Choux Pastry & Profiteroles

Mom and I did another of our Facebook Live events for Tea For All Reasons last night - this time we demonstrated some savory options for tea time, including how to make choux pastry and a couple fillings. Before I get to the recipe, I want to share a classic video of my culinary hero Julia Child. This is from her revolutionary culinary TV show, The French Chef and features her demonstrating how to make pâte à choux or what we call choux pastry. The baked pastry is then called a profiterole when in the round puff shape.

Over the years she modified her recipe a bit, primarily the baking temperature and times. The recipe below is adapted from the excellent Baking with Julia cookbook by Dorie Greenspan.

Some tools to have handy before you begin: baking sheets, parchment paper, 2 quart saucepan, wooden spoon, mixer with paddle attachment (or food processor or hand mixer), rubber spatula, piping bag with 1/2" plain tip or spoon for scooping, pastry brush.

I recommend a heavy baking sheet for these. During the FB Live, I used a lighter weight baking sheet for the first batch and they did not bake right - it took much longer than instructed and they never quite finished properly. The second batch were on a heavier sheet and did much better. They still took longer to bake, but they puffed up and browned as they should. 

Pâte à Choux (Choux Pastry)

1/2 Cup whole milk

1/2 Cup water

7 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 7 pieces

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1.5 Cups all-purpose flour

5-6 eggs, room temperature

1 egg with 1 tsp water, for egg wash

Preheat oven to 400F and make sure the racks divide the oven into thirds. Line 2 baking pans with parchment paper.

In a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, water, butter, sugar and salt. Bring to a full boil, stirring often. Once at a full boil, add all of the flour at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until it gathers into a ball. Keep stirring over the heat until a thin film begins to coat the bottom of the pan - about 30-60 seconds. This ensures the flour gets cooked enough to remove the raw flour flavor from the paste. Remove from the heat.

Top Right: Milk-butter mixture is starting to come to the boil. Top Left: Tiny bubbles around the edges indicate the full boil is imminent. Bottom: Rolling boil means it is time for the addition of the flour

The choux has come together into a ball and beginning to leave the film on the bottom of the pan that indicates that the flour is fully cooked

Transfer the dough into the bowl of a mixer that has a paddle attachment. Stir the dough for a minute on the lowest setting and begin to add the eggs, one at a time. Make sure each egg is incorporated into the dough before adding the next one. You should scrape the sides of the bowl every once in a while to make sure all of the dough is mixed well. After the fifth egg, check to see if the dough is right. If it still seems thick, add the last egg. You can also do the egg additions by mixing by hand with a heavy wooden spoon (this is the traditional method!) or even using a food processor or hand mixer. Just be careful not to over mix or use too high a speed - you don't want to add air to the pastry.

Add the eggs one at a time. It takes patience to ensure the eggs incorporate into the pastry fully without adding air to the dough

The finished pastry is smooth

The pastry will still be warm and you want to be sure to pipe or scoop it out on the pans while it is warm. If using the piping method, spoon the pastry into a large piping bag fitted with a 1/2" plain tip. Pipe puffs that are about the size of a quarter (US $.25 coin) onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, about 1" apart. (They do not spread.) If you get a pointy tip at the top, don't worry about it. You can press that down with a finger lightly moistened with water or use your pastry brush when you add the egg wash to gently press that top down. Brush each puff with a little of the egg wash.

Piped choux puffs before the tips are patted down or the addition of the egg wash

If using a spoon to scoop, gather enough pastry to create a quarter-sized dollop and push it onto the baking sheet with a second spoon to create an even mound. Brush each with egg wash.

You should be able to use all of your choux pastry between the two pans, making approximately 16-20 small puffs per pan. 

Bake for at least 10 minutes and then switch the pans on their racks and bake an additional 10 minutes. Watch your times. If the puffs are light after the first 10 minutes, give them another 5 at the high heat before reducing the temperature. Then reduce the temp to 350F and bake for another 5-7 minutes. Check them at the 5 minute mark by tapping the bottom of one of the puffs to make sure it sounds hollow. If not, leave in for the extra two minutes.

Cooling choux puffs

Remove from oven and let cool on the pans until room temperature. At that point you can slice the tops off or use a piping bag to add fillings.

Here's a bonus video of Chef Jacques Pépin demonstrating use of the food processor to add the eggs.