Choux pastry: the easy recipe to make cream puffs and much more! Choux pastry is the basic dough for preparing zeppole, churros, sfince, lulù messinesi, Paris-Brest and many, many sweet preparations.
Choux pastry is therefore a staple of Italian and French pastry, essential for preparing small pastries baked in the oven or fried in oil, but its neutral flavor allows wide use also in savory finger foods and appetizers. The dough is called “choux” from the French, due to the rounded shape of the baked cream puff which resembles a “small cabbage,” and it can be made with butter or olive or seed oil. The peculiarity of this preparation lies in the baking divided into two distinct stages: one on the stovetop to prepare the dough and one in the oven or fryer to cook it.
The first cooking step is essential to ensure an initial gelatinization of the starches in the flour; in the second step the cream puff puffs up, developing the classic rounded shape.
We can compare cream puffs to puff pastry for their versatility in both sweet and savory uses and for the type of physical/mechanical leavening that characterizes both. In both preparations it is not yeast that produces the gases which inflate the product, but the steam trapped during baking (which seals the surface). Now, after this brief explanation, it’s time to prepare our little cream puffs: if you want to get your hands on the dough, follow me — you’ll find a clear, simple, step-by-step explanation. Before we get to the stove, remember that if you want to stay updated on new recipes you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile.
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- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Cooking time: 1 Hour
- Portions: about 30 cream puffs
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup Water
- 6 tbsp Butter
- 2 cups Type 0 flour (or all-purpose flour)
- 6 Eggs (large)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
How to make homemade cream puffs, step-by-step: preparation…
Combine the water, salt and butter in a saucepan, bring to the verge of boiling and add the flour all at once. Stir until a smooth, homogeneous mixture forms that will begin to pull away from the pan leaving a light film. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, spread it out and wait for it to cool slightly, working it a bit.
Place the dough in a bowl, add the eggs one at a time, incorporating each well before adding another. My dough took six and a half eggs; at the end of all additions you should obtain a firm cream that is not runny. Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip with this cream, line a baking tray with parchment paper and pipe little mounds about 2 inches in diameter.
Put them in the oven.
Bake in a preheated conventional oven at 428°F for about 20 minutes, until they are well browned — do not open the oven during this phase.
After this, open slightly to let out most of the steam, then continue baking at 356°F for another 30 minutes, leaving the last ten minutes to dry with the oven switched off.
You can also bake the cream puffs in fan mode: heat the oven to 428°F, once hot put in the cream puffs and after 15 minutes lower the temperature (do not open) to 356°F.
Bake for another 20–25 minutes, then switch off the oven and let them dry with the fan on and the door slightly ajar for another 10 minutes.
Once all the cream puffs are baked, let them cool before using.
If you have doubts about the baking, sacrifice one as a test: remove it quickly from the oven without letting the temperature drop too much, let it cool and hope it doesn’t collapse; if it doesn’t deflate, they are ready.
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