Profiteroles, eclairs, choux buns are made from light, airy, crispy choux pastry. Such a dough rises in the oven, increasing in volume several times.

Custards become airy due to the large amount of water in the dough. When steam is formed inside the dough, it rises high up. A large cavity appears inside the products, which is filled with various fillings, creams. Custard cakes have a smooth shiny surface. Choux pastry is also used to make donuts, which are fried in a large amount of oil.

Choux pastry - general principles and methods of preparation

To prepare such a dough, you do not need to have any long experience. It does not roll out and does not knead by hand. Profiteroles can be spooned onto the roasting pan or squeezed out with a piping bag. To make the dough successful, you need to know only two rules:

- the dough must have a certain temperature - about 70-80 degrees to be hot enough, but not to fold the eggs;
Eggs must be warmed to at least room temperature before being introduced.

Before baking, the dough is reheated, or "boiled". In addition to flour, the composition of the dough includes water, butter, margarine, eggs. The number of eggs is selected depending on the amount of flour. It is due to the eggs that the dough becomes loose, rises and is filled with air. Do not add too much sugar to the dough so that it does not caramelize during heating.

Choux pastry - the best recipes:

Choux pastry for cheese eclairs

This is a quick recipe for yeast-free choux pastry. Whoever dares to try it will not be able to remain indifferent to unusual eclairs cooked with cheese and hot peppers (with unsweetened fillings). You can choose any fillings - meat, sweet, cream or vegetable. Fry or bake eclairs in the oven - this is just an incomparable version of choux pastry.

Ingredients: water (250 grams), salt, butter (100 grams, you can take margarine), flour (200 grams), hard cheese (150 grams), paprika (1 tsp), cumin, eggs (5 pieces).

Cooking method:
The usual custard dough begins with the dissolution of butter in water. Pour the flour into the boiling liquid and mix thoroughly. Remove fire and cool. We drive in the eggs one at a time, kneading well after each, rub the cheese into the finished dough and pour in the paprika. If you turn on the fantasy, you can add dried herbs. Fans of spicy, can add ground or hot pepper instead of paprika. The amount of cheese is also arbitrary. But it is simply impossible to spoil eclairs with cheese.

Put the dough on a baking sheet using a pastry bag. The easiest option is to use a regular spoon dipped in water. Sprinkle with cumin and coarse salt. Bake at 220 degrees until golden brown. The main rule when baking is not to open the oven for 10-15 minutes. If the temperature in the oven is too high, the products will first swell, and then they may fall off. If the temperature is too low, cakes do not rise well. Put a little water on the bottom of the oven - then the dough will rise higher.

Choux pastry for cakes with whipped cream

According to this recipe, you can get 12-14 blanks for cakes very quickly. It's easy to fill them with whipped egg whites and sprinkle them with nuts, for example.

Ingredients: butter (50 grams), water (250 grams), salt, flour (150 grams), eggs (4 pcs.).

Cooking method:
We heat water in a saucepan, add salt and butter, heat it up, without bringing the liquid to a boil. We immediately pour all the flour into the pan right on the fire. Stir with a whisk until a lump forms. Knead the dense dough in a lump in a circle for another 2 minutes, as a result, it should separate well from the walls of the pan. Transfer it to a bowl and break the eggs one at a time. Mix the dough, stir it in a circle for 5 minutes. It should be smooth and creamy. Ideally, the custard dough is homogeneous, shiny, and falls off the whisk in long pieces. In a preheated oven to a temperature of 200 degrees, lay out the cakes of the desired shape at a distance so that when baking they do not connect, changing the volume. Bake 30-35 minutes.

Choux pastry for donuts

Delicious tender donuts are fried in a large amount of fat. You will not even have time to fry them, as they will be solemnly eaten by your family.

Ingredients: a glass of water, butter (80 grams), eggs (4 pieces), salt, flour (1 cup), oil for frying.
Cream: 1 cup milk, sugar (0.5 cups), butter (150 grams), vanilla, egg.

Cooking method:
We select suitable dishes and heat the oil in water to about 70-80 degrees, add salt. Remove from heat, stir with a spoon. Put back on the fire, stir the dough until it begins to lag behind the bottom and walls of the pan. Remove from heat, cool slightly and beat in the eggs one at a time until it is smooth and shiny. Heat up oil for frying. Drop the dough into the boiling oil with a teaspoon. There should be a lot of oil, it is desirable that the pieces of dough float and sink in it.

