Choux Pastry Cheese Puffs Food

PâTE à CHOUX FOR CHEESE PUFFS AND CREAM PUFFS

Steps:

• Put butter and salt in medium saucepan with 1 cup water, and bring to a boil. Add flour, and stir with wooden spoon or sturdy whisk until mixture comes together, about 1 minute. Lower heat and cook for 1 minute more.
• Transfer dough to bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix at medium speed to cool mixture slightly. Increase speed and begin to add eggs, one at a time. Make sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. After fourth egg has been added, beat for a minute more, until dough is smooth and glossy. Stop machine, add cayenne, nutmeg, pepper and grated cheese, then mix briefly to combine. (If you don't have a mixer, you can also beat the dough vigorously by hand.) Scrape down sides of bowl and remix, then put mixture in pastry bag.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees. Line two 12-by-18-inch baking sheets with parchment. On each sheet, pipe six rows of 1 1/2-inch-round mounds of dough, five to a row, with at least 1 inch of space between them. (If you prefer, use two soup spoons to put the dough on the sheet.) Brush each mound with beaten egg, smoothing the tops with a finger if not quite round.
• Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 degrees. Continue baking for about 25 minutes, turning baking sheets as necessary, until mounds are puffed, golden and crisp. Serve immediately or cool on a rack and reheat later.

CHOUX PASTRY (FOR CREAM PUFFS, ECLAIRS, ETC)

Steps:

• Chop butter, melt in water and just bring to boiling. Immediately add flour, and mix well with wooden spoon, until it forms a dough that leaves the side of the pan (it looks really gross and clumpy at first, but as you keep stirring it fixes itself). Remove from heat and cool 2 minutes.
• For a sweet pastry, add the sugar to the beaten eggs. Stir in the eggs, mixing until it look like dough again (this is gross at first too).
• Now you have many choices: using a pastry bag or spoon, shape the dough as desired (for puffs: use a spoon or pipe a mound, eclairs: pipe a line, rings: pipe a circle, profiteroles: pipe a mound w/star tip) onto a greased cookie sheet. Keep in mind that it will grow to aprox 3xs its size when done.
• Bake at 425 'til it looks crisp and golden, about 30 mins for half dollar sized puffs. Cut in half, or cut a slit in the side to let the steam escape- if you don't do this fairly quickly they get soggy inside.
• They save for a while in tupperware, unless they're filled. You are supposed to fill them with freshly whipped cream that has a touch of powdered sugar and vanilla or almond added in, but I just fill them with buttercream frosting because its cheaper and tastes pretty good too.

CREAM PUFFS (PUFFED SHELL OF CHOUX PASTRY)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Prepare baking sheets by greasing and flouring or by lining with Parchment.
• Place water and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the flour, cardamom and salt all at once and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Blend in the milk well. Remove pan from stove burner and stir in the eggs, one at a time, stirring well until completely blended.
• Mix in the Bakers' Ammonia well.
• Drop on cookie sheets about 3 to 4 inches apart. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.
• Cut one of the shells in half at the end of baking to make sure they have dried out enough. If not dried completely, turn the oven off, punch a small hole in the bottoms of the shells, and place them back upside down in the oven to dry out for about 10 minutes. If the insides of the pastry shells are still very moist you may want to bake the shells longer so the shells won't deflate when you take them out of the oven.
• Allow to cool completely before filling.
• Fill with chocolate, vanilla or any flavor custard you enjoy!

PETITS CHOUX AU FROMAGE OU GOUGERES (CHEESE PUFFS)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Line 2 aluminum baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Combine the water, olive oil and salt in a saucepan over high heat and bring to boil. Add the sifted flour all at once and stir well.
• Cook the mixture, stirring constantly to break up any lumps, and until the dough begins to come away from the sides of the pan, approximately 5 minutes.
• Immediately transfer the dough to a *mixing bowl of a stand up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat the dough on medium speed to cool to room temperature.
• *(I used standard mixing bowl and electric beaters.).
• Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg is added. You want a stiff but pliable texture to the dough.
• Finally, add the gruyere cheese and black pepper. Continue mixing for 1 minute.
• Using a greased teaspoon, drop the dough 2" apart onto the baking sheet. (You can alternatively use a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip and pipe the dough into 1" diameter balls 2" apart onto the baking sheet.).
• Bake until golden brown and puffed, about 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 degrees and continue baking the puffs until cooked through, about another 20-25 minutes.

PATE A CHOUX (CREAM PUFF PASTRY)

Steps:

• Place a bowl on your mixer and fit the paddle attachment to it.
• Put your eggs next to the mixer.
• Mix the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt in a 2-quart saucepan.
• Bring to a full boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
• Stirring constantly, add the flour all at once, and stir quickly and without stopping until the flour is thoroughly incorporated.
• Then continue to cook and stir for another 45 seconds, or until the dough comes into a ball and a light film of paste coats the bottom of the pan.
• Immediately scrape the dough into the bowl of your mixer, and turn the mixer on low speed.
• Let it mix for a minute or two - the first few turns of the paddle will put up a cloud of steam.
• That's fine.
• Just let it mix until no more steam is coming off the dough.
• Then add the first egg, letting it mix in fully before adding the next one.
• Keep the mixer on low speed - you don't want to incorporate too much air into the paste.
• Scrape down the bowl every 2nd egg just to make sure everything is mixing together.
• Before adding the 6th egg, stop the mixer and check the consistency of the dough.
• You will know it is perfect if, when you lift the paddle, it pulls the dough with it, then the dough breaks away and forms a peak that slowly bends down.
• If the dough is too thick and doesn't form that peak, add the last egg.
• The dough is now ready to be used to make éclairs, cream puffs, profiteroles, or any other recipe calling for choux paste.
• It should be used immediately.
• NOTES FOR MAKING CHOUX PASTE SUCCESSFULLY: The liquid must be heated to a full boil.
• Add the flour all at once and stir madly until every last speck of flour is incorporated, then keep cooking and stirring some more - it's this last bit of cooking that will take the raw taste out of the flour; you'll know you are ready to quit when the dough forms a ball around your wooden spoon and the bottom of the pan is covered with a light film of paste.
• Stop mixing when you still have one egg left to add and inspect the dough.
• Depending on the condition of the flour, the room, or the moods of the pastry gods, the dough may or may not need the last egg.
• The dough is finished when you lift the paddle and it pulls up some dough that then detaches and forms a slowly bending peak - if you don't get a peak, add another egg.
• And relax.
• Even if you can't decide what to do, add the egg - you will still get a good puff.
• Use the paste while it is warm.
• It cannot be kept.
• Unfilled puffs or éclairs can be well wrapped and frozen for a few weeks.