Ah – pate a choux! Imagine a delicate pastry swan filled with rich whipped cream and pastry cream, dusted with powdered sugar and presented on a beautifully decorated plate…it’s one of the best dessert recipes ever! And it’s not hard to do once you understand the preparation of a few classic components. Matter of fact, a trained pastry chef loves to make fancy desserts when the major ingredients represent a staple inventory of the professional pastry kitchen…in this case – pate a choux (pronounced: “pat ah shoe”) and creme de patisserie (pastry cream/vanilla pudding).
Cream Puff Swans
If you know how to make a pate a choux recipe – also called ‘choux paste’ – you will quickly learn how to make cream puffs, French cream puffs (profiteroles), cream puff swans, chocolate profiteroles, chocolate eclairs, and a number of easy fancy dessert recipes. You will be able to make swan shaped pastry shells for appetizers and an unlimited variety of savory hors d’oeuvres (pronounced: “or DERV”).
Pate A Choux Recipe
- 1 cup water
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup flour
- 5 large eggs
1. Place the water, butter, sugar and salt into a medium sauce pan and bring to a rolling boil.
2. Take the pan off the heat and dump the cup of flour into the mix.
3. Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together in a “ball” and starts pulling off the sides.
4. Return the pan to a medium heat and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from heat and dump into your mixer bowl.
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Work quickly!
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Stir vigorously!
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Beat the batter for a minute or so, to cool it off a bit. Add the eggs, one at a time, until the pate a choux is smooth and shiny.
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In my next post, I will show you a cream puffs recipe, a recipe for easy eclairs, and how to make cream puff swans from this choux paste. As always, please post any questions in the comment box below…
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Oh just seriously yumm! There goes my waistline … expanding out where I can see it. I’ve not had a good cream puff since we last vacationed in Europe. You know, I didn’t realize that “pate” referred to a cream puff — I was thinking as in liver or liverwurst.
“Pate” refers only to the dough, Julie – not the finished puff or eclair. “Choux” means cabbage and refers to the shape of the baked piece. It looks like a miniature cabbage head. And you’re an expert in THAT field, aren’t you? http://www.squidoo.com/stuffed-cabbage
[...] my last post I showed you how to make pate a choux, the basic dough for spectacular desserts such as cream puffs, pastry swans, eclairs, profiteroles, [...]
I’ve made this wonderful pastry for desserts since I was 18, and now I’m looking for some great canape fillings. I’m going to do a demo for a group of women, so can you suggest something not common and over the top in flavor.
[...] Use toast points, round-cut white bread, real pumpernickel circles or pate a choux bottoms as a base of this canape. Consider spreading some cream cheese or goat cheese into the pate [...]
Hi Yvonne – I thought of something for you and I made a post about it. Look at my Matjes Herring Apple Salad Canape recipe…
Thank you for the detailed explaination on preparing the dough. I will give it a try in the next few days. In a local bakery I have seen eclaires made with a vanilla pudding like cream in the middle and then topped with strawberries. Any idea of how the vanilla like cream is made or do you have another filling that could be used? Thanks.
Hi Irene,
the vanilla-like cream you’ve tasted was probably a pastry cream. I just added a link to a video with pastry cream instructions at the beginning of this post. Click on the word “pastry cream”. For a detailed recipe go here.