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| Some of the croquembouche towers made over the past year |
Choux pastry, however, is something that can go wrong. Quite easily if you're not paying attention. The pastry section of the kitchen is the only one I never trained in formally, so I have taught myself everything.
Here's a few tips I've learned on choux pastry.
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| Piping eclairs just before the guests sit down for their starter - pressure for fresher! |
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| Spreading chocolate on profiteroles (2009) |
i - Too much egg. The size of your eggs also makes a big difference - small eggs and you might need more, large eggs and you might need less, so in this case add less egg to begin with: you can always add more, but you can't take it out.
ii - You haven't beaten the mix enough. Beat it up! Air is everything with choux pastry. Once you add the flour to the hot water & butter you should let it cook out on a low heat beating it ferociously with a whisk. I used to do this by hand - but on the dairy dinner Ms Marmitelover turned the choux paste into the Kitchen Aid and beat it up fast for a few minutes that way. When I was making the gluten free profiteroles below last week I did both - starting it off by beating by hand on the heat so the gluten free flour could cook out, then transferred to the electric mixing machine to beat it for a few minutes, then added the egg, then kept beating for another couple of minutes for good measure. Maximise the air in there! Produced such a good result!
iii - Too much flour (different brands of flour - even different batches of the same brand can make a difference. They all have different properties - for some you need less, some more to achieve the desired result. Small things like this seem to matter when you're making choux pastry.
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| Gluten free profiteroles |
i - Re-beat the choux pastry in the electric mixing machine. If your choux pastry tester comes out of the oven risen, but falls flat as soon as it cools this is down to the mix not being beaten up enough. The day after the dairy meal I was baking more profiteroles for another croquembouche and this happened. Probably not enough beating by hand - tired. There was just under 1 hour to go before I had to leave for the party - really no time to give up and start again so I transferred that choux pastry to the Kenwood mixer and beat it on high power for a few minutes to get more air in it. They came out perfect that time!
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| Banoffee eclair (back) for an assiette of mini desserts and mini cheese courses - couldn't find a banoffee eclair recipe so made my own - was very popular! |
ii - Add in another water-butter-flour mix to your choux pastry. If your choux pastry tester comes out flat and heavy this may, quite possibly be due to too much egg. This happened to me the other day - I had overestimated on how much smaller the eggs I had were and consequently added too much egg. Again I was on a strict time limit - almost time to go out and cook for a hen party, so no time to completely throw it away and start again, and, with butter at £1.25+ a pack it's all money too! This was a triple mix (3 times recipe) so I made a single water/butter/ flour mix, beat it in the Kenwood machine and incorporated it into the too-much-egg mix to thicken it up. Did the trick!
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| Assiette of dessert 2009 with chocolate eclair at the back |
Gluten free profiteroles? Yes you can! They turn out really well with this recipe - you can always rely on Doves Farm recipes.
Gluten free vegan profiteroles? Yes you can also do these! I did them for a couple of guests last year - one was vegan the other gluten free so I combined the 2 using this recipe but changing the flour for Doves Farm gluten free self raising flour. Then used this recipe for 'whipped cream' from coconut milk - so nice I almost prefer it over normal cream! Then a chocolate sauce made from vegan chocolate and coconut milk. Gluten and vegan people you're worth it!
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