recipe notes
step-by-step method
recipe card
Pate a choux (pronounced pot-ah-shoo), or choux paste as it’s sometimes called, is one of the big foundation recipes of the craft, and once you get it into your bag of tricks there’s lots you can do with it. Things like chouquettes (cream puffs), profiteroles (cream puffs filled with ice cream), croque en bouche (a tower of cream puffs), gougeres (savory cream puffs) and other French words for cream puffs. But for reals, gougeres are like baked crack with cheese.
recipe notes
If your choux splits open during baking, it’s almost always because the oven is too hot or you have too much liquid in your dough. Excess heat means rapid expansion (in the form of steam) before proteins and starch in the dough have set or “gelled” enough to contain the pressure. Too much liquid means too much steam, so that no matter how sturdy the dough is, a rupture is inevitable to relieve the pressure. If you do get split choux, try changing your oven temperature first, and if that doesn’t work then look at the recipe or method.
I use bread flour in my recipe because it develops stronger gluten, which will create strong walls for containing steam, giving the choux better rise.
It’s common to add a bit more liquid to your dough at the very end of making it. I know, I know, I just got done saying that too much water can jack your recipe up, and that’s still true! But like a lot of pastry, it’s a delicate balance. Cook the dough a bit too long on the stove for instance, and you may take too much water out and need to add a little later in the game to get back to even. If it turns out that’s the case, just use a little warm milk until the consistency is right.
If you’re baking your choux in a deck oven, then you’ll want to open the vent about halfway through baking to release excess steam in the oven chamber. If you’re baking at home, your oven will likely be leaky enough that steam will naturally escape. Some people crack the door of their oven to simulate opening a vent, but I’ve found this to be largely unnecessary and alters the oven temperature too much.
Again, if baking in a deck oven, a quick injection of steam will help to give an initial rise to the choux and help to keep it from cracking. At home, I place a single ice cube in a metal bowl on the bottom rack of the oven when I put my choux in to bake.
pate a choux
150g water
150g whole milk
5g salt
5g sugar
140g butter unsalted
200g bread flour
300g whole eggs
Sift your flour before getting started. Combine the water, whole milk, salt, sugar and butter together in a sauce pot.
Bring the mix up to a boil (but not before all the butter is melted!) and turn off the heat.
Add the flour all at once. I use a whisk to begin to incorporate the flour, whisking from the center out until the mixture thickens. Then, switch to a spatula to finish incorporating all of the flour.
Turn the heat back on high and stir the dough until a thin film of cooked flour forms on the bottom of the pot, about 2min. Mixing the full length of time will help to dry the dough out as well as allow starch to gelatinize and protein to denature.
Transfer the dough to a stand mixer and mix with a paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing them to fully incorporate into the dough and scraping the bowl before adding more.
The dough is ready when it is smooth and shiny with slight elasticity.
Most of the egg has been added at this point, and the dough has begun to smooth out…
…but when checked, the dough lacks shine and elasticity. This dough is not quite ready yet.
This dough has the shine and elasticity we’re looking for. Ready to pipe!
Pipe your choux batter onto a sheetpan lined with parchment paper or a non-stick mat, giving the choux space from one another to allow proper airflow in the oven during baking.
Pipe the choux in a classic, staggered pattern to allow even airflow and baking. Don’t crowd the pan!
Brush the piped dough with egg wash before baking.
Bake: deck oven; 190C/375F; 15min vent closed, 15-20min vent open. If baking in a convection oven at home, bake at 375-380F; 15min, rotate the pan, 15-20min.
Voila! Beautiful little puffs to fill with whatever you damn well please. Stay tuned for lots or recipes on all the stuff I put in choux puffs!
- 150 g water
- 150 g whole milk
- 5 g salt
- 5 g sugar
- 140 g butter unsalted
- 200 g bread flour
- 300 g whole eggs
- Combine the water, whole milk, salt, sugar and butter together in a saucepot.
- Bring mixture to a boil and add the bread flour, mixing thoroughly until a dough is formed.
- Mix the dough over high heat until it is smooth and a thin film of cooked flour forms on the bottom of the pot, about 2min.
- Transfer the dough to a stand mixer and mix with a paddle attachment on medium speed until the dough cools slightly, about 3min.
- Add the whole eggs one at a time, allowing them to fully incorporate into the dough between additions.
- Pipe the dough as desired.
- Brush the piped pate a choux with egg wash.
- Bake: Preheat the oven to 400F/204C. Place the choux in the oven and throw 2T of water onto the preheated sheet pan to create steam. Quickly close the oven door and drop the temperature to 320F/160C. Bake for 25min or until golden brown with a firm, dry shell.
