Pâte à Choux aka Choux Pastry
To make beautiful homemade sweet pastries such as Cream Puffs, Croquembouche, Chocolate Éclairs or even savory pastries like Gougère, Pommes Dauphine and so on, you need this basic pastry dough recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp. ground Himalayan pink salt
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 cup water
- 4 large free-run eggs
Directions
- In a small bowl, combine flour and salt; set aside.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine shortening and water; bring to a boil.
- When the shortening is melted, add the flour mixture. Stir vigorously until it releases from the sides of the pot and forms a ball, about 1 minute.
- Remove from the heat, transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer and let it cool off.
- When the mixture gets to room temperature, add one egg at a time, mixing well between each addition with the paddle attachment.
- Preheat oven to 425ºF.
- Depending on the pastry, form dough as requested using a pastry bag on a greased cookie sheet or silicone mat (*see footnote).
- Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to 350ºF and bake for 30 minutes - DO NOT OPEN OVEN DOOR under any circumstances!
- When it's done, remove from the heat and make small holes using a chop stick. Cool off completely before filling.
Notes
Footnote: After shaping the dough, if there are little tails left from piping, dip your fingertip in water and gently press on them.