Cream: dissolve the egg in a small saucepan, rub it with sugar and flour. Dilute milk, put on fire. Stirring, cook until thickened, cool and beat with butter. The temperature should not be lower than room temperature. Let the donuts cool, cut and decorate with cream.

— For choux pastry, the quality of the eggs is very important. To make sure they are fresh, you can conduct a test: dip the egg into a glass of water. A stale egg will not stay at the bottom of the glass, but will float up. Eggs that pop up blunt end up should not be used at all.

- Choux pastry does not need to be kneaded with a mixer or combine - if you get carried away too much, it will not be able to rise. The dough should not be thick or runny so that it rises well in the oven, it should double in size.

- Softer and lighter products are obtained from flour with a reduced gluten content.

- Butter can be replaced with margarine or concentrated fats, but it is better, of course, to use natural ingredients. Butter helps cakes rise while baking in the oven.

The main thing when working with choux pastry (however, as with many other types of it) is strict adherence to the proportions of ingredients and cooking technology. This process must be brought to automaticity, measured and cooked many times, only then eclairs, profiteroles or Shu cakes will turn out porous, airy, with a confident crust and a slightly salty taste.

Unfortunately, in our time, the fact that choux pastry can be cooked not only can be slightly forgotten. Previously, small profiteroles were baked as a side dish for broths, to which grated cheese and aromatic herbs were added. Recipes for pies made from choux yeast dough have also been preserved in cookery books - they turn out to be lush, tender, with a smooth, shiny crust.

Choux pastry features

This dough is called custard due to the fact that in the process of its preparation, flour is brewed. For this, flour with a gluten content of 28-30%, oil and water are used. Flour and water are recommended to be taken in equal quantities, and oil is half as much. From the point of view of confectionery technology, the preparation of choux pastry consists of the following stages: preparation of custard, its cooling, adding eggs and kneading the dough, then molding the products and baking.

Welding flour allows the dough to retain a sufficiently large amount of liquid and at the same time keep its shape and not blur. The fact is that during the addition of flour to a boiling mixture of water, oil and salt, when it is stirred, water shells form around the flour particles, allowing the starch to swell evenly. In the future, during baking, due to the swollen starch, a crust quickly forms on the dough. At the same time, the moisture contained in it turns into steam and, held back by this crust, increases the dough in volume (although then it still breaks through the outer crust, forming small cracks). That is why choux pastry products contain so many voids inside.

cooking secrets

So, at the first stage of preparing the dough, water is mixed with oil and salt and, with stirring, is brought to a boil. As soon as the mixture boils, add flour to it and, without removing the container from the fire, knead the tea leaves with a spatula until cooked. If this is not done, the tea leaves will burn and a crust will form on it, which will negatively affect the quality of the products in the future. The main task at this stage is to evaporate excess liquid from the tea leaves, since initially it has a viscous consistency, and mix it thoroughly. A good finished tea leaves should be homogeneous, the consistency is sufficiently elastic and without lumps, have a light color and easily lag behind the walls of the container.

The finished tea leaves must be removed from the heat and cooled to 65-70 ° C so that the eggs introduced into it do not curl. It is recommended to add eggs one at a time to better control the consistency of the dough.

When preparing a recipe for dough or desserts, the mass of one egg is conventionally taken as 50 g; in practice, eggs can have different masses and be less or more than the established ideal. In this case, an increase in the mass of eggs in the custard dough can lead to its excess liquid and, as a result, fallen products, so the eggs are introduced gradually. Too thick dough consistency is also not correct. In this case, the surface of the products will be torn, and they themselves will only slightly increase in volume.

The finished dough should flow off the spatula in the form of a triangle. The products themselves, depending on their type, are formed using a pastry bag with a round or notched nozzle. Finished products are deposited directly on sheets covered with baking paper and greased with oil or grease. If the sheets are not lubricated, the products will stick to them and tear when separated. If there is too much oil or fat, the products will blur and will not be able to fully rise.

Baking rate

Products from choux pastry are baked for the first 12-15 minutes at a temperature of 220 ° C, then at 190 ° C. For cakes, the baking time is 32-40 minutes, for cakes - up to 35 minutes. At a lower baking temperature, the products do not rise enough, at a higher temperature they are obtained with breaks on the surface. The main signs of the readiness of products are a light brown crust and elasticity (the product should not bend and fall off when pressed). Before filling the finished product with cream, it must be dried so that it does not settle when cooled, and only then cooled.

