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You are here: Home / Baker’s Notes / Choux Pastry (Pâte à Choux)

Choux Pastry (Pâte à Choux)

Pronounced pat-a-shoo, choux pastry (pâte à choux) is a pastry dough made with butter, water, flour, eggs and, for optional flavoring, sugar and salt. It’s the dough used for making the shells for cream puffs and eclairs. It is the same dough used for making churros.

Pâte à choux is cooked on the stove top, mixed with eggs off the heat, piped (or dropped by spoonfuls) on a baking sheet then baked until risen, puffed, golden and hollow. Why do they turn hollow? Some chemistry thing—the high moisture content in the pastry results in a steam build-up during baking that pushes the dough up.

It’s easy enough to buy cream puffs and chocolate eclairs. Heaven knows almost every bakeshop sells them and there are even specialty shops that sell nothing but pastries made with pâte à choux.

But if you like to putter in the kitchen and learn how to make them at home, it’s not mission impossible.

The important thing to remember is to bake the shells at a low oven temperature so that they turn dry without getting too dark. Once you get comfortable with the procedure, you can wow your family and friends with home baked cream puffs or eclairs.

Choux Pastry (Pâte à Choux)

Recipe by Connie Veneracion
A light and delicate dough made only with butter, water, flour, and eggs, choux pastry (pâte à choux) is the base for many desserts including profiteroles (cream puffs).
Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Total Time 50 mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Servings 15 large choux shells
Fully baked choux pastry (pâte à choux)
Print recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 60 grams butter softened
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 large whole eggs

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 400F.
  • Pour half a cup of water into a pan. Add the butter, sugar and salt. Heat until the butter melts.
    Mixing melted butter and flour to make choux pastry (pâte à choux)
  • Take the pan off the heat, dump the flour all at once and mix with a wooden spoon to combine.
  • Put the pan on the stove and, over medium heat, cook the dough with constant stirring until it pulls away from the sides of the pan.
    Cooling butter and flour mixture before adding eggs to make Adding eggs to butter and flour to make choux pastry (pâte à choux)
  • Transfer to a mixing bowl and beat for about a minute to cool the mixture.
  • Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. You should have a soft and sticky dough.
    Adding eggs to butter and flour to make choux pastry (pâte à choux)
  • To make round shells, drop by teaspoonfuls, at least two inches apart, on a baking tray lined with non-stick paper.
    Adding eggs to butter and flour to make choux pastry (pâte à choux) piped on baking tray
  • Bake the pâte à choux shells at 400F for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on their size. The shells are ready when the surface is dry to the touch and sounds hollow when tapped with a finger.
  • Cool the shells on a rack before filling.

Notes

Updated from a post originally published in September 8, 2010
Keyword Choux pastry
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