Mini Puffs... both savory and sweet! (Pâte à Choux)

Picture above shows you choux filled with pastry cream, salmon tartare, ice cream, and chantilly cream & berries. (clockwise from top-left)


Cream puff, éclair, profiterole, gougères, savory mini puff (e.g. with salmon tartare), pommes dauphine (potato puff), beignet, churros, and even the fancy French wedding cake 'croquembouche'... savory to sweet, amuse-bouche to dessert... all these treats need to start with a French pastry called pâte à choux (pronounced pat a shoo).

You can fill the hollow crispy balls ( = choux, pronounced shoo) with pastry cream, ice cream, or whipped cream and some berries for sweet treats. If you fry the dough, it can be beignet or churros. You can also make savory food by mixing the dough with cheese or purée before baking, or by stuffing the baked choux with savory salad or tartare.

Savory or sweet? With what do you want to fill the choux?
You can decide it little later.... First, let's bake the choux!

Click here for Pastry Cream recipe
Click here for Salmon Tartare recipe
Click here for Chantilly Cream recipe


Mini Puffs... both savory and sweet!
Pâte à Choux recipe

(Yield: about 70-75 mini choux / Cooking time: 50 minutes)

Ingredients:
+ 1/2 cup water
+ 1/2 cup milk
+ 4oz butter (one stick), cut into small pieces
+ pinch of sugar
+ pinch of salt
+ 140g all-purpose flour (~ 1 cup), sifted
+ 4-5 eggs
+ 1 Tbsp heavy cream




Procedures:

1. Preheat your oven at 400°F(204°C).

2. Put water, milk, small pieces of butter, sugar and salt in a pot over medium heat, and let the butter melt completely.


3. When bubbles start forming at the edge of the pot (see picture below), add one cup of sifted flour at once. You need to add the flour as soon as the liquid reaches bubbling point. Otherwise, water will evaporate from the liquid and the ratio between wet ingredients and dry ingredients will change, resulting unsuccessful baked goods.


4. Stir vigorously the flour into liquid over medium heat until there is no lump of flour and the mixture thickens and forms a mass so you can see the clean bottom and side of the pan (about 30 seconds). Continue stirring vigorously over medium heat for one or two minutes to dry the mixture a bit more. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the mixture to a large bowl.


5. Crack one egg and add to the dough.


6. Incorporate the egg into the dough by mixing the dough with wooden spoon. At first, it will look like small lumps of dough and beaten egg, but eventually it will get to the smooth dough again.


7. Add the remaining eggs into the dough one at a time. Make sure that each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one. Usually this recipe calls for 4-4.5 eggs, rarely all the 5 eggs. To check when to stop adding any more eggs, run a finger through the batter. If the channel fills in slowly (see below pictures), the batter is moist enough, and you don't need to add anymore eggs.


* What would you do when the batter is too wet? You shouldn’t add just flour to get right texture because then you ruin the ratio of the ingredients. When the batter is too wet, make another batch of pâte à choux, but before adding any eggs, mix the dough with the wet batter. Then, add egg one by one to the combined batter until it reaches to the right consistency.

*NOTE*
Now you have "pâte à choux". At this stage, you can add grated cheese, herbs or even citrus zest to flavor the batter as long as you keep the thickness and texture of the batter.

8. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag with a pastry tip inserted. Whenever you fill the pastry bag, fill the bag only half full. When a pastry bag is half full (not full), it is much easier to handle while piping.


9. Pipe out choux onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper (or silicon mat) to your desired shape and size. To make sure even baking, it is better to pipe out the same sized choux on the same pan.


10. Brush the top with heavy cream gently.


11. Bake the choux in 400°F(204°C) preheated oven until the top is golden brown (about 20-25 minutes for mini choux, and 30-35 minutes for larger choux.) Please do not open the oven door during the baking to have successfully puffed-up choux.

12. When the top is golden brown, lower the oven temperature to 300°F(149°C), and leave the door ajar for another 5-10 minutes to dry out the choux.


* If you are using convection oven, bake at 350°F(177°C) until the top is golden brown, and turn off the heat completely and leave the oven door ajar for 5-10 minutes.

13. Take out the choux from the oven and let it cool over sheet pan for 2-3 minutes before transferring to wired rack.


14. Cool the choux completely over wired rack before filling them with cream or other ingredients. When you slice the choux in half, inside should be empty like the picture below.




Hope you make delicious savory or sweet treats with the choux~


* Salmon Tartare recipe
Mince 4oz (~113g) salmon (good quality raw salmon or smoked salmon) and mix with 1/2 Tbsp finely minced shallot, 1/2 Tbsp minced scallion (or chives), 1 tsp roughly chopped caper (rinsed and drained), 1 tsp lemon juice, and 1.5 tsp extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

* Chantilly Cream recipe
Put 150ml (= about 10-11 tablespoon) heavy cream in a bowl, and place the bowl over another bowl filled with ice. Whip the cream until it starts to thicken, and add 2 tsp of powdered sugar with 1/4 tsp vanilla extract. Continue beating until the cream is stiff. Keep unused chantilly cream in the refrigerator.