What are the main mistakes that can be made in the process of preparing the dough?

1. If the dough is too thin (insufficient flour, too many eggs, weak gluten flour), the product will not rise.

2. If the dough is too thick (increased proportions of flour, insufficient number of eggs, insufficient dough kneading time), then in this case the products will turn out with a torn surface.

How to make choux pastry at home? - Recipe with photo:

We take a saucepan or just a small saucepan with a thick bottom and pour milk and water into it. To the resulting mixture, add butter (it is better to cut it into small pieces beforehand, so it will melt faster), as well as a pinch of salt and sugar.

We put the saucepan on a small fire and, stirring the mixture from time to time, we make sure that the butter is completely melted. Bring the resulting solution to a boil.

In the meantime, the mixture is boiling, be sure to get rid of possible lumps and impurities, sift 150 g of flour.

Pour all the sifted flour into the boiling oil solution.

Without removing the saucepan from the heat, actively mix the mass with a wooden spoon or spatula. We mix the mass until all the flour is brewed and we have a homogeneous lump of dough that will lag behind the walls of the saucepan.

We shift the resulting lump of dough into a container in which we will knead the choux pastry for eclairs and slightly knead it with a spoon, making sure that the dough cools to warm.

As soon as it cools down (we check the temperature by touch - the custard dough should be warm, but not burned), add eggs to it. First, one at a time, introduce 3 whole chicken eggs. After each new egg, stir the dough very carefully until completely homogeneous.

First, break the last fourth egg into a small bowl and lightly beat it with a fork. And already in this form we mix in small portions into the custard dough. It is necessary to do this in order not to be mistaken with the consistency of the dough, since flour can be of different strengths, and eggs can also differ quite a lot in their weight. Therefore, you may not need a whole egg, but only half, or vice versa, if your eggs are small, then in order to make choux pastry at home, you may need 5 or even 6 eggs. Therefore, you need to focus on the consistency of the dough! By the way, if you went too far with the number of eggs, and the dough turned out to be very liquid, in no case do not add “raw” flour, this will only spoil the dough. The only way to save such a dough is to re-prepare the custard base and thicken the batter with it!

The correct choux pastry for eclairs turns out to be smooth, shiny, moderately thick, and it flows from a spoon with a heavy wide ribbon. Well, that's all, our custard dough at home is ready.

We shift it into a pastry bag or syringe, and if neither is available, then we use a tight bag or a brand new stationery file with a cut off corner.

Depending on the idea, we form eclairs, profiteroles or rings from the dough. Just do not forget that during baking, choux pastry products increase quite a lot, so be sure to leave 4-5 cm of free space between them.

We bake products from choux pastry first at 200 C for 15 minutes (during this time the dough should rise and begin to blush slightly), after which we reduce the temperature to 160 C and dry the eclairs / profiteroles for another 20-25 minutes until they are completely ready. Baking time may vary slightly depending on the specifics of your particular oven and, of course, the size of the products. During baking, we do not expose the product to a sharp temperature drop, especially the first 20-25 minutes, as this can cause the eclairs to fall off. And it is also very important to completely bake the eclairs inside, because otherwise, after baking, they will also fall off and lose their appearance. As soon as the eclairs / profiteroles are ready, turn off the heat and slightly open the oven door, in this form let the cakes cool to warm (this is not necessary, but if suddenly you haven’t baked the custards a little, then this cooling method will help you cook them) .

Completely cooled eclairs / profiteroles fill with your favorite cream. In addition to the sweet option, eclairs can also be filled with savory fillings, such as pâtés, mousses or even salads. Serve filled eclairs to the table, preferably as soon as possible. We hope that our recipe with a photo gave you an exhaustive answer to the question of how to make choux pastry at home!

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Servings: 10 brownies (approximately 5 servings)

How to cook choux pastry at home, a step by step recipe with a photo:

Step 1. Boil water in a heavy bottomed pot.

Step 2. Put the butter cut into pieces into boiling water.

The butter can be melted beforehand, but you can add it whole, hot water will dissolve it in a couple of minutes.

Do not replace butter with margarine! So the cakes will turn out not only more fatty, but may not rise.

