It is an important paste that in not only used to prepare sweet and savory cream puffs, but is also complementary to many preparations. To succeed to prepare it, you need a long and patient handwork that can still be made through the use of a small electric ‘mixer’ for domestic use.
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The ingredients for the dough preparation are as follows: 300 g of flour, 140 g of butter, 10 eggs, 4 dl water, a pinch of salt. The suitable vessel for the preparation of choux pastry is the typical round-bottomed copper pan with a single handle.
Uses of the choux pastry
Salted puffs (pate a choux)
Puffs are stuffed with the delicate farce, based on various mousses, then glazed with a Mornay sauce with mushrooms or truffles and then pass it to the oven for a slight browning. Should be served hot. You can also fill a variety of cheese fondues, to cream truffles, mushrooms, artichokes, peas, asparagus tips, etc.
The eclairs
Puffs are larger, their shape is elongated oval and are cut diagonally, stuffed and then treated as the cream puffs.
Sweet puffs (Bignole)
The choux pastry is never usually sweetened, and desserts will be the filling (whipped cream or custard, or chocolate cream, or almond cream, or eggnog, etc..) And the icing, which can be made using sugar dark, blond or sugar, that is cooked to the degree of caramel.
Saint Honoré
It is a classical preparation. Prepare a disk of puff pastry over and there lies the same size as a donut for choux pastry filled with whipped cream. Above this donut there will be fixed , with caramelized sugar, a ring of cream puffs filled with whipped cream too. Lastly, the center is filled with “whipped”cream that should deploy in regular rows with pastry bag.
Other uses of choux pastry
In the preparation of dumplings with meat, poultry and fish. The preparation of “patate dauphine”.
Gnocchi alla Parigina (baked potato noodles)
With a pastry bag there are pressed over the water to boil the choux pastrywhich are about the size of a finger, and from 3 to 10 cm long (the shorter solution is the longer one).
When they are inflated and have come to the surface, remove water with a slotted spoon and pass it in a pan, forming a single layer. It is sprinkled with a juice and a tasty Mornay sauce,then put into the oven for a slight browning and serve hot.
