Pastry Affair - Pâte a Choux (Trial 1)

The first time I tried Beard Papa I wasn't really impressed. I am not sure why. I wasn't really interested of making cream puffs before, but after I tried the one my friend made during a potluck with my former schoolmates I thought it would be interesting to try making those little cute puffs.

Cream puffs are made from Pâte a Choux (paht-ah-shoo). This choux pastry can be used to make eclair, profiteroles, gnocchi and others. Further reading : - ruhlman ;

So the other day I was in a pate a choux mood for a few days, but I couldn't find a time of making them but I ended up stealing some time in between after breakfast and going to Sg. Buloh to find some gardening stuff with mom, to make the choux pastry. Well I made the first part and continued the second part (piping & baking) after I got back from Sg. Buloh.

I tried making this twice, using 2 different recipes : one included milk, and the other did not.

I basically copied most of the steps from Azelia's Kitchen, with having Michel Roux's recipe as my benchmark.

They have this termed ratio of 1:1:1:1 of water, eggs, butter  and flour from one of the recipes I found whilst googling around. I forgot which one though, but basically, they have 1 cup of everything.

Michel Roux's Pate a Choux 


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INGREDIENTS

• 125ml milk
• 100g butter, diced
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 150g plain flour
• 4 medium eggs
• Eggwash (1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk)

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Instead of 125 ml milk, I used half milk and half water for the first time. I used just water for the second time.

So the concept of choux pastry is to cook the pastry on the stove before baking them (I call this the first part). So the first thing is to boil the water, butter and salt till they melt, and after that add the flour whilst still on low heat. Remove from eat, let it cool for a while or change to a different bowl and add the eggs one at a time later, stirring hard. Let the choux pastry to cool and then pipe them on a baking sheet. Clearer pictures, steps and explanation can be found at Azelia's Kitchen.

I guess the recipe itself is not as important as the techniques of baking. Either ways, the pastry will taste great, well at least for me!

Azelia's method of baking 

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Oven Temperatures: Pre-heat the oven to 200C fan / 220C / 420F / gas 7.

As soon as you put the choux in the oven turn the temperature down to 180C fan / 200C / 390F / gas 6.  For choux puffs and individual Paris brest bake  20 mins.  For the large Paris brest bake for 35-40 mins.

To Dry Out: Turn it down to 120C fan / 140C / 280F / gas 1 for 5-7 mins for puffs, depending on size.  For individual Paris brest shapes dry for 10-15 mins.  For large Paris brest dry out 15-17 mins.

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There are some recipes calls for a  drying out time at a higher temperature, and some even asked to poke a hole at the bottom of the puffs so that the it will be completely dry. I am still in my quest for searching for a perfect cream puff pastry, so I can't conclude the best recipe for pate a choux just yet. Will share a better method and pictures once I made the best pate a choux. In the meantime, the above recipe is the best so far. :). It will however, become soft and less crispy after a few hours or after you've added the pastry cream because of the moisture the puffs absorbed but they still tastes delicious! 

Anyways, other than Beard Papa, Levain's creme a la choux is one of the best!! 

As for the custard, I just used 2 tablespoon of custard powder, 2 tablespoon of sugar, 500ml milk, 1 vanilla pod. Boil them on medium heat while stirring till it became thick enough (it's going to take quite sometime) and then let it cool. Cut the puff pastries halfway and pipe the custard cream. 

There are better custard recipes out there which uses egg yolks (custard from scratch) and I am dying to try them very soon!