Step 3. In boiling water with butter, without removing the pan from the heat, pour the flour. All at once. And stir vigorously so that no lumps form.

The dough should become very dense and elastic. Knead the dough for another 2 minutes over medium heat.

The dough is called custard, because we boil its base on fire and subsequently it turns out to be very dense on the outside and hollow inside.

Step 4. Remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes. Then add the eggs: one at a time, thoroughly knead the choux pastry after each egg added.

Step 5. On average, about 4 eggs are used per serving of dough, but, depending on their size, you may need more or less.

As soon as the choux pastry begins to be pulled with a whisk or fork, it is ready, even if it seems too thick.

Step 6. Put the choux pastry on parchment paper with a spoon, pastry bag or syringe, giving it the desired shape. For eclairs - long sticks, for profiteroles and shu - balls.

Keep in mind that the dough will rise during baking, so place the blanks at a respectful distance from each other.

Step 7. Bake the custard dough in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes until a confident golden crust.

The custard dough is capricious and can fall off during baking. To avoid this:

1. Preheat the oven in advance, even during the preparation of the dough;
2. Do not lower the temperature in the oven before the eclairs rise and the crust begins to darken;
3. Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes.

If you did everything right, you should have tall and hollow eclairs with a firm, crispy crust that make a great base for crab-stuffed profiteroles or sweet custard eclairs!

Bon appetit!

Choux pastry requires some time to prepare, but in contrast, we can say about its undoubted advantage - tenderness and aroma. Choux pastry is used for various purposes, and the nuances of its preparation for various uses are described below.

Choux pastry for dumplings is prepared in a matter of minutes. You can also use dough for dumplings with any filling.

You will need the following list:

• baking flour - 3 cups;
• boiling water - 1 ½ glasses;
• table egg;
• oil 3 table. l.;
• salt (fine).

Mix half the flour with salt, sift into a deep bowl, in which it will be convenient to knead the dough. In the center of the resulting slide, we make a small depression and pour oil and water that has boiled by this time into it. Knead the dough with a spoon, trying to stir all the lumps.

Leave the resulting mass to cool slightly, and in the meantime, beat the egg in a separate bowl. Add it to the dough when the custard mass has cooled a little, otherwise the egg may curl. We mix everything well.

Sift the second half of the flour on the table, make a recess in the center again. Put the dough into it and knead. We roll the well-kneaded dough into a ball, put it back in the bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let the dough rest for at least half an hour. You can leave it for 1-2 hours, but at the same time make sure that the fabric is constantly wet.

How to cook for eclairs?

Almost everyone knows and loves sweet delicate eclairs. They are not difficult to prepare at home.

Below we will tell you how to cook choux pastry for eclairs:

• drain oil. - 100 gr;
• baking flour - 1 cup;
• water - 1 stack;
• salt;
• eggs - 4.

Melt the butter in water, warming the mass over low heat. Add salt and slowly bring to a boil. At this stage, add flour, stirring constantly with a spoon. As a result, in just a few minutes you will get a soft custard dough. Remove the container with the dough from the stove and let it cool slightly, 10 minutes is enough. Next, we drive in all the eggs in turn, stirring with a spoon.

For ready dough for eclairs, it is enough to bake for about 20-25 minutes. We focus on the golden appetizing shade of eclairs.

Dough recipe for chebureks

Choux pastry for chebureks, tender, tasty, light, is prepared from the following products:

• 1.5 stack. boiling water;
• ½ tsp salt;
• 1 table. l. post oil;
• 4 stack flour;
• egg.

Dilute salt and oil in boiling water, add half a glass of flour and dilute it until the lumps dissolve. Allow the brewed mass to cool, then sift the flour and beat in the last egg. Knead the dough - it should turn out soft, tender, not sticky to your hands and work surface.

Choux pastry for pancakes with milk

Custard pancakes are more tender and fragrant than by simply mixing room temperature products.

Such pancakes are prepared from the following components:

• 600 ml of medium fat milk;
• 200 ml of boiling water;
• 3 eggs;
• 300 gr flour;
• 30 ml. fast. oils;
• a little salt and sugar;
• a pinch of baking soda.

First you need to beat the eggs and sugar well, increasing the speed of the mixer. In this case, the eggs should be cold - so they will beat better. Further, boiling water and milk are added to the mass, and flour is introduced at the end. All products are added with continuous beating of the mass. At the end, a little oil is introduced, the mass is mixed. The dough can be left for 15-20 minutes to infuse a little or you can immediately use the dough for pancakes by baking them in a pan.

