Choux pastry (pronounced ‘shoo’ pastry) is a commonly created light and airy French pastry dough that is used to create many different variations of pastries.
WATCH NOW: How to make crispy choux pastry.
Created by using simple household ingredients such as butter, water, flour, and eggs, the recipe relies on using rising steam from eggs to create a hollow centre within the pastry that is often filled with either sweet or savoury ingredients.
While you may have indulged in a choux pastry or two in your time or may have even previously attempted to make your own choux pastries in the past, it’s likely you didn’t realise your pastries were in fact choux pastries.
So what is the secret to choux pastry? Scroll on for more…
What is the French name for choux pastry?
Choux pastry, also known as pâte à choux, means ‘cabbage’ in friends. So, in other words, choux pastry actually means cabbage pastry.
The pastry was given its namesake due to its resemblance to baby cabbages after being baked.
What are the variations of choux pastry?
There are many different types of choux pastry that you can bake at home. These include profiteroles, churros, eclairs, puffs, beignets, chouquettes, zeppoles, gougère and more.
How do you make choux pastry?
The experts at The Australian Women’s Weekly have tried and tested the below choux pastry recipe.
Ingredients
- 75 grams unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup (180ml) water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (110g) cake flour
- 4 eggs
Method
- Preheat oven to 220°C fan forced. Lightly grease two oven trays.
- Combine the butter with water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Add flour and beat with a wooden spoon over heat until the mixture comes away from the base and the side of your saucepan and forms a smooth ball.
- Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and beat in the eggs with an electric mixer until glossy.
- Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain tube and pipe out your chosen choux pastry (eg long line for eclair). Alternatively, drop rounded teaspoons of the dough 3cm apart onto the prepared trays.
