to drop the paste on baking tray, leaving some space apart for pastry to expand.
  6. Shape pastry while you brush with egg glaze.
  7. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes [middle shelf], then lower heat to 180 degrees C.  Continue to bake for 30-35 minutes.
  8. After baking, off the heat but leave the pastry in the oven for a further 5 minutes before removing to cool on wire rack [this helps to make the choux pastry crispy on the outside and form a nice hollow inside].
  9. When cool, fill up with desired fillings.  If preferred, dust top with icing sugar if preferred.
Note:
Choux pastry can be prepared earlier and kept in airtight containers for several days or refrigerate until required.   I thaw them to room temperature before filling up with tuna mayo filling.

4 comments:

  1. This seems so simple. I always thought choux pastry is difficult to make. I used to love cream puffs when I was a child.

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  2. Hi Phong Hong, I've tried several others but never satisfied with the results. But this one I'm really happy because it is really good. The hollow inside was so big I needed lots of filling. 2 cans of tuna and 2 big onions were just enough to fill up 10 pieces.

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  3. Hi Sonia, it is really puffy and crusty. I intend to bake this more often to go with various fillings. The good point is the choux keeps well in the fridge for several days.

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