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Baked Pâte à Choux

5.0(189)

A piping bag (an inexpensive investment, and it lasts forever) is the easiest way to form the dough into whatever shape you choose, but you can always use a plastic freezer bag with one corner snipped off, or two spoons. The imperfections that occur with a plastic bag or spoons can be repaired by dipping your finger into water and smoothing out the rough spots.

by Mark Bittman

Open original recipe

FrenchBreakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Dessert

Servings

(2–4)

Total time

Calories / serving

42 kcal

Ingredients (4)

serves

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus a little more for greasing the baking sheetbutter
Saltsalt
1 cup flourflour
4 eggsegg

Instructions (4 steps)

01Heat oven to 400 and grease a baking sheet with butter. Put the butter and a pinch of salt in a saucepan over high heat; add 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and add all the flour at once; stir constantly until the mixture pulls away from the pan and forms a ball, about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the eggs one at a time; use an electric mixer if you like, and beat until the mixture is smooth. (At this point, you can cover the dough and refrigerate it for up to two days.)
02If you’re planning on piping out the dough, scoop it into a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch tip, or a plastic freezer bag with a corner cut off. Pipe the pastry onto the baking sheet, or just use two spoons to form your desired shape. Cream puffs should be circles about 1 inch wide and a little over 1 inch tall; éclairs should be 3-to-4-inch fingers, about 1 inch wide.
03Bake until the pastries are golden brown, nicely puffed up and sound hollow when you tap on them, about 30 minutes for cream puffs and 40 minutes for éclairs. Use a skewer to prick one or two holes in each one to allow the steam to escape; transfer to a rack and let cool to room temperature.