I have made choux pastry a number of times and they are not easy to fail, but it is tricky to get that balance where you cook enough to dry the pastry or end up burning them. I saw some profiteroles online, made into cute cartoon characters like keropi and even hello kitty. I decided on the panda, though I think mine looks a little lopsided. I’ll be sharing about the panda profiteroles in another post. Good try though. hehe So here’s the recipe I always use.
Ingredients
- 190ml tap water
- 150g plain flour
- 100g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 65ml milk
- 8g sugar
- 3g salt
- 3 whole eggs, lightly beaten (may not need to use all)
- 1 egg yolk for egg wash
Method
- Line baking trays with baking paper and preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
- Heat water, milk, butter, sugar and salt till boiling.
- Remove pot from heat and add the flour all at once and stir vigorously with wooden spoon, making sure that there is no lumps.
- Bring the pot with the flour back to low heat and heat till you get a glossy dough (panade) that pulls away easily from the side of the pot. This will take about 2-3 minutes.
- Place the panade into a mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment and mix at slow speed to cool the panade down. Do this for about 5 minutes.
- Pour the egg a little at a time while the mixer is still mixing till you get a thick, smooth and glossy paste. When you hold the paste with a spatula, it should fall from the spatula after 3 seconds. It must be able to fall from the spatula on it’s own, but also be thick enough to hold it’s shape. You may not need to add all the eggs.
- Place the choux paste in a piping bag fitted with a plain round nozzle. Pipe the paste on the prepared trays. If the top of the choux needs to be flattened, wet your fingers lightly and press the tip down gently.
- Egg wash the choux pastry and bake in preheated oven of 180 degrees for about 40 to 45 minutes.
- Remove the baked choux buns from the oven and poke a hole in the bottom of each profiterole to release the steam.
- Use this immediately and fill with cream or the unfilled choux buns can be stored in the freezer for up to a month.
- To use the frozen pastry, heat in preheated oven of 180 degrees for about 5 to 10 minutes before filling with desired fillings.