Cream Puffs – pâte à choux (pate a choux)

Another classic, basic pastry, pâte à choux, can be used to make all sorts of awesome things fairly quickly.  From cream puffs, to eclairs, to savory gougères, it’s a good trick to have up your sleeve.

The Alton Brown episode where he makes pate a choux is awesome, by the way, like most things he does.

1.0 pâte à choux

Ingredients:

• 1 ¹⁄₂ cups       ________________ water
• 170 grams ________________ butter (³⁄₄ Cup ~12 TBSP)
• 1   tsp ________________ salt
• 1   TBSP ________________ sugar
• 188 grams ________________ all purpose flour (1 ¹⁄₂ Cups)
• 1   tsp ________________ vanilla extract
• 5  __________________ eggs

Egg Wash:

• 1     ________________ egg (for egg wash)
• 1   TBSP ________________ milk (for egg wash)

Random tools:

• Wooden spoon
• Piping bag and large round tip
• Pastry brush

Instructions:

• Turn the oven on, to 400°F
• Prep two or 3 sheet pans, covering with parchment paper.
• In a medium/large sauce pan, melt the butter
• Add in the water, the sugar, and the salt.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add the vanilla.
• Remove from heat and dump in the flour all at once.
• Stir vigorously, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan. (wooden spoon recommended)
• Return the pan to moderate heat, and stir for 2 minutes.
• A film will start to form on the bottom – this is ok – the dough will start to dry out – this is good.
• Remove from heat.
• Add the eggs, one at a time.
• Stir them in vigorously – yes it is hard work.
• The dough will look disastrously separated when you first add the egg, it will come back together, when it does, add the next egg.
• After the 5th egg, the dough should fall in nice ribbons and be glossy.
• Setup the pastry bag
• Fill the pastry bag (not all of the dough will fit, you will need to refill it).
• Pipe small balls of dough, about 2 inches apart on the prepared sheet pans.
• Whisk together the egg and milk, and dip your finger in it, use your finger to pat down the little tails on the top.
• Brush with the egg wash.
• Put one sheet at a time in the oven. (The other sheets can just hang out and wait)
• Bake for 15-20 minutes
• As soon as they come out of the oven, use a fondu fork or paring knife to poke a hole to let the steam out.  Otherwise they will get soggy.

Now you need to fill them with something (or not…up to you).

2.0 Pastry Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 ¹⁄₂ cups   ________________ milk (any kind)
• 1  ________________ vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
• 4 ________________ egg yolks
• ¹⁄₂ cups ________________ sugar
• 2 TBSP ________________ cornstarch
• For the Caramel Topping
• ¹⁄₂ cups ________________ sugar

Random tools:

• Piping bag with a small pointy tip (like the one meant for making leaves)

Instructions:

• Bring the milk to a simmer, with the vanilla bean and the seeds.
• Turn off the heat and let it steep for a few minutes.
• In a stand mixer, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.
• Add the cornstarch in.
• Beat till it’s nice a ribbony.
• Slowly add in the hot milk mixture to temper the egg.
• Take the mixture and put it back into the sauce pan (optionally, you can strain it at this point.)
• Over medium heat, cook the mixture till it starts to set up, then off the heat.
• Strain into another clean bowl, and let it cool before putting it in a piping bag.
• Fill the cream puffs, trying for the spot you poked to let the steam out.
• Caramel
• After all the cream puffs are filled, you make caramel to put on top.
• Get a clean sauce pan – short sides and wide is better.
• Place the pan over high heat, and sprinkle in just enough sugar to cover the bottom.
• When the sugar starts to liquefy, add a little bit in.
• Using a heat safe spatula, very very gently move the sugar around so it melts evenly, but doesn’t crystallize.
• Don’t worry if it starts to be caramel colored – just add more unmelted sugar, slowly and carefully.
• Once the sugar is all added, turn the heat off, but leave it on the hot burner.
• Quickly and carefully dip the cream puffs in the caramel
• I set them top down on silpats, but you can sit them right side up, just watch out for dripping caramel.