Choux pastry is a light, eggy, slightly sweet pastry that becomes hollow when it cooks. It is the base for desserts like cream puffs and eclairs. Everyone always talks about how difficult choux pastry is to master because so many things can go wrong. So this post is dedicated to making perfect choux pastry that will work for you every time! And once you master making basic cream puffs, you can work your way to your own creations. Like my life-changingly good Peanut Butter Oreo Cream Puffs – recipe here.
The first step to mastering choux is getting the dough right. The technique is to cook water, butter, salt, a little sugar, and flour in a saucepan first. When this dough comes together, you let it cool slightly and then beat in the eggs one at a time.
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- This is what choux pastry should look like when it’s ready in the pan (at this point it’s just flour, water, butter, salt, and sugar)
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- This is what choux should look like once all of the eggs have been added and it’s ready for piping
In the photos above, you can see what choux pastry should look like at different stages. When you are cooking the flour, water, butter, salt, and sugar in the saucepan, it is ready when it starts to form a smooth dough that pulls away from the sides. Once it has a cooled slightly, it can then be transferred to the stand mixer for the eggs to be added one at a time. After the first egg or two, the mixture may look curdled (and that’s fine!!) just keep adding the eggs! Once you add your last egg, let the mixture beat until it is smooth, like the image above. Then you are ready to prepare for piping!
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- Put piping bag in a large glass
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- Fold over the tops so it is secure on the glass
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- Add the dough
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- Remove from the glass, twist the top, and when you’re ready, cut off the bottom to begin piping
Using a piping bag can be tricky (and messy!) but the technique shown above, is a foolproof way to fill and prepare your piping bag. If you are using a reuseable piping bag that is open at the bottom, you can use the same trick! The only change is that when you are placing the piping bag in the glass, be sure to point the open tip up. Once you have your piping bag squared away, it is time to pipe out your choux! For eclairs, you will want to make longer thin lines, but in the photos below I will show you how to make cream puffs.
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- Piped choux pastry
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- Egg wash for choux to make them shiny!
When baking, the cream puffs will puff pretty high up, but not very far out. So you can pipe them about an inch and a half apart and be fine. You want your mounds to be about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. If you get small peaks on the top of your mounds – don’t worry! If you put some water on your finger, you can press down on them lightly to remove them. Once you have piped all of your puffs, brush some egg wash on top of each one. This will help make them shiny when they are taken out of the oven!
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- Baked cream puffs
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- When the puffs are finished baking, slice one in half to make sure it is hollow
When you finish cooking your cream puffs, test one by slicing it in half. If it is hollow in the center and there are no longer any soft pieces of dough, they are ready to go! You want the centers to be hollow so they can be filled to the brim with cream. Now you’re ready to make your cream puff dreams come true! Try turning these into my Peanut Butter Oreo cream puffs – recipe here.
Perfect Choux Pastry
- Making choux pastry can be daunting - but with this recipe, you will make perfect choux every time! Be sure to read my tips in the post above to prepare yourself for making your cream puffs.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted room temperature butter, cut into cubes
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup plus 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 4 extra large eggs plus 1 for egg wash
- 1 cup water plus 1 tbsp for egg wash
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
- In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the butter, sugar, salt, and 1 cup water. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.
- Once the mixture is a at a boil, remove from heat and quickly add the flour, stirring vigorously.
- Return to heat and mix until a dough forms that is smooth and starts to pull away from the sides.
- Transfer the dough to a stand mixer and allow to cool for 6-8 minutes.
- With the mixer on medium, add the four eggs, one at a time. After the first few eggs, the mixture will look curdled. Don't worry! After the last egg, the mixture will smooth out.
- After adding the last egg, use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then beat the dough for an additional 2 minutes.
- Transfer the mixture to a piping bag (tips in the post above!) and pipe 1 1/2 inch rounds on the prepared baking sheets.
- Whisk together the last egg with the 1 tbsp of water to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash on top of the dough mounds.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until the choux has puffed up and is golden brown all over. You can test a puff by cutting it open. It should be dry and hollow in the center.
- Transfer the puffs to a cooling rack.
- Poke a hole in the bottom of each puff (you can use a skewer, cake tester, knife, or piping tip) to allow the steam to escape.
- Once the puffs are cooled, you can fill them with cream.
