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! 

To Try - Cream Puff

So I've been crazy for Beard Papa's cream puff, and Levain's. They produces the perfect texture for a choux pastry. I saw this recipe and would like to try it out one day. It's from Yahoo and in case they deleted this entry, I'd better copy it down here.

Beard Papa's makes their choux pastry and pie dough. This is very hard to make so it would not be practical. Their creme filling is probably not too hard to make if you aren't lazy. You might want to get a good recipe for profiteroles, or creme
puffs. You will still have to make choux pastry as this is the base for profiteroles and creme puffs. Here is a good recipe that includes filling.

Pastry Cream

* 3 cups (750 ml) milk
* 3 eggs
* 3/4 cup (175 ml) granulated sugar
* 1/4 cup (50 ml) all-purpose flour
* 1 tbsp. (15 ml) cornstarch
* 2 tbsp. butter (25 ml)
* 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla (7 ml)
* 2 cups (500 ml) whipping cream

1. In heavy saucepan, heat milk until steaming. Meanwhile, in bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch; gradually pour in milk in thin stream, whisking constantly. Return to clean pan. Cook over medium heat, whisking, for 5 minutes or just until boiling; cook, whisking, for 2 minutes longer or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla.
2. Pour into bowl; place waxed paper directly on surface to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate until cool, at least 4 hours. Whip cream, gently fold into pastry cream with spatula just until combined.

Note: Pastry cream can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Choux Pastry

* 2 cups (500 ml) water
* 1 cup (250 ml) butter, cubed
* 1/4 tsp. (1 ml) salt
* 2 1/2 cups (625 ml) all-purpose flour
* 8 eggs

Glaze

* 1 egg

1. Line two 17- x 11-inch (45 x 29 cm) baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease and dust with flour. In heavy saucepan, bring half of each of the water, butter and salt to boil over high heat; immediately remove from heat. Add half of the flour all at once; stir vigorously with wooden spoon until mixture comes away from side of pan in smooth ball. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 4 minutes or until film forms on bottom of pan. Transfer to bowl; stir for 30 seconds to cool slightly. Make well in centre.
2. Using electric mixer, beat in 4 of the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until shiny and pastry holds its shape when lifted. Using pastry bag fitted with 1/4-inch (5 mm) plain tip or with spoon, pipe pastry into 1 1/4-inch (3 cm) round by 3/4-inch (2 cm) high mounds on pans. Glaze: Beat egg with 1 tbsp (15 ml) water; brush half over pastry, flattening tips and making sure glaze doesn’t drip onto pan.
3. Bake in 425 degree F (220 degree C) oven for 20 minutes; rotate trays. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C); bake for 10 minutes or until golden. With knife, make small hole in bottom of each; bake for 5 minutes. Turn off oven; let stand in oven for 10 minutes to dry. Transfer to rack; let cool. With wooden spoon handle, enlarge hole in each puff. Repeat with remaining choux pastry ingredients and glaze to make 85 puffs in total.
4. Spoon pastry cream into pastry bag fitted with 1/4-inch (5 mm) plain tip. Pipe into hole in each puff, squeezing bag gently until puff is filled with cream. Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheet. (Puffs can be lightly covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 1 hour.)

As I have stated before, beard papa's uses pie dough as well. If you are feeling a bit adventurous, look for a flaky pie dough recipe and roll them out to thin circles and put them on the choux pastry before baking. This may result in a creme puff very similar to beard papas but will entail much effort. Good luck.

Source(s):

http://creampuffsinvenice.ca/category/choux-pastry/

Sales Blog

Haha, ok now I've 3 blogs to manage, not sure which one I will be updating the most. Anyways, I was about to write about Cream Puff and the recipe here but the post was stopped halfway. Will update that later. In the meantime, I've just created a new sales blog!! Haha, I can actually combine both sales blog and the journal, no? But I dont know, it's just that I've just bought a new rubber stamp and I've accidentally wrote that address and it's going to be a permanent sales blog for now :)..