For pies

Pies on custard dough are airy, tender. The dough is suitable for savory fillings. For sweet pastries, at the first stage of cooking, add a little sugar - about a tablespoon without a slide.

• flour - 3 stacks;
• hot water - 1 cup;
• post oil - 2 table. l.;
• salt - a couple of pinches.
• Step by step the dough is prepared as follows:
• To boil water.
• Dilute salt in water.

Flour is sifted in a bowl, a depression is made in the center, water is poured into it and the dough is kneaded - first with a spoon, then by hand. Leave for half an hour so that the flour gluten absorbs moisture.

Add oil, knead the dough. Use the dough for pies, rolls or pies.

Variation for manti

A simple tender dough for manti, obedient and elastic, it is very easy to cook it yourself. It is easily rolled into a thin layer and does not tear when forming manti.

To prepare it, you will need the following products:

• flour - 2-2.5 stack. (orient by consistency);
• water - 1 stack;
• salt - half a teaspoon l.;
• post oil - 3 table. l.

The dough preparation scheme is similar to the previous ones - first, water is heated, then salt and oil are added to it, and flour is introduced last, after removing the pan from the stove. To begin with, half of the flour is introduced, and after the dough is laid out on the table and kneaded with the second half. The finished dough ball is wrapped in a film or placed in a bag and placed in the refrigerator for half an hour or an hour while the filling is being prepared.

For profiteroles

Profiteroles are delicious. a delicate dough confection that can be stuffed with any filling and served either as a dessert for tea or as an appetizer for a feast.

Choux pastry for profiteroles is prepared from the following products:

• flour - ¾ stack;
• drain. oil - 100 gr;
• eggs - 3 large;
• water - 1 stack;
• salt, sugar - a pinch each.

First, heat water in a bucket. As soon as it boils, add salt, sugar, cut a piece of butter into a cube and also put it in water.
Wait until the liquid boils again and sift flour into it. Mix quickly with a spatula. Remove the container from the stove and continue to stir until the components are mixed together and the dough will well move away from the bowl. Leave to cool down for a while.
After about a quarter of an hour, check the dough - if it is moderately warm, not hot, you can beat in the eggs and knead the dough. The consistency will be creamy. It will be convenient to place it in the sleeve and squeeze out small balls onto a baking sheet covered with paper. If there is no sleeve, you can use a couple of wet spoons with which to form round balls of dough.

With added yeast

Yeast dough is well suited, making pastries porous, airy.

• flour - 4 stacks;
• water - a glass for yeast and a glass for dough;
• fresh yeast - 50 gr;
• sugar - 1 table. l.;
• salt - 1 tsp;
• post oil raffin. - 3 table. l.

One glass of water should be warm and the other hot. In warm we breed yeast, salt, sugar, until completely dissolved. Then add oil and stir.
Separately, sift the flour into a bowl and pour the liquid into it. As in previous recipes, mix with a spoon, carefully kneading the lumps. The dough is ready for making pies or buns.

On a note. Fresh yeast can be replaced with dry yeast. Instead of 50 grams, you need only 10 grams.

Sandy custard dough

Choux, slightly shortbread dough is an excellent option for subsequent baking of shortbread pies and cake layers.

The components of the sand-custard dough are as follows:

• drain oil. - 100 gr;
• wheat flour - 150 gr;
• granulated sugar - 1 table. l.;
• boiling water - 3 table. l.;
• fine salt - ½ tsp;
• non-aromatic vegetable oil - ½ table. l.

For mixing, it is recommended to use a mold in which the cake / pie will be baked. The above products are given in the amount required for one small cake.
The first stage is the combination in the form of both types of oil, water, sugar and salt. The form with the contents is placed in the oven at the maximum temperature and brought to a boil. After the form is taken out.
Sift the flour into the hot mass and knead the dough first with a spoon, then with your hands. Ready-made shortcrust pastry does not need to be infused, it can be immediately used to make a cake or pie base. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

Put the water to boil, as soon as it starts to warm up - put the diced butter. When the mass boils, pour it into the sour cream-flour mixture. Mix with a spoon, then with your hands. Based on the resulting consistency, you can add more flour. Wrap the resulting ball of dough in a film and leave for a while to rest.