Choux pastry

Name: Choux pastry
Prep time: 40 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: Makes 25 éclairs, 16 buns or 30 mini buns
Cuisine: French recipes
Ingredients: 150g plain flour; 1 teaspoon each sugar and salt; 100g unsalted butter; 4 eggs

Portion size: Makes 25 éclairs, 16 buns or 30 mini buns
Ready in 40 min
Difficulty: easy

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Choux pastry has an unfair reputation for being difficult. Follow our easy guide to how to make choux pastry and you’ll be turning out perfect profiteroles and éclairs – or even a showstopping croquembouche – in no time.

Practising your choux pastry skills for afternoon tea? Wow your guests with these delectable miso caramel banoffee éclairs.

Before you start

Choux pastry is famed for its light, crisp and airy texture, which is achieved when the high water content in the batter turns to steam in a hot oven. It’s a simple case of beating the mixture to a smooth paste, then piping or shaping and baking.

Once cooked, it’s important to prick the base of each one to release the steam that has helped it to rise. If left to go cold unpunctured, the steam turns back to water resulting in soft or soggy buns.

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Ingredients

150g plain flour
1 teaspoon each sugar and salt
100g unsalted butter
4 eggs

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Method

Sieve the flour, sugar and salt onto baking paper. Put the butter and 250ml cold water into a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then quickly slide the flour mixture off the paper and into the pan. Stir well.
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Using a wooden spoon, beat the mixture off the heat until it forms a ball and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the pan. This should take just a few minutes.
Beat the eggs together in a bowl. Still off the heat, beat the eggs into the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. At first, the egg will seem like it doesn’t want to amalgamate, but keep beating and it will mix in smoothly. You may find it easier to hold the pan in one hand and beat the mixture with a wooden spoon in the other.
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Keep beating until all the egg mixture is used up and you have a paste that is thick and shiny. The mixture should drop off the spoon when tapped lightly on the side of the pan.
Pipe or spoon the mixture onto a greased baking tray. For large buns, use 2 dessert spoons to shape the mixture onto the tray. For éclairs, pipe fingers; For little buns, spoon the mixture into a large piping bag fitted with a plain 1cm nozzle and pipe small mounds on the tray.
Pipe into eclairs, mini choux buns or profiteroles (left to right)
Bake at 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6 (for éclairs or mini buns, cook for 20-25 minutes; for large buns cook for 30-35 minutes) until golden brown. Remove from the oven and make a small hole in the underside of each bun to release any steam. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.