Thanks for this detailed post, Chef! What is a “deck oven”?
From what I have been seeing lately the baking procedure for éclairs is different? First the oven has to be heated up to a certain temp then éclairs go in and the heat is turned off, then after some time turn the oven back on, but under no circumstances the convection should be on? I think I got the theory part right!?
A deck oven is a specialized commercial oven used mostly for bread baking that has a dry, even heat and no air flow.
The differences in method that you may find are related to managing the heat level in your oven. Pate a choux baking too aggresively will rise and expand too quickly causing cracks. So the “on” and “off” method you describe is intended to keep the oven from getting too hot. You’re right about not turning a convection setting on, as the forced air will definitely bake the choux too quickly. Other than that, though, it’s really all about knowing your own oven. Some run hotter than others. When I bake choux at home I can keep the oven on the whole time. It will just take some experimenting when you bake in your oven to see what temperature will work best and weather or not you need to turn the oven off. That just means your friends and family will be enjoying a lot of cream puffs soon!
Thanks, Chef! Clearly I need to find a lot more friends.
Dear chef, I usually use W160/180 for pate a choux, you suggest bread flour, which W? Thank you Alessia
Hi Alessia,
To be honest, I’m not very familiar with European flour grades. I can tell you that the bread flour I use has a protein content of 12.5-13%. Does that help?
I will try your recipe and I’ll let you know how I did. Thanks
Great! Good luck!
Cheers – Chef Scott
Hi chef,
Thank you for the tutorial 🙂
I usually bake my choux pastry at deck oven but I encounter some problem. I would be grateful if you can shed some to light to it
Anyway, even though my deck oven doesn’t have a terrible hot spot, but whenever I bake my choux, I found out that the choux on the deeper side usually have darker color almost burn, this sometimes become disturbing especially if I want my choux shell to have lighter color. However, I was confused when will be the best time to rotate it. Also for crisper choux bottom, should I bake it on silpat or just go with nonstick baking tray?
Thank you
Hi,
Even the best ovens will be hotter toward the back of the oven where more heat is trapped. My deck oven in my kitchen at work does the same thing. At the end of the day a lot of it comes down to practice in terms of when to rotate. I like to look for the choux to be puffed and just slightly “sweating” (water and butter beading on the outside of the shell) before I turn them. In my oven that happens after about 15-20min. You can bake your choux on a silpat or on parchment paper, the parchment paper won’t insulate much heat and give you a crisper bottom and help the choux puff a little more aggressively.
Hope that helps!
Cheers – Chef Scott
Hi there. Im glad to find your post about choux pastry. I have a question about deck oven. What temperature do you set for bottom, or do you set both top ans bottom at 375?.
Thanks
Hi Fay,
I set both the top and bottom for 375F (actually I set them between 355-360 for a final temp of 375F because my deck oven has a lot of carry over heat). Hope that helps!
Cheers – Chef Scott
Hey, thanks for your lovely recipe and detailed description! I finally after practicing got to a stage when the top of my eclairs are super neat, no cracks whatsoever however I have a huge crack and “collapse” now exactly at the bottom in the middle of the eclair which is not ideal to fill them and also does not look nice. How can I get crispy neat “hard” bottom? Thanks
Hi Katalin,
I’ve just posted a video on making eclair, so I hope you check that out to maybe get some more tips on what might be causing any issues. It sounds like you have either reduced the oven temp or baking time a little too much in the hopes of eliminating any cracks in the top, and that the eclair are a little under baked on the bottom and then shrinking during cooling. Do you have any photos of the culprit eclairs? And just a few other investigative questions: temp and time of your baking? How are you piping the eclair (what type of piping tip)? We’ll figure this out and get crispy bottoms in no time!
Cheers – Chef Scott
Hi chef,
I tried your recipe step by step but the final mix came out very loose. I could even put it in the pastry bag. What went wrong? Thank you.
Hi Alexandra,
Almost certainly one of two things happened: 1. You incorrectly measured one of the liquid ingredients (water, milk or egg – it happens to all of us). or more likely 2. You did not cook the base mixture on the stove long enough. When you add the flour to the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt it is very important to cook the mixture on the stove top while stirring for 1-2minutes. This will allow water in the milk and water to evaporate but will also help the starch in the flour to gelatinize which will stiffen the mixture. If you simply mixed the ingredients until combined and then moved over to adding eggs, the mixture will come out too thin. Hope that helps!
Cheers – Chef Scott